Mark,
On 1/27/26 12:40 PM, Mark Thomas wrote:
I am expecting Tomcat 12 to be released - or get close to release - in
the next 12 months. Following our usual pattern, that means we'd
deprecate 9.0.x around the same time.
The first 9.0.x release was November 2015 with the first stable release
in January 2018.
We have previously discussed various forms of extended Tomcat 9 support
because it is the last Tomcat version that supports that Java EE API.
With the above in mind, I'd like to propose the following:
- Set EOL for 9.0.x as 31 March 2027
- Plan for 9.1.x releases to start in April 2027
- 9.1.x to different from 9.0.x in the following ways (all aligned with
10.1.x):
- No APR support
- Require Tomcat Native 2.x (was 1.3.x)
- Minimum Java version is 11
I like this: it's basically Java EE 8 except with a higher Java version
requirement.
Other, minor, enhancements may be back-ported from 10.1.x to 9.1.x.
Ideally, 9.1.x becomes 10.1x but with the Java EE API.
All of the above to be announced in around a month's time.
Thoughts?
While I do like this plan, I think a lot of people are going to freak
out. Migrating from 9.0.167 -> 9.1.0 even though it will be exactly like
migrating from 9.0.167 to 9.0.168 will feel dangerous even when it's
not. (Unless you are still running Java 8. It's insane that Java 8
support continues through 2030.)
Would it be crazy to release the first version of 9.1.x as 9.1.168
instead of 9.1.0? Yeah, probably.
I think it would make some sense to take some time and document what the
likely big changes are for someone wanting to make the jump from Tomcat
9 to Tomcat 10.1/11/12/future in the presence of the Migration Tool.
Sure, your code will RUN but where are the gotchas? Deprecated APIs that
either return null now where they returned useful data in the past, or
that throw UnsupportedOperationException now because, well, they are
unsupported.
I'd prefer to encourage everyone to migrate from Tomcat 9 -> Tomcat 12
rather than jut an incremental migration to Tomcat 9.1. (I say this as a
Tomcat 9 user who has only been toying with automated migration... which
is working swimmingly, I must admit.)
-chris
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