Drupal 11.2 alpha phase begins May 7

In preparation for the minor release, Drupal 11.2.x will enter the alpha phase the week of May 7, 2025. Core developers should plan to complete changes that are only allowed in minor releases prior to the alpha release.

The 11.2.0-alpha1 deadline for most core patches is May 7, 2025.

The 10.6.x release branch of core will be created for the next maintenance minor release.

• Developers and site owners can begin testing the alpha after its release.

• The 11.2.x release branch of core will be created before the alpha is tagged. Future feature and API additions will continue to be targeted against the main development branch, 11.x.

• After 11.2.x is branched but before 11.2.0-alpha1 is tagged, alpha experimental modules will be removed from the 11.2.x codebase. Their development will continue in 11.x only.

• Following the release of Drupal 11.2 and 10.5, only security issues will be fixed in Drupal 11.1 and 10.4. Additionally, Drupal 11.0 and 10.3 will become end-of-life (EOL).

• During the alpha phase, core issues will be committed according to the following policy:

  1. Most issues that are allowed for patch releases will be committed to 11.2.x and 10.5.x. Such issues may also be committed to 11.1.x and 10.4.x until the final normal bugfix releases of 11.1 and 10.4 on June 4, 2025.
  2. Most issues that are only allowed in minor releases will be committed to 11.x only. (Such issues may be released in 11.3 or another future minor.). A few strategic issues may be backported to 11.2.x, but only at committer discretion after the issue is fixed in 11.x and before the beta deadline. For these issues, leave them set to 11.x unless you are a committer.
  3. Most issues that are allowed in maintenance minor releases will be committed to 11.x and 10.6.x only. A few strategic issues may be backported to 11.2.x and 10.5.x, but only at committer discretion and before the beta deadline. For these issues, leave them set to 11.x unless you are a committer.

Roughly two weeks after the alpha release, the first beta release will be created. All the restrictions of the alpha release apply to beta releases as well. The release of the first beta is a firm deadline for all feature and API additions. Once the beta commit freeze begins, issues in the Reviewed & Tested by the Community (RTBC) queue will be committed to the next minor release only.

The release candidate phase will begin the week of June 2.

Security support of Drupal 10 and 11

See the Drupal core release process overview, the Drupal core release schedule, allowed changes during the Drupal 10 and 11 release cycles, and Drupal 10 and 11 backwards compatibility and internal API policy for more information.