Long-term support

Overview

LoopBack adheres to semantic versioning conventions and implements Module LTS policy.

The project maintains:

• A Current version where most of the development occurs.
• An Active LTS (Long-Term Support) version that does not add new features but gets bug fixes.
• One or more Maintenance LTS versions that receive only critical bug fixes.

Active LTS

A major LoopBack version (for example, 3.x) enters Active LTS when the next major version is released (for example, 4.0) and stays in Active LTS mode for at least six months.

Once a release enters LTS, no new features may be added to that release. Changes are limited to:

1. Bug fixes;

2. Security updates;

3. Relevant documentation updates;

4. Certain performance improvements where the risk of breaking existing applications is minimal;

5. Changes that introduce large amount of code churn where the risk of breaking existing applications is low and where the change in question may significantly ease the ability to backport future changes due to the reduction in diff noise. Semver-minor changes are only permitted if required for bug fixes. Semver-major changes are only permitted if required for critical security and bug fixes.

Support for new major Node.js versions may be added if the required changes have a low risk of breaking existing applications.

Maintenance LTS

When a new major version (for example, 4.0) is released, the oldest Active LTS version (for example, 2.x) enters Maintenance LTS mode, where it will stay for as long as the Node.js LTS versions available at release time are maintained by the Node.js project.

Once a release moves into Maintenance LTS mode, only critical bugs, critical security fixes, and documentation updates will be permitted.

Specifically, adding support for new major Node.js versions is not permitted.

Examples

In August 2018, there were two major Node.js versions covered by the LTS plan: 6.x and 8.x; and two supported LoopBack versions: 2.x and 3.x.

Assuming LoopBack 4.0 is released in October 2018 to align with Node.js 10.x entering LTS: