1The latest support policy for ESP-IDF can be found at [https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf/blob/master/SUPPORT_POLICY.md](https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf/blob/master/SUPPORT_POLICY.md)
2
3Support Period Policy
4=====================
5
6* [中文版](./SUPPORT_POLICY_CN.md)
7
8Each ESP-IDF major and minor release (V4.1, V4.2, etc) is supported for
930 months after the initial stable release date.
10
11Supported means that the ESP-IDF team will continue to apply bug fixes,
12security fixes, etc to the release branch on GitHub, and periodically
13make new bugfix releases as needed.
14
15Support period is divided into "Service" and "Maintenance" period:
16
17| Period      | Duration     | Recommended for new projects?         |
18| -------     | ------------ | ------------------------------------- |
19| Service     | 12 months    | Yes                                   |
20| Maintenance | 18 months    | No                                    |
21
22During the Service period, bugfixes releases are more frequent. In some cases,
23support for new features may be added during the Service period (this is
24reserved for features which are needed to meet particular regulatory
25requirements or standards for new products, and which carry a very low risk of
26introducing regressions.)
27
28During the Maintenance period, the version is still supported but only bugfixes
29for high severity issues or security issues will be applied.
30
31Using an “In Service” version is recommended when starting a new project.
32
33Users are encouraged to upgrade all projects to a newer ESP-IDF release before
34the support period finishes and the release becomes End of Life (EOL). It is our
35policy to not continue fixing bugs in End of Life releases.
36
37Pre-release versions (betas, previews, `-rc` and `-dev` versions, etc)
38are not covered by any support period. Sometimes a particular feature is
39marked as "Preview" in a release, which means it is also not covered
40by the support period.
41
42ESP-IDF should be used in an up-to-date software environment. The operating system
43and other third-party tools should be supported by their maintainers.
44ESP-IDF cannot keep compatibility with unsupported third-party tools.
45
46The ESP-IDF Programming Guide has information about the
47[different versions of ESP-IDF](https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/versions.html)
48(major, minor, bugfix, etc).
49
50Example
51-------
52
53ESP-IDF V3.3 was released in September 2019. It will be supported for 30 months
54until February 2022.
55
56- The first V3.3 release was `v3.3` in September 2019.
57- The ESP-IDF team continues to backport bug fixes, security fixes,
58  etc to the release branch `release/v3.3`.
59- Periodically stable bugfix releases are created from the release
60  branch. For example `v3.3.1`, `v3.3.2`, etc. Users are encouraged to
61  always update to the latest bugfix release.
62- V3.3 bugfix releases continue until February 2022, when all V3.3.x
63  releases become End of Life.
64
65Existing Releases
66-----------------
67
68ESP-IDF release V4.1 and all newer releases will follow this support period
69policy. The support period for each release will be announced when the release
70is made.
71
72For releases made before the current support period policy was announced, the
73original support periods apply:
74
75* ESP-IDF V4.0.x will be supported until October 2021
76* ESP-IDF V3.3.x will be supported until February 2022
77* ESP-IDF versions before V3.3 are already End of Life.
78
79Policy History
80--------------
81
82* September 2019. This policy split ESP-IDF releases into Standard and Long Term
83  Support.
84* July 2020. All releases from now will have the same support period, which is
85  equal to the previous Long Term Support period. Added “In Service” period,
86  during which versions will receive more updates.
87