Release plan
| Current release: 2024.1.5 (22 Mar 2026) Next release: 2024.1.6 See release plan for details. |
The release plan is the process by which a new version of FlightGear is released. The release plan is actually a continual work-in-progress, and is refined with every new release and how much available resource and interest there is.
FlightGear has had multiple release plans over history.
- Originally, releases were sporadic, irregular and took many months of manual preparation.
- Subsequently a release plan was developed by Mathias Fröhlich, Martin Spott, Thorsten Brehm and Torsten Dreyer during LinuxTag 2011.
- A more regular plan was proposed by Torsten Dreyer after the 3.6 release was cancelled.
- Currently "Long Term Support" (LTS) releases are generated every ~24 months, with intermittent "preview" releases between them which receive less testing and support.
To suggest improvements and/or changes to the release plan, it is recommended to get in touch via the mailing list. Improvements can be based on the lessons learned from previous releases. However, do not underestimate the amount of effort go create a new release! Most of the burden falls on a few people.
General release concept
At any given time there are two release "stream":
- A stable release stream. This is a stable release to which bug fixes are applied, and will be active for up to two years. Most users and aircraft developers use this release. Currently 2024.1.
- A "preview" release, based on the development branch "next". This is for those interested in the latest developments. There is not currently a preview release.
Version numbers
FlightGear version numbers consist of three digits, separated by dots:
- Year (2020.1.0): The year the version was released.
- Number (2020.1.0): Which release of the year the version is.
- Revision (2020.1.0): The patch revision on that release.
| Note In general, release are referred to by their first two digits (e.g., 2020.3). However, when filing a bug report or debugging problems, it is a good idea to give the full release number. |
Version files
- FGData
- fgdata/version
- SimGear
- simgear/simgear-version
- FlightGear
- flightgear/flightgear-version
Bug tracker
The bug tracker can be seen at Work items and Issue boards.
Lessons learned
See Release plan/Lessons learned for a list of things that turned out well and should be kept for the next release as well as thing that didn't turn out so well and should be changed for future releases. Ideally, the release plan should be updated and augmented so that the lessons learned are incorporated accordingly.
Wiki articles that should be updated
See: Category:Articles to be updated for each release
Related content
Mailing lists
- Torsten Dreyer (Dec 17th, 2015). [Flightgear-devel] Release 3.8.