[GitHub] [airflow] vikramkoka commented on a change in pull request #14132: Document Airflow's versioning and release policy for users

[GitBox <gi...@apache.org>]

vikramkoka commented on a change in pull request #14132:
URL: https://github.com/apache/airflow/pull/14132#discussion_r575733143



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File path: docs/apache-airflow/release-process.rst
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@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+ .. Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+    or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+    distributed with this work for additional information
+    regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+    to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+    "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+    with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+ ..   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+ .. Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+    software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+    "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+    KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+    specific language governing permissions and limitations
+    under the License.
+
+=========================
+Airflow's release process
+=========================
+
+Since Airflow 2.0.0 the release numbering works as follows:
+
+- Versions are numbered in the form X.Y.Z.
+- X is the major version number.
+- Y is the minor version number, also called the *feature release* version number.
+- Z is the patch number, which is incremented for bugfix and security releases- Before every new release, we’ll make a release candidate available, and often alpha or beta release too. These are of the form X.Y.Z alpha/beta/rc N, which means the Nth alpha/beta/release candidate of version X.Y.Z
+
+In git, each minor version will have its own branch, called ``vX-Y-stable`` where bugfix/security releases will be issued from.
+
+Each Airflow release will also have a tag in git indicating its version number, signed with the release manager's key. Additionally, each release series has its own branch, called stable/A.B.x, and bugfix/security releases will be issued from those branches.
+
+.. glossary::
+
+    Major release
+      Major releases (X.0.0, X+1.0.0 etc.) indicate a backwards-incompatible change.
+
+      These releases do not happen with any regular interval or on any predictable schedule.
+
+      Major versions should aim to not introduce any major new features, instead it should just be the removal
+      of previously deprecated features.
+
+    Feature releases
+      Feature releases (X.Y.0, X.Y+1.0, etc.) will happen roughly every two months – see release process for
+      details. These releases will contain new features, improvements to existing features, and such.
+
+    Patch releases
+      Patch releases (X.Y.Z, X.Y.Z+1, etc.) will happen, on an as-needed basis, as issues are reported and
+      fixed.
+
+      These releases will be 100% compatible with the associated feature release, unless this is
+      impossible for security reasons or to prevent data loss. So the answer to "should I upgrade to the
+      latest patch release?" will always be "yes."

Review comment:
       ```suggestion
         These releases will be 100% compatible with the associated feature release. So the answer to "should I upgrade to the
         latest patch release?" will always be "yes."
   ```




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