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Branch Maintenance Policies

Currently RubyGems is maintaining the following:

  • RubyGems 1.8.x for security and Ruby forward-compatibility
  • RubyGems 2.0.x for security and bug fixes
  • RubyGems master (currently 2.1.x, 2.2.0 soon) for security fixes, bug fixes and new features

The RubyGems 2.x series has been relatively problem-free despite some large internal changes. The changes since RubyGems 1.8.x have made RubyGems easier to work on and have made it easy to quickly respond to bugs with fixes. The number of changes between 1.8.x and 2.x make it difficult to continue to backport bug fixes to the 1.8.x branch, so users are recommended to upgrade to RubyGems 2.x.

RubyGems 1.8.x will continue to receive security fixes as long as Ruby 1.9.3 is receiving security fixes. RubyGems 1.8.x may receive fixes for forward-compatibility (such as the changes to extension building in Ruby 2.0.0).

RubyGems 2.0.x receives bug fixes because it is included in Ruby 2.0.0. When Ruby 2.1.0 is released, we may choose to discontinue bug fixes for RubyGems 2.0.x. RubyGems 2.0.x will receive security fixes as long as Ruby 2.0.0 is receiving security fixes.

Bug fixes to RubyGems 2.1.x will stop receiving bug fixes when RubyGems 2.2.0 is released.

The RubyGems 2.x series will always support Ruby 1.8.7.

Eric Hodel