opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/VERSIONING.md

OpenTelemetry Java Instrumentation Versioning

Compatibility requirements

Artifacts in this repository follow the same compatibility requirements described in https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java/blob/main/VERSIONING.md#compatibility-requirements .

EXCEPT for the following incompatible changes which are allowed in stable artifacts in this repository:

• Changes to the telemetry produced by instrumentation (there will be some guarantees about telemetry stability in the future, see discussions in https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/issues/1301)
• Changes to configuration properties that contain the word experimental
• Changes to configuration properties under the namespace otel.javaagent.testing

This means that:

• Changes to configuration properties (other than those that contain the word experimental or are under the namespace otel.javaagent.testing) will be considered breaking changes (unless they only affect telemetry produced by instrumentation)

Stable vs alpha

See https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java/blob/main/VERSIONING.md#stable-vs-alpha

IN PARTICULAR:

Not all of our artifacts are published as stable artifacts - any non-stable artifact has the suffix -alpha on its version. NONE of the guarantees described above apply to alpha artifacts. They may require code or environment changes on every release and are not meant for consumption for users where versioning stability is important.