Fluentd Blog

Scheduled support lifecycle announcement about Fluent Package v6

Hi users!

We had launched fluent-package v5 series last year, recently shipped v5.0.4 in LTS release channel and v5.1.0 in normal release channel.

In this blog article, we explains the planned next major updates - v6.0.0.

When the next LTS (Long Term Support) version available?

In short, we will ship fluent-package v6 in Aug, 2025.

We keeps two release channels as follows:

• Normal release
• LTS (Long Term Support)

Here is the difference of these channels.

• Normal release (6.x series)
  • Recommended for early adopters (eager to try new features of Fluentd)
  • Rapid release development (planned semi-annually releases, but it may vary.)
  • Fluentd will be upgraded occasionally
    • Minor upgrade will be applied. e.g. 1.18 => 1.19 and so on.
    • e.g. v6.0.1 (Fluentd v1.18.1), v6.0.2 (Fluentd v1.18.2), ... v6.1.0 (Fluentd v1.19.0)
  • The only latest version will be supported (bug fix will not be backported into older version)
• LTS (Long Term Support, 6.0.x series)
  • Recommended for enterprise services
  • Security and bug fix release only
  • Fluentd will be upgraded only in the teeny version and will stick to 1.18.x series. (T.B.D.)
    • Thus, the version number will be 6.0.x. (6.1 series will not be shipped for LTS channel)
    • e.g. v6.0.1 (Fluentd v1.18.1), v6.0.2 (Fluentd v1.18.2), v6.0.3 (Fluentd v1.18.3) ... v6.0.x (Fluentd v1.18.x) and so on.
  • Next major version will be fluent-package v7.0.0, and will be shipped in 2027 (T.B.D.).

As for fluent-package v6,

• fluent-package v5 LTS will be supported until Dec, 2025.
  • We expect users upgrade from v5 to v6 during the grace period.
• Until 6.1.0 is released, normal release channel and LTS channel are the same package.
• Upgrade from v4 or older version is not supported. Upgrade to v5 first, then upgrade it to v6.

Current releases and future plans:

Happy logging!