Merge pull request #12171 from matiaskorhonen/adds-maintenance-policy-to-guides

Adds the Rails maintenance policy to the Guides

3 files changed, 70 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/guides/CHANGELOG.md b/guides/CHANGELOG.md
index afa695d445..38e407b198 100644
--- a/guides/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/guides/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,4 +2,8 @@
 
     *Sıtkı Bağdat*
 
+*   Added the Rails maintenance policy to the guides.
+
+    *Matias Korhonen*
+
 Please check [4-0-stable](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-0-stable/guides/CHANGELOG.md) for previous changes.
diff --git a/guides/source/documents.yaml b/guides/source/documents.yaml
index 1b16f4e516..1bf9ff95e1 100644
--- a/guides/source/documents.yaml
+++ b/guides/source/documents.yaml
@@ -150,6 +150,13 @@
       url: ruby_on_rails_guides_guidelines.html
       description: This guide documents the Ruby on Rails guides guidelines.
 -
+  name: Maintenance Policy
+  documents:
+    -
+      name: Maintenance Policy
+      url: maintenance_policy.html
+      description: What versions of Ruby on Rails are currently supported, and when to expect new versions.
+-
   name: Release Notes
   documents:
     -
diff --git a/guides/source/maintenance_policy.md b/guides/source/maintenance_policy.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..354b1121aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/guides/source/maintenance_policy.md
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+Maintenance policy for Ruby on Rails
+====================================
+
+Since the most recent patch releases there has been some confusion about what
+versions of Ruby on Rails are currently supported, and when people
+can expect new versions. Our maintenance policy is as follows.
+
+Support of the Rails framework is divided into four groups: New features, bug
+fixes, security issues, and severe security issues. They are handled as
+follows, all versions in x.y.z format:
+
+New Features
+------------
+
+New Features are only added to the master branch and will not be made available
+in point releases.
+
+Bug fixes
+---------
+
+Only the latest release series will receive bug fixes. When enough bugs are
+fixed and its deemed worthy to release a new gem, this is the branch it happens
+from.
+
+**Currently included series:** 4.0.z
+
+Security issues:
+----------------
+
+The current release series and the next most recent one will receive patches
+and new versions in case of a security issue.
+
+These releases are created by taking the last released version, applying the
+security patches, and releasing. Those patches are then applied to the end of
+the x-y-stable branch. For example, a theoretical 1.2.3 security release would
+be built from 1.2.2, and then added to the end of 1-2-stable. This means that
+security releases are easy to upgrade to if you're running the latest version
+of Rails.
+
+**Currently included series:** 4.0.z, 3.2.z
+
+Severe security issues:
+-----------------------
+
+For severe security issues we will provide new versions as above, and also the
+last major release series will receive patches and new versions. The
+classification of the security issue is judged by the core team.
+
+**Currently included series:** 4.0.z, 3.2.z
+
+Unsupported Release Series
+--------------------------
+
+When a release series is no longer supported, it's your own responsibility to
+deal with bugs and security issues. We may provide back-ports of the fixes and
+publish them to git, however there will be no new versions released. If you are
+not comfortable maintaining your own versions, you should upgrade to a
+supported version.
+