End of life dates

[David J Pearson <dj...@uk.ibm.com>]

Hi - What are the end of life / end of support dates for v8.5 and v9 
please ?


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Re: End of life dates

[Christopher Schultz <ch...@christopherschultz.net>]

David,

On 11/4/21 09:50, David J Pearson wrote:
> Hi - What are the end of life / end of support dates for v8.5 and v9
> please ?

No dates have been announced.

Typically, the Tomcat team will support 3 concurrent versions of Tomcat. 
Right now, those are 10.0, 9.0, and 8.5.

Tomcat 10.0 implements the requisite parts of Jakarta EE 9, and the 
biggest change there (other than many version-number bumps of various 
specifications) is that many of the javax.* packages have been re-named 
to be jakarta.*[1]. This means that older applications will not run on 
the new server version. Except that Tomcat has a built-in 
application-re-writer that will allow you to drop an old application 
into Tomcat 10 and it should Just Work.

Tomcat 10.1 will implement the servlet spec 6.0 as well as new versions 
of the other services provided by Tomcat (i.e. JSP, EL, Websocket, 
JASPIC) and be the first to require a JVM beyond Java 8 (which is a part 
of the specification requirements, not a Tomcat preference). It looks 
like this will be either Jakarta EE 9.1 or Jakarta EE 10.

Tomcat 10.1 won't be official until Servlet 6 and the other 
specifications are finalized. Servlet 6.0 was finalized on October 15th 
of this year, and work has already begun to incorporate those features, 
etc. (which don't conflict in any way) into Tomcat 10.0. But the JSP and 
EL specs aren't finished, and the Websocket and JASPIC version numbers 
haven't yet been identified.

Given that there is still some question as to the requirements for 
Tomcat 10.1, a release-date for it is not yet known.

Tomcat typically gives a 12-month notification before EOL of any major 
version of Tomcat. Also note that the retired version is not always the 
oldest version available. It's entirely possible that when Tomcat 10.1 
becomes stable, we will elect to retire Tomcat 10.0 before Tomcat 8.5.

So, back to your original question: when will 8.5 and 9.0 reach EOL? 
Well, definitely not before November 2022 that's for sure. But most 
likely Tomcat 10.1 will replace Tomcat 10.0, and when Tomcat 10.1+ is 
released, that will mark the 1-year countdown for Tomcat 8.5. And when 
Tomcat 10.1++ is released, that will mark the 1-year countdown for 
Tomcat 9.0.

So, looking into my crystal ball, I would wildly guess (I would like to 
stress that this is NOT an official announcement or any schedule 
whatsoever) the following schedule:

Q1 or Q2 2022 - Tomcat 10.1 is released
Q1 or Q2 2022 - Tomcat 10.0 EOL is announced for Q1 or Q2 2023
Q1 or Q2 2023 - Tomcat 10.0 reaches EOL
2023 - 2024 - Tomcat 11 (?) is released
2023 - 2024 - Tomcat 8.5 EOL is announced for 2024/2025
2024/2025 - Tomcat 12 (?) is released
2024/2025 - Tomcat 8.5 reaches EOL
2024/2025 - Java 8 remains wildly popular, as does Java EE 8, so Tomcat 
9.0 lives on potentially indefinitely
2026 - Tomcat 13 (?) is released
2026 - Tomcat 11 EOL is announced to be 2027
... and so on

So if you are running an old application on Tomcat 8.5, I would plan to 
upgrade to 9.0 at your leisure, and expect a good long life out of it.

I would also strongly encourage you to try out the Magical Migration 
Tool and see if your application runs without modification on Tomcat 
10.x. If it does, and you intend to actually _maintain_ your 
application, then you can begin the slow process of re-working all your 
source code to use the new API specifications, knowing that Tomcat will 
be able to deploy your hybrid application at any time. Eventually, you 
will be completely transitioned to the Jakarta EE APIs and you can 
continue to follow Tomcat's upgrades post-10.0.

If you are implementing a new product, I would go directly to Tomcat 
10.x and use the new API package names, etc.

I hope that helps,
-chris

[1] 
https://eclipse-ee4j.github.io/jakartaee-platform/jakartaee9/JakartaEE9ReleasePlan

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Re: End of life dates

[Mark Thomas <ma...@apache.org>]

On 04/11/2021 13:50, David J Pearson wrote:
> Hi - What are the end of life / end of support dates for v8.5 and v9
> please ?

They haven't been set yet.

The Tomcat project will provide at least 12 months notice of EOL for any 
major Tomcat version.

That said, major versions have been reaching EOL about once every three 
years. Tomcat 7 was EOL earlier this year so sometime in 2024 for Tomcat 
8 seems like a reasonable guess at the moment.

Tomcat 9 is a special case. It would normally be ~3 years after EOL for 
Tomcat 8 (so ~2027) but as the last Tomcat release that supports Java EE 
(Tomcat 10 onwards supports Jakarta EE with the associated change in API 
package names) the Tomcat community intends to support it for as long as 
there is community interest in doing so.

The rough plan is that rather than EOL Tomcat 9, we will provide Tomcat 
9.10.x that will track the Tomcat 10 releases (but with the Java EE 
APIs). When Tomcat 10 reaches EOL 9.10.x will become 9.11.x and track 
the Tomcat 11 releases (but with the Java EE APIs) and so on as long as 
there is interest/demand for Java EE support.

Note that this is only a rough plan for Tomcat 9 and that we are 
probably 5 to 6 years away from implementing it so lots of things might 
happen between now and then.

HTH,

Mark

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