Builds (Support build vs development build) August 08, 2008 / Updated: October 29, 2022

There are two builds on the Zenphoto download page additionally to the official release:

1. Support build

This is also called the master in GitHub terms and represents the next official bugfix/maintainance release. If the current official release is 1.5.7 the support build has generally a version like this:

• 1.5.8a (a for alpha): Early stage with some very unfinished functionality
• 1.5.8b (b for beta) continously gets all the fixes to become 1.5.8 later on.
• 1.5.8RC (RC for release candidate): This is pretty much finished and nearly ready for release

It may also have a higher version like 1.6b depending on the developlemt plan like this:

• 1.6a
• 1.6b
• 1.6RC

Generally the support build will be compatible with the official release but it cannot always be guaranteed because of bugfixes and other changes , especially on a version jump like 1.5.x to 1.6. and if security fixes require specific changes.

If you report any issue with the official release we often ask you to try this build to be sure things are really fixed. 

2. Development build

Currently there is no development build. If there is this is the development for the next feature release. So if 1.5.7 is the current release, this will become 2.x and will get all the new features we make up. This release may introduce incompatibilites due to serious changes.

Sometimes we ask you to try this as well so we can make sure new features or other improvements are done right. Best don't try this on an important live site as this is work in progress.

Please note: If we point you to test one of these builds please do so as this helps us to improve the next release . We cannot test all possible server environments so this helps us a lot. Installation is done like regular updates