synapse/docs/development/releases.md

Synapse Release Cycle

Releases of Synapse follow a two week release cycle with new releases usually occurring on Tuesdays:

• Day 0: Synapse N - 1 is released.
• Day 7: Synapse N release candidate 1 is released.
• Days 7 - 13: Synapse N release candidates 2+ are released, if bugs are found.
• Day 14: Synapse N is released.

Note that this schedule might be modified depending on the availability of the Synapse team, e.g. releases may be skipped to avoid holidays.

Release announcements can be found in the release category of the Matrix blog.

Bugfix releases

If a bug is found after release that is deemed severe enough (by a combination of the impacted users and the impact on those users) then a bugfix release may be issued. This may be at any point in the release cycle.

Security releases

Security will sometimes be backported to the previous version and released immediately before the next release candidate. An example of this might be:

• Day 0: Synapse N - 1 is released.
• Day 7: Synapse (N - 1).1 is released as Synapse N - 1 + the security fix.
• Day 7: Synapse N release candidate 1 is released (including the security fix).

Depending on the impact and complexity of security fixes, multiple fixes might be held to be released together.

In some cases, a pre-disclosure of a security release will be issued as a notice to Synapse operators that there is an upcoming security release. These can be found in the security category of the Matrix blog.