Document TypeScript version lifetime and EOL

[indrora]

Bug Report: Documentation.

There is no documented lifecycle time for a particular version of TypeScript.

Python, Go, and Node all have defined lifetimes for releases.

🔎 Search Terms

• Typescript End of life
• Typescript version support matrix
• typescript version support history
• how long is a version of typescript supported for

🙁 Actual behavior

No documentation exists.

🙂 Expected behavior

Having a list or guideline of how long versions of the TypeScript library/compiler/etc are supported for so that I can make informed decisions on security and SDLC inquiries.

[indrora]

With another release of TypeScript coming around the corner, I'm curious if there's been some official thought on this?

[RyanCavanaugh]

To my knowledge, we don't have an official policy beyond the one implied by the fact that we ship our components in Visual Studio. Security fixes are backported I believe for the last year of releases; non-security fixes are not backported. If there's a more concrete definition of "support" provided, or a specific hypothetical you had in mind, I can speak to that specifically.

[marcwrobel]

There is also this paragraph in the documentation on https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/TypeScript%27s-Release-Process#what-gets-done-for-patch-releases :

Patch releases are periodically pushed out for any of the following: ... These fixes are typically weighed against the cost (how hard it would be for the team to retroactively apply/release a change), the risk (how much code is changed, how understandable is the fix), as well as how feasible it would be to wait for the next version.

[postmeback]

If the concept of version lifetime and EOL is irrelevant with TypeScript, then we can close this issue.

[indrora]

If that's the case, then are bugfixes going to be backported and language features backported to older versions of the typescript compiler?

That is the expectation of a "supported" version of such a piece of software.

[ben-zen]

Jumping in as I've been bit by the unclear lifecycle for TypeScript before: this is inconsistent with other Microsoft languages and software distributions. .net (core and otherwise) has a very clear lifecycle document which sets expectations well for users.

From a quick look through the release history, it doesn't appear to me that there are many updates made to prior major versions once a new major version (or even generally minor version) has hit stable; I had to search all the way back to June 2021, where 3.9, 4.0, and 4.1 got patches for Node 16, when 4.3 was the current stable version.

That dotnet policy document states, "Every Microsoft product has a lifecycle. The lifecycle begins when a product is released and ends when it's no longer supported." Does typescript abide by the Modern Policy Lifecycle? If not, why not?

[indrora]

Any progress on this?

[PoulChapman]

We've now published a clarification of support at https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/blob/main/SUPPORT.md, and have closed this issue.