Each release branch of PHP is fully supported for two years from its initial stable release. During this period, bugs and security issues that have been reported are fixed and are released in regular point releases.
After this two year period of active support, each branch is then supported for two additional years for critical security issues only. Releases during this period are made on an as-needed basis: there may be multiple point releases, or none, depending on the number of reports.
Once the four years of support are completed, the branch reaches its end of life and is no longer supported. A table of end of life branches is available.
| Branch | Initial Release | Active Support Until | Security Support Until | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| format('j M Y')) ?> | format('j M Y')) ?> | format('j M Y')) ?> | Migration guide for PHP — | |||||
Or, visualised as a calendar:
* tags (which is odd, since it does handle them when you view the SVG files by * themselves). Instead, we'll just pull the SVG into the page inline, thereby * ensuring that we have the same text formatting as the rest of the page. */ $non_standalone = true; include __DIR__ . '/images/supported-versions.php'; ?>| Active support | A release that is being actively supported. Reported bugs and security issues are fixed and regular point releases are made. |
| Security fixes only | A release that is supported for critical security issues only. Releases are only made on an as-needed basis. |
| End of life | A release that is no longer supported. Users of this release should upgrade as soon as possible, as they may be exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities. |