src/doc/trpl/release-channels.md

   1 % Release Channels
   2
   3 The Rust project uses a concept called ‘release channels’ to manage releases.
   4 It’s important to understand this process to choose which version of Rust
   5 your project should use.
   6
   7 # Overview
   8
   9 There are three channels for Rust releases:
  10
  11 * Nightly
  12 * Beta
  13 * Stable
  14
  15 New nightly releases are created once a day. Every six weeks, the latest
  16 nightly release is promoted to ‘Beta’. At that point, it will only receive
  17 patches to fix serious errors. Six weeks later, the beta is promoted to
  18 ‘Stable’, and becomes the next release of `1.x`.
  19
  20 This process happens in parallel. So every six weeks, on the same day,
  21 nightly goes to beta, beta goes to stable. When `1.x` is released, at
  22 the same time, `1.(x + 1)-beta` is released, and the nightly becomes the
  23 first version of `1.(x + 2)-nightly`.
  24
  25 # Choosing a version
  26
  27 Generally speaking, unless you have a specific reason, you should be using the
  28 stable release channel. These releases are intended for a general audience.
  29
  30 However, depending on your interest in Rust, you may choose to use nightly
  31 instead. The basic tradeoff is this: in the nightly channel, you can use
  32 unstable, new Rust features. However, unstable features are subject to change,
  33 and so any new nightly release may break your code. If you use the stable
  34 release, you cannot use experimental features, but the next release of Rust
  35 will not cause significant issues through breaking changes.
  36
  37 # Helping the ecosystem through CI
  38
  39 What about beta? We encourage all Rust users who use the stable release channel
  40 to also test against the beta channel in their continuous integration systems.
  41 This will help alert the team in case there’s an accidental regression.
  42
  43 Additionally, testing against nightly can catch regressions even sooner, and so
  44 if you don’t mind a third build, we’d appreciate testing against all channels.
  45