Alibaba Cloud SDK:SDK maintenance policies

1. Overview

Alibaba Cloud SDKs follow maintenance policies that cover version releases, updates, and end-of-support.

2. Lifecycle and maintenance policies

Alibaba Cloud SDKs go through three lifecycle stages: general availability, basic security maintenance, and end-of-support.

Lifecycle stage	Maintenance policy	API coverage and release cycle	Recommendation	Support on Alibaba Cloud platforms, such as Help Center and OpenAPI Portal	Support on third-party platforms, such as hosted code repositories and communities
General availability stage	New features, performance optimizations, bug fixes, and security patches.	All API operations supported. Automatically updated within 24 hours of API release.	Recommended for all users and projects.	Marked as Recommend. Full documentation and sample code provided, with timely updates.	Marked as Recommend.
Basic security maintenance stage	No new features. Security patches and critical stability bug fixes only.	API coverage not guaranteed. Updated for new API operations only when necessary.	Suitable for stable systems only. Not recommended for new projects or beginners.	Marked as Not recommend. Documentation and sample code provided, but updates are not guaranteed. Migration references provided to guide upgrades to the latest SDK versions.	Marked as Not recommend. Migration references provided to guide users to upgrade to or adopt the latest SDK versions.
End-of-support stage	No updates of any kind, including security patches. No issue reports accepted.	No further SDK releases.	Not recommended. Migrate existing systems to the latest SDK versions to ensure business continuity and security.	SDKs taken offline or hidden from all entry points.	Marked as End-of-support. Migration references provided to guide users to upgrade to or adopt the latest SDK versions. No issue reports accepted.

3. Release policy

SDK packages are released to official package managers such as Maven, npm, PyPI, NuGet, CocoaPods, and Packagist. Source code is published on GitHub. For more information, see SDK version support matrix.

3.1 Alibaba Cloud SDK generations

Alibaba Cloud provides two SDK generations: V1.0 and V2.0. V2.0 resolves issues in V1.0 and adds features that simplify usage, reduce costs, and improve robustness. For more information about the differences between Alibaba Cloud SDK V1.0 and V2.0, see Alibaba Cloud SDK V1.0 and V2.0.

Maintenance policies are described in the Lifecycle and maintenance policies section. For more information about the end-of-support status of SDKs of each generation in different languages, see SDK version support matrix.

3.2 Version number specification

Version numbers of all SDK generations follow the Semantic Versioning Specification.

A version number is in the Major.Minor.Patch format. Major: Incompatible API changes are made. Minor: Functionality is changed in a backward compatible manner. Patch: Backward compatible bug fixes are made.

A major version increment indicates breaking changes in public interfaces, such as class names, method names, parameter names, parameter types, or semantics. After a major version release, update your client to the latest SDK. Check the SDK release report for upgrade details, such as the Release Report for ECS SDK for Java V3.1.17.

3.3 Compatibility assurance

• V1.0 and V2.0 SDKs are not compatible. For more information about how to upgrade Alibaba Cloud SDK V1.0 to V2.0, see Upgrade Alibaba Cloud SDK V1.0 to V2.0.

• Within the same generation, SDKs follow the Semantic Versioning Specification. Minor and patch versions are backward compatible. Only major versions may introduce breaking changes.

4. Update policy

Alibaba Cloud regularly updates SDKs and their dependencies. Third-party dependencies fall into three categories:

• Operating systems such as CentOS 7, Windows 7, Windows 10, and macOS 12.x

• Language runtimes such as Java 8, Java 11, .NET Core, PHP7, PHP8, and Node.js 14.x

• Third-party libraries and frameworks such as OpenSSL, .NET Framework 4.5, and Java EE

Each dependency's lifecycle is managed by its language community or vendor, which publishes its own end-of-life timeline.

Language community maintenance policies:

• Node.js: github.com

• Python: devguide.python.org

• Ruby: www.ruby-lang.org

• Java: www.oracle.com

• Go: golang.org

• .NET Core: dotnet.microsoft.com

• PHP: www.php.net

5. End-of-support policy

5.1 Trigger point

When a language community announces end of support for a language version or dependency, Alibaba Cloud issues an end-of-support announcement within approximately one year and ends support six months later. Existing SDKs continue to work, but no security patches or new features are provided.

5.2 Announcement content

1. Specific reasons for ending support

2. Specific time for ending support

3. Steps for continuing to use existing SDKs and updating to supported SDKs

4. Migration references

5.3 Notification methods

Alibaba Cloud explains the reason for ending support and notifies users through the following channels:

• Publishes an end-of-support announcement one year in advance through SDK references in OpenAPI Portal and Help Center, and sends in-product messages in OpenAPI Portal and the Alibaba Cloud console.

• Provides migration references in OpenAPI Portal and Help Center.

• Adds in-SDK warnings for some languages. For example, a warning appears when you install an unsupported SDK version.