On 8/28/2018 2:59 AM, Dan Untenzu wrote:
I would like to get some feedback about LTS & EOL timeframes in Solr.
The Solr website states that "6.4.x" is a LTS version and "7.x" is the
current mayor version (https://lucene.apache.org/solr/community.html).
Question 1: Shouldn't it use "6.x", since version 6.6.5 is the latest
release of the 6 branch.
Question 2: How long is the LTS timeframe - 6 / 12 / 36 months? When is
EOL of version 6.x?
It would be nice to have some roadmap/timeframe on the download or
community page. Right now an admin can not tell whether they should
prefer the LTS over the mayor version, because maybe EOL of version 6 is
just next week.
Here's the long-winded version of how things are done:
I have never heard of any specific timeframes, and I have never before
heard of any release being designated LTS. Releases are not made on a
set schedule. Because of that, there is not a specific number of months
that each release gets supported.
The current stable branch is 7.x. Solr 5.x and earlier are effectively
dead -- changes will not be made. The previous major version, Solr 6.x
(specifically, the 6.6.x branch), is in maintenance mode, which
basically means that there's a much higher standard for whether a
problem gets fixed in that branch than there is for the stable branch.
Problems in a 7.x version will only be tackled if they are problems in
the *current* 7.x release. As of right now, that is 7.4.0. So if you
find an issue tomorrow in version 7.2.1, a fix will only be found in the
next release -- 7.5.0. If enough problems of the right kind are found
after a minor (7.x.0) release, there may be point releases in that minor
version, but normally once a new minor release is made, a previous minor
release in the current major version will not be supplemented with point
releases.
Problems in 6.x must be problems in the current 6.x release, currently
6.6.5, and they must be either MAJOR bugs with no workaround, or a
problem that is extremely trivial to fix -- a patch that is very
unlikely to introduce NEW bugs. If a new 6.x version is released, it
will be a new point release on the last minor version -- 6.6.x.
When 8.0 gets released, 6.x is dead and the latest minor release branch
for 7.x goes to maintenance mode. There is no specific date planned for
any release. A release is made when one of the committers decides it's
time and volunteers to be the release manager.
The community page needs a bit of an overhaul so it says what I just
told you.
As for which release you should run ... typically that's the latest
release. All releases are considered stable unless they are very
specifically labeled ALPHA or BETA. Only two releases so far have ever
had those designations -- 4.0-ALPHA and 4.0-BETA.
I personally would avoid a new major version until a few minor releases
are made -- so I would have no plans to run 8.0, but I might run 8.2 or 8.3.
Thanks,
Shawn
