Earlier access to GitHub Enterprise Server features
GitHub is changing how it prepares feature releases for GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES). Starting with the next release, the company will publish release candidates (RCs) so customers can test new versions before they are finalized. The goal is to fold customer feedback into the release cycle and improve the quality of general-availability (GA) builds.
How release candidates work
An RC is a pre-release build of an upcoming GHES feature release. When an RC is published, it ships with its own release notes, and customers can deploy it on test or staging environments. RCs are fully upgradeable to and from GA releases, and customers who test them can file issues with GitHub Support while the RC is live.
Each feature release is expected to have one or more RC versions, such as 2.22.0.RC1 and 2.22.0.RC2. Subsequent RCs in a series include fixes for bugs reported in earlier ones. The number of RCs is not fixed in advance; GitHub decides when to stop issuing RCs and make the final production release based on quality and customer feedback. RCs are not covered by long-term support.
What stays the same
Production releases keep their existing version numbering scheme (for example, 2.20 or 2.21). Patch releases are not released as RCs and remain on their usual schedule. GitHub plans to share more details about upcoming release candidates at GitHub Universe.
