Nginx Lifecycle: End Of Life And Support Status
Last updated on October 26, 2023
Nginx is an open-source web server application that is used for load balancing, reverse proxy, caching, and mail proxy.
Support status guide
End of life (EOL) is the end of a product’s useful life. When a product reaches the end of its life cycle, the manufacturer no longer supports it. The following table explains the different phases of a product’s lifecycle. Testing status is when the product is initially released and EOL is when product support is no longer offered. The time between these two points is the support timeframe.
Testing
The software is not yet publicly available. It is in testing phase i.e., alpha, beta, release preview etc.
Active
The software is actively supported by the vendor.
Phasing Out
The software will soon reach its end of life. You need to look for upgrade or migration options. The software will automatically go into phasing out status 2 months before end of life.
End Of Life
The software is no longer supported by the vendor. You need to make sure your system and environment are safe.
Version
Released
Security Support
(23 May 2023)
(11 April 2023)
(21 June 2022)
(23 May 2023)
(24 May 2022)
(11 April 2023)
(25 May 2021)
(21 June 2022)
(20 April 2021)
(24 May 2022)
(26 May 2020)
(25 May 2021)
(21 April 2020)
(20 April 2021)
(23 April 2019)
(20 April 2020)
(17 April 2018)
(23 April 2019)
(12 April 2017)
(17 April 2018)
(26 April 2016)
(12 April 2017)
(21 April 2015)
(26 April 2016)
(24 April 2014)
(21 April 2015)
(24 April 2013)
(24 April 2014)
(23 April 2012)
(24 April 2013)
(12 April 2011)
(23 April 2012)
Nginx maintains two publishing channels, which are mainline and stable.
- Mainline: The mainline release channel was first introduced with version 1.19, and before that, only the stable channel existed. The versions that end with an odd number denote the mainline channel. This channel receives an update every year in May and is the active development branch. This means that it receives frequent minor updates with new features.
- Stable: This channel receives updates in April of each year that increment its version and is denoted by an even number in the second part of the version. The minor updates include fixes to high-severity bugs but normally don’t include new features.
That said, Nginx only maintains a scheduled security update. The active support is only as long as the security support. Moreover, when an Nginx version on the stable channel reaches the end of support every April, it no longer receives bug fixes. In the case of the mainline channel, when a version reaches the end of support, it is forked to create the next stable branch.
EOLs
