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cPanel & WHM Versions and the Release Process

This document explains the cPanel & WHM versioning system and release process.

Version numbers

cPanel & WHM version numbers consist of 4 values, separated by periods (.):

  • parent.major.minor.build — for example: 11.30.0.52

Each value of a cPanel & WHM version number has a distinct meaning.

Parent value

The parent value is an incrementing integer. Its value will reflect major evolutionary steps for cPanel & WHM.

For example, parent version 12 of cPanel & WHM will include support for multiple cPanel instances.

Major value

The major value is also an incrementing integer, and has an upper limit of 99. This number is not required to reach its upper limit before the parent value increments.

The major value is often the most useful value in the product version number, because it indicates a set of new features.

In addition, we have assigned meanings to odd and even major values:

Odd major values Even major values
Development releases* Production releases*
Only available via EDGE & CURRENT tiers** Available via RELEASE & STABLE tiers**

* For more information about development and production releases, see cPanel & WHM Releases below.
** For more information about tiers, see Release Tiers below.

Minor value

This value is a set of changes intended to stabilize the major value. Typically, a minor value will consist of mostly bug fixes.

Build value

This value is an integer incremented for each unique build of cPanel & WHM.

There is no upper limit to this value. In development releases, it may even reach 100+ before the major value increments to an even value (indicating a production release).

cPanel & WHM releases

We release cPanel & WHM simultaneously across several architectures. In addition, we may publish several releases across different tiers on the same day.

We attempt to avoid scheduling releases on international holidays and weekends (Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon) to ensure your staffing requirements are met.

Development releases

A development release of cPanel & WHM contains everything in the previous production release, plus one or more changes from new projects associated with the next planned release.

We will only publish development releases in the EDGE and CURRENT tiers. However, we will not immediately publish changes into the CURRENT tier. Any changes that we publish into the CURRENT tier will be isolated to a desired set of functions that we have tested and verified.

Production releases

A production release of cPanel & WHM includes between 1 and 3 significant sets of changes. We refer to sets of changes as "projects."

Production releases follow this schedule:

  1. We complete development for the production release.
  2. We test the functionality of the release's new features.
  3. We publish the release to the development tiers, and to the EDGE, CURRENT, and RELEASE tiers.
    • At this point, maintenance of previous production releases will cease. We will not publish any changes to the previous releases from this point forward.
  4. After the release enters the RELEASE tier, we assess any immediate maintenance needs.
  5. After we have assessed and corrected all of the existing needs, we publish the production release into the STABLE tier.

Production release updates

We will update production releases periodically, to maintain them and improve their security.

  • The initial release of a production-ready release of cPanel & WHM will have a minor value of 0 (for example, 11.30.0).
  • Subsequent publications of the production release will increment the build value (for example, 11.30.0.1).

Some releases of a production line of code will be used for testing and verification, and may never be released into production tiers.

Release tiers

Since its creation, cPanel has released publicly in 4 tiers:

  • STABLE
  • RELEASE
  • CURRENT
  • EDGE

This scheme allows rapid development and quick availability of new releases of cPanel & WHM. Server owners select a cPanel & WHM tier that reflects the degree to which they value stability or new features and update frequency.

Tier Description Publication Frequency
STABLE Has received considerable public exposure, testing, and verification. Published least frequently.
RELEASE Similar to STABLE, but has received slightly less testing. New installations default to RELEASE. Published more frequently than STABLE.
CURRENT Tested and verified, but may not contain all of the proposed functionality for a release. CURRENT is similar to the "release candidate" tier used under other publication schemes.* Published more frequently than RELEASE.
EDGE Features are subject to further modification. Usually lacks official public documentation.* Published most frequently (up to several times per week).

* Due to the dynamic nature of development releases, you should only use development releases for compatibility and functionality testing in a controlled environment. Do not use these releases on production servers. Development releases are publications of cPanel & WHM whose major values end in an odd number (e.g., 11.31).

The Long-Term Support tier

Some server owners need an assured method of deploying new installations of cPanel & WHM in a specific version, even when that version is no longer the current production release. Those server owners can select Long-term support (LTS) and select the desired version number from the Release Tier menu on the Update Preferences screen in WHM.

For more information, read our Long-Term Support document.

cPanel DNSONLY

New releases of cPanel DNSONLY will be published concurrently with new releases of cPanel & WHM and will share the same release tier. Server owners running DNSONLY can update it at the same time they update their cPanel & WHM servers.

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Topic revision: r16 - 19 Jan 2012 - 22:26:14 - Main.RosieArcelay