Merge pull request #3866 from senny/maintenance_guidelines

maintenance policy

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ Please send a pull request with a tested solution or a pull request with a faili
 
 **Search** for similar entries before submitting your own, there's a good chance somebody else had the same issue or idea. Show your support with `:+1:` and/or join the discussion.
 
+* Only report issues for supported versions according to the [maintenance policy](MAINTENANCE.md)
 * Summarize your issue in one sentence (what goes wrong, what did you expect to happen)
 * Describe your issue in detail
 * How can we reproduce the issue on the [GitLab Vagrant virtual machine](https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlab-vagrant-vm) (start with: `vagrant destroy && vagrant up && vagrant ssh`)

MAINTENANCE.md

+# GitLab Maintenance Policy
+
+GitLab is a fast moving and evolving project. We currently don't have the
+resources to support many releases concurrently. We support exactly one stable
+release at any given time.
+
+GitLab follows the [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/) for its releases:
+`(Major).(Minor).(Patch)`.
+
+* **Major version**: Whenever there is something significant or any backwards
+  incompatible changes are introduced to the public API.
+* **Minor version**: When new, backwards compatible functionality is introduced
+  to the public API or a minor feature is introduced, or when a set of smaller
+  features is rolled out.
+* **Patch number**: When backwards compatible bug fixes are introduced that fix
+  incorrect behavior.
+
+The current stable release will receive security patches and bug fixes
+(eg. `5.0` -> `5.0.1`).  Feature releases will mark the next supported stable
+release where the minor version is increased numerically by increments of one
+(eg. `5.0 -> 5.1`).
+
+We encourage everyone to run this release and are trying to keep the update
+procedures simple and reliable.

README.md

@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@
 
 ### Installation
 
+Check out our [maintenance policy](MAINTENANCE.md) to see what versions are supported.
+
 #### Official production installation
 
 * [Installation guide for a production server](https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/master/doc/install/installation.md)