What’s the New PHP 8.4 Release Timeline and Extended Support Policy?
The article outlines PHP’s updated policy extending security support to two years, explains the single‑major‑version release model, and provides a detailed 2024‑2028 release schedule for PHP 8.4, including alpha, beta, RC, GA, and end‑of‑life milestones.
PHP has extended the security support period for each major version from one year to two years. The policy and the rules for when minor features may be added during the release cycle are defined in the official PHP policies repository: https://github.com/php/policies
One Major Version at a Time
**** pre release phase
++++ release lifetime with all bug fixes, no feature addition
---- release lifetime security fixes only
G GA Release
D EOL
Version Time ->
2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
| | | | | | | | | | | |
8.1 |++++++++++-------------------------D
8.2 |+++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------D
8.3 | *****G++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------D
8.4 | | | |****G++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------DRelease Timeline
The release process starts on the first Tuesday of July each year and lasts about 20 weeks. It consists of three alpha releases, three beta releases, four release candidates (RC), and a final General Availability (GA) version (x.0.0). Each milestone is published on a Tuesday and must be available before Thursday 24:00 UTC.
Revised PHP 8.4 Schedule (2024)
Jul 04 2024 – Alpha 1
Jul 18 2024 – Alpha 2
Aug 01 2024 – Alpha 3
Aug 13 2024 – Feature freeze (all RFCs must be voted on and merged)
Aug 15 2024 – Beta 1
Aug 29 2024 – Beta 2
Sep 10 2024 – Deadline for merging RFC‑related features (tagging date for Beta 3)
Sep 12 2024 – Beta 3
Sep 24 2024 – Branch creation for the PHP‑8.4 release branch
Sep 26 2024 – RC 1 (no new features after this point)
Oct 10 2024 – RC 2
Oct 24 2024 – RC 3
Nov 07 2024 – RC 4
Nov 21 2024 – GA (general availability)
Dec 31 2026 – End of bug‑fix releases; security‑only releases begin
Dec 31 2027 – End of regression fixes in bug‑fix releases; ABI‑incompatible Windows library updates cease
Dec 31 2028 – End of security releases
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