Supported runtime and SDK releases

Runtime and SDK release support and upgrade policies

Introduction

This topic details the supported versions of Dapr releases, the upgrade policies and how deprecations and breaking changes are communicated in all Dapr repositories (runtime, CLI, SDKs, etc) at versions 1.x and above.

Dapr releases use MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH versioning. For example, 1.0.0.

A supported release means:

• A hoxfix patch is released if the release has a critical issue such as a mainline broken scenario or a security issue. Each of these are reviewed on a case by case basis.
• Issues are investigated for the supported releases. If a release is no longer supported, you need to upgrade to a newer release and determine if the issue is still relevant.

From the 1.8.0 release onwards three (3) versions of Dapr are supported; the current and previous two (2) versions. Typically these are MINORrelease updates. This means that there is a rolling window that moves forward for supported releases and it is your operational responsibility to remain up to date with these supported versions. If you have an older version of Dapr you may have to do intermediate upgrades to get to a supported version.

There will be at least 6 weeks between major.minor version releases giving users a 12 week (3 month) rolling window for upgrading.

Patch support is for supported versions (current and previous).

Supported versions

The table below shows the versions of Dapr releases that have been tested together and form a “packaged” release. Any other combinations of releases are not supported.

Upgrade paths

After the 1.0 release of the runtime there may be situations where it is necessary to explicitly upgrade through an additional release to reach the desired target. For example, an upgrade from v1.0 to v1.2 may need to pass through v1.1.

The table below shows the tested upgrade paths for the Dapr runtime. Any other combinations of upgrades have not been tested.

General guidance on upgrading can be found for self hosted mode and Kubernetes deployments. It is best to review the target version release notes for specific guidance.

Breaking changes and deprecations

Breaking changes

Breaking changes are defined as a change to any of the following that cause compilation errors or undesirable runtime behavior to an existing 3rd party consumer application or script after upgrading to the next stable minor version of a Dapr artifact (SDK, CLI, runtime, etc):

• Code behavior
• Schema
• Default configuration value
• Command line argument
• Published metric
• Kubernetes CRD template
• Publicly accessible API
• Publicly visible SDK interface, method, class, or attribute

Breaking changes can be applied right away to the following cases:

• Projects versioned at 0.x.y
• Preview feature
• Alpha API
• Preview or Alpha interface, class, method or attribute in SDK
• Dapr Component in Alpha or Beta
• Components-Contrib interface
• URLs in Docs and Blog
• An exceptional case where it is required to fix a critical bug or security vulnerability.

Process for applying breaking changes

There is a process for applying breaking changes:

1. A deprecation notice must be posted as part of a release.
2. The breaking changes are applied two (2) releases after the release in which the deprecation was announced.
   • For example, feature X is announced to be deprecated in the 1.0.0 release notes and will then be removed in 1.2.0.

Depreciations

Deprecations appear in release notes under a section named “Deprecations”, which indicates:

• The point in the future the now-deprecated feature will no longer be supported. For example release x.y.z. This is at least two (2) releases prior.
• Document any steps the user must take to modify their code, operations, etc if applicable in the release notes.

After announcing a future breaking change, the change will happen in 2 releases or 6 months, whichever is greater. Deprecated features should respond with warning but do nothing otherwise.

Announced deprecations

Upgrade on Hosting platforms

Dapr can support multiple hosting platforms for production. With the 1.0 release the two supported platforms are Kubernetes and physical machines. For Kubernetes upgrades see Production guidelines on Kubernetes

Supported versions of dependencies

Below is a list of software that the latest version of Dapr (v1.8.4) has been tested against.

Related links

• Read the Versioning policy

Last modified September 6, 2022: fix some typos (#2765) (46748172)