FreeBSD/Linux Kernel Cross Reference
sys/contrib/openzfs/RELEASES.md

     OpenZFS uses the MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH versioning scheme described here:
     
       * MAJOR - Incremented at the discretion of the OpenZFS developers to indicate
         a particularly noteworthy feature or change. An increase in MAJOR number
         does not indicate any incompatible on-disk format change. The ability
         to import a ZFS pool is controlled by the feature flags enabled on the
         pool and the feature flags supported by the installed OpenZFS version.
         Increasing the MAJOR version is expected to be an infrequent occurrence.
     
      * MINOR - Incremented to indicate new functionality such as a new feature
        flag, pool/dataset property, zfs/zpool sub-command, new user/kernel
        interface, etc. MINOR releases may introduce incompatible changes to the
        user space library APIs (libzfs.so). Existing user/kernel interfaces are
        considered to be stable to maximize compatibility between OpenZFS releases.
        Additions to the user/kernel interface are backwards compatible.
    
      * PATCH - Incremented when applying documentation updates, important bug
        fixes, minor performance improvements, and kernel compatibility patches.
        The user space library APIs and user/kernel interface are considered to
        be stable. PATCH releases for a MAJOR.MINOR are published as needed.
    
    Two release branches are maintained for OpenZFS, they are:
    
      * OpenZFS LTS - A designated MAJOR.MINOR release with periodic PATCH
        releases that incorporate important changes backported from newer OpenZFS
        releases. This branch is intended for use in environments using an
        LTS, enterprise, or similarly managed kernel (RHEL, Ubuntu LTS, Debian).
        Minor changes to support these distribution kernels will be applied as
        needed. New kernel versions released after the OpenZFS LTS release are
        not supported. LTS releases will receive patches for at least 2 years.
        The current LTS release is OpenZFS 2.1.
    
      * OpenZFS current - Tracks the newest MAJOR.MINOR release. This branch
        includes support for the latest OpenZFS features and recently releases
        kernels.  When a new MINOR release is tagged the previous MINOR release
        will no longer be maintained (unless it is an LTS release). New MINOR
        releases are planned to occur roughly annually.

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