How CoreCP versions work

CoreCP has one version number. It sits at the bottom left of the panel, under the logo, and it is the same number for the panel and for the software running on your servers. A support question starts with that number, so this page explains what it means and where to find it.

It was not always one. Until version 0.50 the panel had a number of its own and the server software had another — 0.21 against 0.40, for exactly the same release. Anyone who saw the two side by side had to be told they were the same thing first. From 0.50.0 there is one number, and it belongs to a rollout that updates the whole platform together.

What the three digits mean

A version looks like 0.51.2. From left to right:

• The first digit only moves for a change that costs hand work on your servers. That is rare, and it is announced well in advance.
• The second digit is the ordinary weekly release. It carries everything that was finished that week: new screens, improvements, fixed faults.
• The third digit is a repair in between. It never contains anything new — only the fix for something that was broken. That is deliberate: a repair you install in a hurry should be as small and as dull as possible.

In conversation "0.51" means 0.51.0. And if the first digit ever reaches 1, no rule changes with it: it is the announcement that the platform has left its build-up phase.

Numbers with a tail

Sometimes something follows the number. It says how far along a release is:

The order holds for the package manager on your server too: a staging build sorts below the candidate, and the candidate below the release. That is what stops a server from falling back onto something that merely looks newer than it is.

On your own servers you should normally see only the third kind. A ~dev or ~rc on a server that is serving customers means a rollout went wrong somewhere, and it is worth reporting.

Where to find the number

It is in two places in the panel:

1. Bottom left in the sidebar, under your platform's name. It is a link: it opens What changed, with the release notes of every version and the one you are running at the top.
2. Platform → General. There the number is shown with the word for the kind of build it is: Release, Release candidate or Development build.

Servers no longer have a number of their own to show. A server's page tells you which version is running there, and during a rollout you see per server whether it has taken the new one yet.

When a new version arrives

Every Monday a candidate is made of everything that is finished. It runs for a day or two on the test setup. On Tuesday you read the release record — a short page saying what is in it and what was measured — and on Wednesday it is rolled out, the panel first and then the servers in waves.

There are two shorter routes beside that. A patch can go out on any working day and carries the fix for one problem and nothing else. An emergency release is for a hole that is actively being exploited, for threatened data loss, or for an outage that takes the platform down; it goes out as fast as it can and is put through the full check afterwards anyway. Friday, Saturday and Sunday have no ordinary rollout.

From the terminal

On a server the CoreCP software says which version it is:

corectl --version

corectl 0.51.0

And what your server's package manager makes of it — this is the number an update uses to decide whether anything newer exists:

dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}\n' corecp-agent

0.51.0

If you are unsure whether one number is newer than another, ask:

dpkg --compare-versions 0.51.0~rc.1 lt 0.51.0 && echo "the candidate sorts below the release"

the candidate sorts below the release

See also

• What changed in the panel: the release notes, version by version.
• Which versions we offer — a different question: which PHP, MariaDB and Node series you can choose on your servers, and how long each is supported.
• Managing releases — how a new version reaches your servers: channels, waves and rolling back.