cosmos-sdk/STABLE_RELEASES.md

# Stable Releases

*Stable Release Series* continue to receive bug fixes until they reach **End Of Life**.

Only the following release series are currently supported and receive bug fixes:

* **0.39 «Launchpad»** will be supported until 6 months after **0.42.0** is published. A fairly strict **bugfix-only** rule applies to pull requests that are requested to be included into a stable point-release.
* **0.42 «Stargate»** is the latest stable release.

The **0.42 «Stargate»** release series is maintained in compliance with the **Stable Release Policy** as described in this document.

## Stable Release Policy

This policy presently applies *only* to the following release series:

* **0.42 «Stargate»**

### Point Releases

Once a Cosmos-SDK release has been completed and published, updates for it are released under certain circumstances
and must follow the [Point Release Procedure](CONTRIBUTING.md).

### Rationale

Unlike in-development `master` branch snapshots, **Cosmos-SDK** releases are subject to much wider adoption,
and by a significantly different demographic of users. During development, changes in the `master` branch
affect SDK users, application developers, early adopters, and other advanced users that elect to use
unstable experimental software at their own risk.

Conversely, users of a stable release expect a high degree of stability. They build their applications on it, and the
problems they experience with it could be potentially highly disruptive to their projects.

Stable release updates are recommended to the vast majority of developers, and so it is crucial to treat them
with great caution. Hence, when updates are proposed, they must be accompanied by a strong rationale and present
a low risk of regressions, i.e. even one-line changes could cause unexpected regressions due to side effects or
poorly tested code. We never assume that any change, no matter how little or non-intrusive, is completely exempt
of regression risks.

Therefore, the requirements for stable changes are different than those that are candidates to be merged in
the `master` branch. When preparing future major releases, our aim is to design the most elegant, user-friendly and
maintainable SDK possible which often entails fundamental changes to the SDK's architecture design, rearranging and/or
renaming packages as well as reducing code duplication so that we maintain common functions and data structures in one
place rather than leaving them scattered all over the code base. However, once a release is published, the
priority is to minimise the risk caused by changes that are not strictly required to fix qualifying bugs; this tends to
be correlated with minimising the size of such changes. As such, the same bug may need to be fixed in different
ways in stable releases and `master` branch.

### Migrations

To smoothen the update to the latest stable release, the SDK includes a set of CLI commands for managing migrations between SDK versions, under the `migrate` subcommand. Only migration scripts between stable releases are included. For the current release, **0.39 «Launchpad»** and later migrations are supported.

### What qualifies as a Stable Release Update (SRU)

* **High-impact bugs**
    * Bugs that may directly cause a security vulnerability.
    * *Severe regressions* from a Cosmos-SDK's previous release. This includes all sort of issues
    that may cause the core packages or the `x/` modules unusable.
    * Bugs that may cause **loss of user's data**.
* Other safe cases:
    * Bugs which don't fit in the aforementioned categories for which an obvious safe patch is known.
    * Relatively small yet strictly non-breaking changes that introduce forward-compatible client
    features to smoothen the migration to successive releases.

### What does not qualify as SRU

* State machine changes.
* New features that introduces API breakages (e.g. public functions removal/renaming).
* Cosmetic fixes, such as formatting or linter warning fixes.

## What pull requests will be included in stable point-releases

Pull requests that fix bugs that fall in the following categories do not require a **Stable Release Exception** to be granted to be included in a stable point-release:

* **Severe regressions**.
* Bugs that may cause **client applications** to be **largely unusable**.
* Bugs that may cause **state corruption or data loss**.
* Bugs that may directly or indirectly cause a **security vulnerability**.

## What pull requests will NOT be automatically included in stable point-releases

As rule of thumb, the following changes will **NOT** be automatically accepted into stable point-releases:

* **State machine changes**.
* **Client application's code-breaking changes**, i.e. changes that prevent client applications to *build without modifications* to the client application's source code.

 In some circumstances, PRs that don't meet the aforementioned criteria might be raised and asked to be granted a *Stable Release Exception*.

## Stable Release Exception - Procedure

1. Check that the bug is either fixed or not reproducible in `master`. It is, in general, not appropriate to release bug fixes for stable releases without first testing them in `master`. Please apply the label [0.42 «Stargate»](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/labels/0.42%20LTS%20%28Stargate%29) to the issue.
2. Add a comment to the issue and ensure it contains the following information (see the bug template below):

* **[Impact]** An explanation of the bug on users and justification for backporting the fix to the stable release.
* A **[Test Case]** section containing detailed instructions on how to reproduce the bug.
* A **[Regression Potential]** section with a clear assessment on how regressions are most likely to manifest as a result of the pull request that aims to fix the bug in the target stable release.

3. **Stable Release Managers** will review and discuss the PR. Once *consensus* surrounding the rationale has been reached and the technical review has successfully concluded, the pull request will be merged in the respective point-release target branch (e.g. `release/v0.42.x`) and the PR included in the point-release's respective milestone (e.g. `0.42.5`).

### Stable Release Exception - Bug template

```
#### Impact

Brief xplanation of the effects of the bug on users and a justification for backporting the fix to the stable release.

#### Test Case

Detailed instructions on how to reproduce the bug on Stargate's most recently published point-release.

#### Regression Potential

Explanation on how regressions might manifest - even if it's unlikely.
It is assumed that stable release fixes are well-tested and they come with a low risk of regressions.
It's crucial to make the effort of thinking about what could happen in case a regression emerges.
```

## Stable Release Managers

The **Stable Release Managers** evaluate and approve or reject updates and backports to Cosmos-SDK Stable Release series,
according to the [stable release policy](#stable-release-policy) and [release procedure](#stable-release-exception-procedure).
Decisions are made by consensus.

Their responsibilites include:

* Driving the Stable Release Exception process.
* Approving/rejecting proposed changes to a stable release series.
* Executing the release process of stable point-releases in compliance with the [Point Release Procedure](CONTRIBUTING.md).

The Stable Release Managers are appointed by the Interchain Foundation. Currently residing Stable Release Managers:

* @clevinson - Cory Levinson
* @amaurym - Amaruy Martiny
* @robert-zaremba - Robert Zaremba