Basic documentation for the release cycle. (#11954)

changelog.d/11954.doc

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add information on the Synapse release cycle.

docs/SUMMARY.md

@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@
 # Development
   - [Contributing Guide](development/contributing_guide.md)
   - [Code Style](code_style.md)
+  - [Release Cycle](development/releases.md)
   - [Git Usage](development/git.md)
   - [Testing]()
   - [OpenTracing](opentracing.md)

docs/development/releases.md

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+# Synapse Release Cycle
+
+Releases of Synapse follow a two week release cycle with new releases usually
+occurring on Tuesdays:
+
+* Day 0: Synapse `N - 1` is released.
+* Day 7: Synapse `N` release candidate 1 is released.
+* Days 7 - 13: Synapse `N` release candidates 2+ are released, if bugs are found.
+* Day 14: Synapse `N` is released.
+
+Note that this schedule might be modified depending on the availability of the
+Synapse team, e.g. releases may be skipped to avoid holidays.
+
+Release announcements can be found in the
+[release category of the Matrix blog](https://matrix.org/blog/category/releases).
+
+## Bugfix releases
+
+If a bug is found after release that is deemed severe enough (by a combination
+of the impacted users and the impact on those users) then a bugfix release may
+be issued. This may be at any point in the release cycle.
+
+## Security releases
+
+Security will sometimes be backported to the previous version and released
+immediately before the next release candidate. An example of this might be:
+
+* Day 0: Synapse N - 1 is released.
+* Day 7: Synapse (N - 1).1 is released as Synapse N - 1 + the security fix.
+* Day 7: Synapse N release candidate 1 is released (including the security fix).
+
+Depending on the impact and complexity of security fixes, multiple fixes might
+be held to be released together.
+
+In some cases, a pre-disclosure of a security release will be issued as a notice
+to Synapse operators that there is an upcoming security release. These can be
+found in the [security category of the Matrix blog](https://matrix.org/blog/category/security).