OpenVPN 3 version numbers will always be prefixed with 3. which
indicates the OpenVPN generation. This library is the third generation
of the OpenVPN protocol implementation.
As of OpenVPN 3.2, we will use a single positive integer indicating a release number as the version reference.
Main development will happen on the git master branch. This will not
contain any specific version. It is will be set to 3.git:master. This
branch will contain both stable and unstable code, which will be
bleeding edge at any time. Do not depend on git master for production
code.
Once features and fixes in git master has stabilized, they will be
merged into the stable branch. Code extracted from the stable branch
will contain the release number of the last release. The stable branch
is suitable for production code.
It is not set up a specific plan for when releases will occur. We might want to collect up a smaller set of features before defining it ready as a release, depending on the size of the changes. At the release time, the version string will be updated and tagged (with a PGP signature).
We should not pile up too many features for each release. It is better to release often with smaller changesets.
We will not do any patch number releases unless strictly needed for
older releases numbers. Such releases will be called hot-fixes and will
be handled in separate branches only when needed. These branches will be
named hotfix/3.X; where X denotes the release number the hotfix
targets. Hotfixes need to update the version string as well as attaching
a git tag with the proper version number.
Hot-fixes should be avoided as much as possible and we should encourage users to base their work on the stable branch primarily. Hot-fixes will only be used for highly critical issues which cannot wait for a release or the feature gap to move to a newer release is considered too big. But it should also only occur for releases which are still relevant.
git master branch: version string will be 3.git:master
git stable branch: version string will be 3.2, 3.3, etc
hotfix for v3.2 will be in hotfix/3.2 and the version string will be
3.2.1
Similarly, hotfix for v3.3 will be found in hotfix/3.3 and the version
string will be 3.3.1.