[squid-dev] Squid v8 release schedule proposal

[Amos Jeffries]

On 31/07/25 09:56, Francesco Chemolli wrote:
> Hi all,
>    Now that v7 out of beta, it's time to start thinking about v8.
> 
> Unfortunately we released too late to make it into Debian forky. V7 is
> in sid/unstable, but the next stable will ship v6.13.
> Ubuntu 25.10 ("questing") is also carrying 6.13 at this time.
 > > I've asked the Debian maintaner a tentative timeline for getting
> squid-8 included in the next stable version of Debian, he mentioned a
> likely target is to be out of beta by january 2027. Working backwards,
> I propose to set the date for forking v8 in early October 2026.


FTR; The release cycle of our major vendor ecosystems are:

  * Debian has a 2 year major release approximately Jun-Aug on 
odd-numbered years. With a 6:12:18 month 'update' release where Squid 
might be eligible to change if there are major benefits demonstrable.

  * Ubuntu has 6-monthly release cycle (Apr/Aug) and bi-annual Apr 
becomes a LTS for 10-15 years. Whatever Squid is in Debian Testing a few 
months prior to their release will be provided.

  * Debian/Ubuntu derivative OS will either match, or follow by 1-2 
years and thus at least one Squid major version. Most accept install of 
newer Debian/Ubuntu packages for more up-to-date Squid installs.

  * Fedora has release cycles every 6 months (+/- some weeks). So easily 
tracks whichever Squid release.

  * RHEL has a 5-year release cycle. Whichever Squid version was in 
Fedora **5 years prior** will be provided. A semi-official 'backports' 
is used to track whichever Squid version is in Fedora with up to a year 
delay.

  * NetBSD has a 2-3 year release cycle. With 6-monthly updates pulling 
in Squid latest stable as-needed.

  * Gentoo and derivatives are all rolling release. They track our 
stable release cycle with a few weeks QA delays at each subsequent level 
of OS derivative.

  * The remainder of the vendor ecosystems are proprietary or volunteer 
based with ad-hoc delays based on their community interest in latest Squid.


> 
> Thoughts?
> 

My old v3-v5 release cycles of Sep fork/beta and Feb stable were aimed 
at meeting these regular Debian/Ubuntu release cycles. Which is 
convenient timing for most of the major ecosystems - excluding RHEL 
which cannot meet our short cycle anyway.


Convenience for Alex and Measurement Factory was the biggest driver for 
changing to Feb forking and Jul release.


Cheers
Amos