Hi, We are using redis heavily, and still staying on version 5.x. Do we have any version plan of redis? The main brance 5.x would have any update or new version? What is redis' developing version strategy? Now, we have version 6.x, so there would only be bug fixing version on 5.x, or there would be no more version on 5.x?
Many thanks.
Comment From: oranagra
Hi, we're not planning on releasing updates to 5.0 unless there's some critical bug that's found. like security issue, or a crash, leak or memory corruption that's on a common path (I.e. not a result of invalid use). We are trying to keep track of a list of fixes that would be nice to backport, but we are only likely to do that only if something major enough is found that justifies releasing a new build.
Is there anything holding you back from upgrading to 6.0? Is there anything specific you wish to be backported to 5.0?
Note that backporting new features or improvements to an old version doesn't make much sense (would essentially make to similar to the last version), it only makes sense to backport bugfixes.
Comment From: maxpaynebupt
Hi, we're not planning on releasing updates to 5.0 unless there's some critical bug that's found. like security issue, or a crash, leak or memory corruption that's on a common path (I.e. not a result of invalid use). We are trying to keep track of a list of fixes that would be nice to backport, but we are only likely to do that only if something major enough is found that justifies releasing a new build.
Is there anything holding you back from upgrading to 6.0? Is there anything specific you wish to be backported to 5.0?
Note that backporting new features or improvements to an old version doesn't make much sense (would essentially make to similar to the last version), it only makes sense to backport bugfixes.
Thank you for your reply, I understand, to keep major feature in a main branch would save much work.
Our dilemma is, we have multiple products, some want to use version 5, some want to use version 6, and our management team think , if redis' publishing strategy is to only keep one main thread, we can only use one version , 5.0.8 or 6.0.4, but, I think there would be a transition period, so we need to persuade them that, redis can have new release at the same time both in 5x and 6x, as if 5.x has critical bug or security fix. If this is true, we can now both use 5.x and 6.x, or we should vote to use only one version, as many teams are using 5.x, it would be very hard to find a suitable time to switch from 5 to 6.
Could you please help to clear this strategy? Thanks.
Comment From: oranagra
@maxpaynebupt Please note that there's another reason not to backport many features to a previous version (other than the fact that it would essentially make it identical to the last). doing so would risk introducing bugs into that version, this is why only critical fixes are backported, or important changes which are very local and safe.
now that 6.0.x is stable (gone though several release candidates, and quite a few patch releases), it's considered quite stable, and should be fully compatible with 5.0.x, so i don't see any reason not to upgrade and use just 6.0. obviously, even if you don't use the new features it brings, it does bring other improvements and non-critical fixes.
just note that you can't later downgrade 5.0. 5.0 should not be able to read persistent files created by 6.0, or be able to set a 5.0 server to replicate from 6.0. it's only supposed to work for upgrades, not for downgrades.
Comment From: maxpaynebupt
@maxpaynebupt Please note that there's another reason not to backport many features to a previous version (other than the fact that it would essentially make it identical to the last). doing so would risk introducing bugs into that version, this is why only critical fixes are backported, or important changes which are very local and safe.
now that 6.0.x is stable (gone though several release candidates, and quite a few patch releases), it's considered quite stable, and should be fully compatible with 5.0.x, so i don't see any reason not to upgrade and use just 6.0. obviously, even if you don't use the new features it brings, it does bring other improvements and non-critical fixes.
just note that you can't later downgrade 5.0. 5.0 should not be able to read persistent files created by 6.0, or be able to set a 5.0 server to replicate from 6.0. it's only supposed to work for upgrades, not for downgrades.
Understood, it's reasonable to make major improvement in major upgrading release.
Why we are still using 5.x is that, we did some security enhancement for our company's security rules.
All these patches are all done in version 5.x, so , you know, when stepping forward needs some courage, people always stay around. So , the fact that I can not change is that, some guys want to stay in the safe 5.x to avoid adaptation work.
The only way I can use 6.x is to testify that , redis now have 5.x and 6.x both active(both can have new release, just possible is enough). Then, we can let the guys keeping 5.x and at the same time, we can introduce a version of 6.x available.
There is nothing to do with any new features in 6.x, it's just about the silly rule........
If you can tell us, 5.x and 6.x are now both available, and recommend to use 6.x, we can proceed. Thanks.
Comment From: oranagra
@maxpaynebupt as i said, we don't really maintain 5.0 anymore, we don't backport every bugfix to it. It's even hard to tell which of the bugfixes made on 6.0 are at all applicable to 5.0 (requires effort to check). We are not expected to make any new releases for 5.0 unless a critical issue is found. So you can safely keep using 5.0 (it doesn't have any major issues that we're aware of), but it is no longer in our focus.
Comment From: maxpaynebupt
@maxpaynebupt as i said, we don't really maintain 5.0 anymore, we don't backport every bugfix to it. It's even hard to tell which of the bugfixes made on 6.0 are at all applicable to 5.0 (requires effort to check). We are not expected to make any new releases for 5.0 unless a critical issue is found. So you can safely keep using 5.0 (it doesn't have any major issues that we're aware of), but it is no longer in our focus.
Very thankful for your patient answer.