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diff --git a/pod/perlpolicy.pod b/pod/perlpolicy.pod index d9a064271f..f528a30494 100644 --- a/pod/perlpolicy.pod +++ b/pod/perlpolicy.pod @@ -8,6 +8,70 @@ This document is the master document which records all written policies about how the Perl 5 Porters collectively develop and maintain the Perl core. +=head1 MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT + +Perl 5 is developed by a community, not a corporate entity. Every change +contributed to the Perl core is the result of a donation. Typically, these +donations are contributions of code or time by individual members of our +community. On occasion, these donations come in the form of corporate +or organizational sponsorship of a particular individual or project. + +As a volunteer organization, the commitments we make are heavily dependent +on the goodwill and hard work of individuals who have no obligation to +contribute to Perl. + +That being said, we value Perl's stabilty and security and have long +had an unwritten covenant with the broader Perl community to support +and maintain releases of Perl. + +This document codifies the support and maintenance commitments that +the Perl community should expect from Perl's developers: + +=over + +=item * + +We "officially" support the two most recent stable release +series'. As of the release of 5.14.0, we will "officially" +end support for Perl 5.10, other than providing security +updates as described below. + +=item * + +To the best of our ability, we will attempt to fix critical issues +n the two most recent stable 5.x release series'. Fixes for the +current release series take precedence over fixes for the previous +release series. + +=item * + +To the best of our ability, we will provide "critical" security patches +/ releases for any major version of Perl initially released within the +past three years. We can only commit to providing these for the most +recent .y release in any 5.x.y series. + +=item * + +We will not provide security updates or bug fixes for development +releases of Perl. + +=item * + +We encourage vendors to ship the most recent supported release of +Perl at the time of their code freeze. + +=item * + +As a vendor, you may have a requirement to backport security fixes +beyond our 3 year support commitment. We can provide limited support and +advice to you as you do so and, where possible will try to apply +those patches to the relevant -maint branches in git, though we may or +may not choose to make numbered releases or "official" patches +available. Contact us at E<lt>perl5-security-report@perl.orgE<gt> +to begin that process. + +=back + =head1 BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY AND DEPRECATION Our community has a long-held belief that backward-compatibility is a |