We need to start pinning releases the the Spring Boot lifecycle instead of playing catch up all the time.
There also needs to be time after milestones to identify issues. Considering we have not released even an M1 of 9, it sounds like this would be rushing. There is a dramatic swing going from 8 to 9 since we released 7 with indy half baked and 8 with indy fully off. 9 will have indy on. This will have unknown consequences especially with plugin transitions. There should be milestone releases that allow properly testing the switch. If we are going to release before 4.2.0 goes final, I feel like that will not be adequate time to test. How many major/minor version combos are we going to maintain? We want to simultaneously maintain a 9 with 4.1.x and a 9.1.x with 4.2.x? Who is going to merge up a 7.0.x patch and perform all the releases? We got a lot done in 8.0.0 and it took a year. I don't see why we can't pin to Spring 4.2.0 and release a more refined product that is easier to maintain in the long run. We should release 9.0.0-M1 now with Spring Boot 4.2.0-M2. If we do that now, we can release a stable 9.0.0 with 4.2.0 within days of 4.2.0 releasing. -- Scott On 2026-10-05 01:04 UTC James Fredley wrote: > Hi everyone, > > The 8.0.0 vote is out, which is is an AWESOME accomplishment. > > While that finishes, I want to discuss what we do next, before we spend > time on the wrong branch. > > Proposal: do not release an 8.1.x on Spring Boot 4.2 in Q1 2027. Ship > 8.0.x, move straight to 9.0.x on Groovy 6 (snapshots already exist), and > pick up Spring Boot 4.2 in a 9.1.x release after that GA is out. > > The schedule would look like this: > > - 8.0.0 on Spring Boot 4.1 and Groovy 5 - now > - 9.0.0 on Spring Boot 4.1 and Groovy 6 targets late November or early > December. Those snapshots are already running. > - I expect Spring Boot 4.2 GA around Christmas or early January rather > than the usual late November window. 4.1 landed in June, about a month > late. Spring Boot 4.2.0-M2 shipped on 24 September. The 4.2.0-RC1 > milestone is 29 of 30 issues closed > (https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/milestone/433). The > 4.2.0 GA milestone is open, but Spring has not set a due date > (https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/milestone/434). > - After Spring Boot 4.2 GA, we release 9.1 on top of 9.0 in Q1 2027 > - 8.1 stays on the shelf unless we find a real reason to release it. > > Two release trains are driving this. We still cut a Grails major when > Spring Boot cuts a major. Groovy now looks like it will cut a major > about once a year, and that will also be a Grails major. I do not think > we should also keep chasing each Spring Boot minor on the old Groovy > line. Cleaner cutoff: a Grails line stays on the Spring Boot minor it > shipped with, and the next Spring Boot minor lands on the new Groovy major. > > The merge cost is the main reason to skip an 8.1 release. Spring Boot > 4.2 changes will not apply cleanly to the Groovy 6 work already on > 9.0.x. They will apply to 9.1, which is where we want them. Doing that > upgrade for an 8.1 release and again for 9.1 is the same work twice. > Those changes might get merged to the wrong line, replayed, or dropped. > We could try to keep lines working on both Spring Boot 4.1 (Grails 8.0.x > and 9.0.x) and 4.2(Grails 8.1.x and 9.1.x), but that is not worth it for > a line most people will leave quickly or skip entirely. > > 9.0 should be a short release. If it lands in late November or early > December, 9.1 can follow soon after the Spring Boot 4.2 GA in Q1 2027. > Users will likely move to latest Groovy, especially with the performance > boost. > > This does not end 8.0.x. Patch releases on 8.0.x continue as usual. The > only question is whether we spend a minor release moving Groovy 5 onto > Spring Boot 4.2. > > Does this match what others expect for the next few months? > > Reasons that would change my mind: users who cannot move to Groovy 6, a > compatibility promise we have already made, or a merge approach that is > cheaper than it looks. > > Thanks, > James Fredley > VP, Apache Grails > PMC Chair >
