Policy for package lifecycle

Fedora Extras Maintenance Lifecycle Policy

Digest

• When a Fedora Core release reaches maintenance state in its lifecycle (such as Fedora Core 3 when Fedora Core 5 Test 2 was released), the corresponding release of Fedora Extras will also enter a maintenance state.

• Branches for new packages in CVS are not created for distributions that are in maintenance state. The official package maintainers are also urged to fix their packages for distributions that are in maintenance state.

• When the Fedora Project drops support for a Fedora Core release, the corresponding Fedora Extras is also dropped -- this is End-of-life (EOL).

• The EOL Policy depends on the creation of a Security Response Team that will lend assistance as needed if the maintainer is unable to fix the package.

More Details

When a Fedora Core release reaches maintenance state in its lifecycle (such as Fedora Core 3 reached when Fedora Core 5 Test 2 was released), the corresponding release of Fedora Extras will also enter a maintenance state. In this state, maintainers will be allowed to issue updates to existing packages, but maintainers are strongly urged to only issue severe bugfix or security fixes. New software versions should be avoided except when necessary for resolving issues with the the current version.

Branches for new packages in CVS are not created for distributions that are in maintenance state. FESCo can approve exceptions of this rule if there are good reasons for it. The official package maintainers are urged to fix their packages also for distributions that are in maintenance state. They should work hand in hand with the "Security Response Team" in case they don't have access to older distros anymore to test their updates.

When the Fedora Project drops support for a Fedora Core release, the corresponding Fedora Extras is also dropped -- read this as "End-of-life, no new updates,support for that EOL distro will be removed from the Extras buildsys".

The EOL Policy depends on the creation and a working Security Response Team and especially the part of it that "will lend assistance as needed" if the maintainer is unable to fix the package -- if that group does not start working properly until June 15 2006 we'll send out a EOL for Fedora Extras 3 -- means: "Packagers can still update things in cvs and build updates for now, but the official state of Fedora Extras 3 is 'unsupported and End of Life'". In that case we'll try to improve for FE4 and later.

This is the initial policy that was approved by the Steering Committee on 2006-05-04.