Since the release of Symfony 2.0 almost two years ago, three new versions of Symfony have been released: 2.1, 2.2, and more recently 2.3. So, which version should you use?
New Projects
If you are starting a new project, use Symfony 2.3. It is the most recent stable release so far, and one that is going to be maintained for the next three years (our first Long-Term Support release).
Current Projects
Symfony 2.0 is not maintained anymore since the end of March 2013 and Symfony 2.1 is not maintained anymore since the end of May 2013. So, if you are still using these versions for some of your projects, you should upgrade soon. Of course, there is no rush if it works for you, but you must be aware that bugs won't be fixed anymore.
If you are using Symfony 2.2, which is a standard release, it's going to be maintained until the end of November 2013, so you have time to upgrade to 2.3.
Security Issues
Recently, we've been thinking about how to deal with security issues a bit differently than regular bugs as far as the maintenance is concerned. So, today, I'm happy to announce that standard releases will enjoy an additional 6 months period for security issue fixes and LTS releases will get an additional year of maintenance for security issues.
That should give you plenty of time to plan the upgrade from one version to the next one.
Summary
Time to sum up the Symfony release process strategy:
- A new standard version of Symfony is released every 6 months; it is maintained for 8 months for bug fixes and for 14 months for security issues;
- A new LTS version of Symfony is released every 24 months; it is maintained for 36 months for bug fixes and for 48 months for security issues.
And with a small table for the first few releases:
| Version | Release | End of Maintenance | End of Life |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.0 | 07/2011 | 03/2013 (20 months) | 09/2013 |
| 2.1 | 09/2012 | 05/2013 (9 months) | 11/2013 |
| 2.2 | 03/2013 | 11/2013 (8 months) | 05/2014 |
| 2.3 | 05/2013 | 05/2016 (36 months) | 05/2017 |
| 2.4 | 11/2013 | 07/2014 (8 months) | 01/2015 |
| 2.5 | 05/2014 | 01/2015 (8 months) | 07/2016 |
| 2.6 | 11/2014 | 07/2015 (8 months) | 01/2016 |
| 2.7 | 05/2015 | 05/2018 (36 months) | 05/2019 |
| 2.8 | 11/2015 | 07/2016 (8 months) | 01/2017 |
| ... | ... | ... | ... |
End of maintenance means that bugs won't be fixed anymore after the date. End of life means that security issues won't be fixed anymore after the date.
As you can see, there is a pattern starting with Symfony 2.2. So, you can easily guess any date for any version pretty easily. Sounds too complex for you? We got you covered with our brand new Symfony timeline calculator.
The earth will continue to exist for another 5 billion years, Fortunately - Symfony will last much longer: http://symfony.com/roadmap?version=2.584554049170
:-)
For the timeline calculator, you can even get the information as a JSON representation via a URL like http://symfony.com/roadmap.json?version=2.2.
how come 2.3 is the most stable since it's beta so far?
2.3 was already released. I hope that symfony team will stick to these days as i found it great that you have one year to migrate from one LTS to another one.