Scribd
Upload
7 views

spring-and-spring-boot-versions.adoc

This document provides an overview of the latest versions of Spring Framework and Spring Boot, with Spring Framework version 6.0.11 and Spring Boot version 3.1.3 as of September 2023. It discusses version compatibility, release cycles, and the support timeline for different Spring versions. Additionally, it highlights the backward compatibility of Spring versions and offers resources for further information on changes in each version.

Uploaded by

Suresh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
7 views

spring-and-spring-boot-versions.adoc

This document provides an overview of the latest versions of Spring Framework and Spring Boot, with Spring Framework version 6.0.11 and Spring Boot version 3.1.3 as of September 2023. It discusses version compatibility, release cycles, and the support timeline for different Spring versions. Additionally, it highlights the backward compatibility of Spring versions and offers resources for further information on changes in each version.

Uploaded by

Suresh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

= Spring And Spring Boot Versions

Marco Behler
2023-09-08
:page-layout: layout-guides
:linkattrs:
:page-image: "/images/guides/undraw_update_uxn2.png"
:page-description: A short guide to the latest Spring and Spring Boot versions, as
well as information on the release cycle and maintenance windows.
:page-published: true
:page-hidequicklinks: true
:page-tags: ["spring boot version", "spring versions", "spring framework version"]
:page-commento_id: /guides/spring-and-spring-boot-versions
:springbootversion: 3.1.3
:springframeworkversion: 6.0.11
:publicationmonth: September 2023

== What is the latest Spring Framework version?

The current stable version, as of {publicationmonth}, is *Spring


{springframeworkversion}*. You can always find new version announcements on
https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/releases.

== What is the latest Spring Boot version?

The current stable version, as of {publicationmonth}, is *Spring Boot


{springbootversion}*. You can always find new version announcements on
https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/releases.

== What Java version does the latest Spring Boot support?

Spring Boot {springbootversion} requires Java 17 as a minimum version. If you are


currently using Java 8 or 11, you'll need to stick to the 2.x release train.

== What Spring version should I use?

Choosing a Spring version is relatively simple:

* If you are building new Spring Boot projects, the version of Spring you are using
is already pre-defined for you. If you are using Spring Boot 3.x, for example, you
will be using Spring 6.x (though, in theory you could override this).

* If you are using plain Spring in a greenfield project, you can obviously choose
whatever version you want, which will usually be the latest one.

* If you are using Spring in a legacy project, you can always think about upgrading
to a newer Spring version if that makes sense from a business perspective (or if
you want to respect the https://spring.io/blog/2019/12/03/spring-framework-
maintenance-roadmap-in-2020-including-4-3-eol[EOL announcements])- Spring versions
have a high amount of compatibility (see next paragraph).

Realistically, you'll find Spring Framework versions 4.x-5.x, as well as Spring


Boot versions 1.x-2.x used by companies, though the rare, legacy 3.x (initial
release: 2009) Spring project also pops up.

== How often do new versions of Spring get released? How long are they supported?

You'll need to differentiate between Spring Framework and Spring Boot (which builds
upon Spring Framework).
Here's a nice, little graph showing you Spring Framework's version history:

[ditaa,springversions-v3,png]
----
|
| 2003 2006 2009 2013 2017 2020 2022
|----|--------|--------|----------|----------|------|-------|--->
| 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 5.3 6.x
|
----

You can see that the initial Spring release was ~17 years ago, with major framework
versions being released every 3-4 year. This does not account for maintenance
branches, however.

* Spring 4.3 for example, has been released in June 2016, and will be supported
until the end of 2020.
* Support for Spring 5.0 and 5.1 will be cut off at the end of 2020, in favor of
Spring 5.2 and Spring 5.3, which have been released in September 2019 and October
2020, respectively.
* Spring 5.2.x will be supported until the end of 2021.
* Spring 5.3.x has long-term support provided on JDK 8, JDK 11 & JDK 17.

See the https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/wiki/Spring-Framework-


Versions[Spring Framework Versions] page for all support timelines.

Here's another graph showing you Spring Boot's version history. As you can see,
versions are released much more frequently.

[ditaa,springbootversions-v5,png]
----
|
| 2014 2014 2014/2015 2015/2016 2017 Mar, 2018 Oct, 2018
Oct, 2019 May, 2020 Dec, 2020 May, 2021 Nov, 2021
May, 2022 Nov, 2022
|----|--------|----------|------------|----------|---------|-----------|-----------
-----|----------------|---------------|-----------------|---------------|----------
-----|-----------|-->
| 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.5 2.0 2.1.x
2.2.x 2.3.x 2.4.x 2.5.x 2.6.x
2.7.x 3.x
|
----

== What are the differences between Spring versions?

Similar to the JVM, Spring versions are _insanely_ backwards compatible, which
means you can (essentially) still run your Spring 1.0 xml files with the latest
Spring 6.x (though I admittedly haven't tried that out, yet). In addition,
upgrading from, say 3 to 6 is also possible with a bit of effort (see this
https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/wiki/Upgrading-to-Spring-
Framework-6.x[migration guide]).

So, in general, newer Spring versions build _on top_ of the older Spring versions
and have minimal breaking changes (compared with, say Python 2 vs 3). So, all core
concepts you learned for Spring version 3 or 4 are still true for Spring version 5.

You can get a great overview of what changed over the last 7 years in the
individual Spring versions, here:

* https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/4.3.x/spring-framework-reference/htmlsingle/
#spring-whats-new[What's new in Spring 4]
* https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/wiki/What's-New-in-Spring-
Framework-5.x[What's new in Spring 5]
* https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/wiki/What's-New-in-Spring-
Framework-6.x[What's new in Spring 6]

To give you an executive summary:

The core (dependency injection, transaction management etc.) always stays the same
or gets extended. Spring, however, goes with time and offers support for newer Java
language versions, test framework enhancements, Websockets, reactive programming,
etc.

== Fin

Do you have any more questions regarding Spring versions? Let me know in the
comments!

You might also like