Ansible supports the two most recent major, stable releases. Security- and bug-related fixes may be implemented in older versions, but this
support is not guaranteed.
If you are on a release older than the last two major, stable releases, please see our `Porting Guide <http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/porting_guide_2.0.html>`_.
Ansible is on a 'flexible' 4 month release schedule, sometimes this can be extended if there is a major change that requires a longer cycle (i.e. 2.0 core rewrite).
Recently the main Ansible repo `merged <https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/dev_guide/repomerge.html>`_ the separated ansible-modules-core and ansible-modules-extras, as such modules get released at the same time as the main Ansible repo.
The major features and bugs fixed in a release should be reflected in the `CHANGELOG.md <https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/CHANGELOG.md>`_, minor ones will be in the commit history. For example, `issue #19057 <https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/19057>`_ is reflected only in the commit hitsory.
When a fix/feature gets added to the `devel` branch it will be part of the next release, some bugfixes can be backported to previous releases and will be part of a minor point release if such release is deemed necessary.
Sometimes an RC can be extended by a few days if a bugfix makes a change that can have far reaching consequences, so users have enough time to find any new issues that may stem from this.
.._methods:
Release methods
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Ansible normally goes through a 'release candidate', issuing an RC1 for a release, if no major bugs are discovered in it after 5 business days we'll get a final release.
Otherwise fixes will be applied and an RC2 will be provided for testing and if no bugs after 2 days, the final release will be made, iterating this last step and incrementing the candidate number as we find major bugs.
.._freezing:
Release feature freeze
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During the release candidate process, the focus will be on bugfixes that affect the RC, new features will be delayed while we try to produce a final version. Some bugfixes that are minor or don't affect the RC will also be postponed until after the release is finalized.
