[Discuss] phpBB Release, Security and Support Plan

[Heo32]

Valid points. I hope this can be added to the manual task list.

[AmigoJack]

As per Re: [Discuss] phpBB Release, Security and Support Plan from almost 3 years ago this release/support plan (isn't "schedule" more appropriate?) has proven to be worthless, as nobody can plan with it - phpBB should dump it or stop argumenting "it's done when it's done" or "volunteer developers" - after all this was known before coming up with that plan.

[P_I]

I fully understand and appreciate that the phpBB development team are all volunteers and phpBB releases are made when they are ready.

Since all indication are that the phpBB Release, Security and Support Plan seems to have become obsolete (abandoned), I'm trying to read the tea leaves as it were to get a sense of what to expect for the phpBB 3.3 release stream so that I can have a rough plan of when to expect when work items on my site.

Again, I cannot say it enough, I fully understand and appreciate that the phpBB development team are all volunteers and phpBB releases are made when they are ready.

That said, if I use the phpBB 3.2 experience as a timeline guide I come up with:

• 2017-01-06 phpBB 3.2 Rhea Feature Release Published
• 2017-07-16 phpBB 3.2.1 Release - Please Update
• 2018-01-07 phpBB 3.2.2 Release - Please Update
• 2018-09-13 phpBB 3.2.3 Release
• 2018-11-16 phpBB 3.2.4 Release - Please Update
• 2018-12-22 phpBB 3.2.5 Release
• 2019-04-29 phpBB 3.2.6 Release - Please Update
• 2019-05-05 phpBB 3.2.7 Release
• 2019-09-20 phpBB 3.2.8 Release - Please Update
• 2020-01-06 phpBB 3.2.9 Release - Please Update

That last announcement (pre COVID-19) stated

As phpBB 3.3 provides a clear update path with minimal breaking changes, phpBB 3.2 will directly enter a reduced maintenance mode during which it will only receive changes for major issues as well as any security issues. The timetable for maintenance and security fixes is as follows:

• End of Maintenance (EOM): April 6th, 2020
• End of Life (EOL): July 6th, 2020

Having reported a few bugs in the tracker and watching activity is seems that there is solid evidence that there will be a phpBB 3.2.10.

Two questions arise. First question, has the phpBB 3.2.x EOM and EOL timeline changed?

Second question, can board admins expect that phpBB 3.3.x releases have a high likelihood of following the rough timeline of phpBB 3.2 and therefore that phpBB 3.3.1 likely won't appear until summer time?

My background is software development, so I'm not looking for anyone to go out on a limb and commit to a detailed schedule. I'm more looking for a high level view, i.e. quarterly releases are intended, so that I can plan ahead rather than react when releases are made.

I've made the occasional code contribution to phpBB and checked Get Involved and couldn't find anything about potentially helping out of the QA side of things if that would help improve the timeframe to get releases out the door. I do check [3.x] Discussion - Development Discussion Board to see if Release Candidates are available and try to test them and provide feedback whenever possible.

[david63]

Going from the increased activity on GitHub over the last week or so I would anticipate 3.3.1 before the end of the month.

[Marc]

You are correct, there will be a phpBB 3.2.10. Currently there is no change on the schedule for EOM and EOL. Most pull requests as of now should start going against the 3.3.x branch and we're only a bit behind with finishing off the review of still open changes for 3.2.10. Once that has been released, further maintenance activity for 3.2 will be phased out.
In general, EOM and EOL dates should not be seen as dates after which there will be no further work on the codebase but rather as internal milestones for shifting development work to newer branches.

The phpBB 3.2 release timeline was certainly not according to a fixed release frequency. Abiding by a certain fixed schedule is somewhat hard to achieve for an open source project like phpBB. Nonetheless, there has been some internal work aimed at improving the release process itself.
From my point of view, I think the goal should be to get closer to something like a quarterly or even a release every two months.

As David mentioned, we're currently working towards the next release.

[P_I]

Thanks david63 and Marc for the updates and insights.

[TexTHKM]

You are correct, there will be a phpBB 3.2.10. Currently there is no change on the schedule for EOM and EOL. Most pull requests as of now should start going against the 3.3.x branch and we're only a bit behind with finishing off the review of still open changes for 3.2.10. Once that has been released, further maintenance activity for 3.2 will be phased out.
In general, EOM and EOL dates should not be seen as dates after which there will be no further work on the codebase but rather as internal milestones for shifting development work to newer branches.

The phpBB 3.2 release timeline was certainly not according to a fixed release frequency. Abiding by a certain fixed schedule is somewhat hard to achieve for an open source project like phpBB. Nonetheless, there has been some internal work aimed at improving the release process itself.
From my point of view, I think the goal should be to get closer to something like a quarterly or even a release every two months.

As David mentioned, we're currently working towards the next release.

Is there any timeline for phpBB 4 at this point? Or when we might know more about it?

[Lumpy Burgertushie]

I would imagine that any and all news about phpbb4 and anything else would be found at the area51 board.


robert

[Kailey]

I would imagine that any and all news about phpbb4 and anything else would be found at the area51 board.

Indeed. New forums for phpBB 4 were created not too long ago.