Backporting policy

When we say we “support” a MediaWiki version, what do we mean? This document is an attempt to begin to answer that question by addressing what sort of things will be backported to supported versions.

What versions of MediaWiki are “supported”?
The answer to this can be found on the version lifecycle page. There you can see the introduction of two different sorts of versions: LTS and regular versions.

What is the minimum level of support?
We work with Wikimedia's Senior Security Engineer to make sure that all suppported versions of MediaWiki receive security fixes in a timely manner. To date, this has been handled almost entirely by WMF personnel, but the release management team members stand ready to assist as needed. This is especially likely to be needed for the oldest supported versions.

When will non-security bugs be fixed?
At this point non-LTS versions only get security fixes.

If a bug appears that is deemed necessary to be backported to a LTS version, the [//bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?cmdtype=dorem&remaction=run&namedcmd=Backport_Stable%3F&sharer_id=15390 Backport_Stable?] flag should be set in the bug tracker for MediaWiki.

If the [//bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?cmdtype=dorem&remaction=run&namedcmd=Backport_Stable%3F&sharer_id=15390 Backport_Stable?] flag is applied and the requestor thinks it should be backported to non-LTS releases, they should say so in a comment.

Release management team members can respond to the request this flag represents at any time, but the release managment team will meet every other week at a minimum to make a determination for each request. Therefore, any backport request will have a decision within two weeks at the latest.