Firebird: Firebird Roadmap

Last updated: December 2023.

This document states the current development activities of the project and establishes the estimated release schedule for the foreseeable future. It gets periodically updated in order to be in line with the reality.

The project's development resources are currently dedicated mostly to the v3.0 and v4.0 release series, with the Firebird 5.0 development recently started. Firebird v2.0 series has been discontinued in 2012, the last release in this series is Firebird 2.0.7. Firebird v2.1 series has been discontinued in 2014, the last release in this series is Firebird 2.1.7. Firebird v2.5 series has been discontinued in 2019, with Firebird 2.5.9 release being the last one.

For more details about the anticipated releases, read on.

Stable Releases

Firebird v4.0 (released in 2021) and v3.0 (released in 2016) are currently supported stable release series.

Series 4.0.x

Version series 4.0.x is the latest one released by the project and thus it has the highest priority in terms of the bug fixing, with updates scheduled quarterly. All kinds of bugfixes and performance improvements are possible inside its codebase, including ports to new platforms.

Key points:

Built-in logical replication;
Extended length of metadata identifiers (up to 63 characters);
New INT128 and DECFLOAT data types, longer precision for NUMERIC/DECIMAL data types;
Support for international time zones;
Configurable time-outs for connections and statements;
Pooling of external connections;
Batch operations in the API;
Built-in cryptographic functions;
New ODS (version 13) with new system and monitoring tables;
Maximum page size increased to 32KB;
Various SQL extensions.

The latest release currently available in this series is v4.0.4. Explore its download location or documentation.

v4.0.5 is the next point release to come, it's scheduled for Q2 2024. Follow the "Track Details" icon for a list of bugfixes scheduled for this version.

v4.0.5

Series 3.0.x

Version series 3.0.x is somewhat older and the more mature one, but it also actively collects bug fixes and performance improvements, with updates released half-yearly.

Key points:

Revised architecture, including new authentication and configuration subsystems;
Scalable (SMP/multi-core friendly) multi-threaded engine with the shared page cache;
New ODS (version 12) with new system and monitoring tables;
External (Java, C++, etc) stored procedures/triggers/functions;
Security enhancements;
Various SQL extensions.

The latest release currently available in this series is v3.0.11. Explore its download location or documentation.

The next point release is scheduled for Q2 2024. Follow the "Track Details" icon for a list of bugfixes scheduled for this version.

v3.0.12

New Development: version 5.0

Firebird 5.0 represents the project's next milestone release after v4.0, its development has been started in May 2021.

Firebird 5.0 Release Candidate 2 is the latest preview release. Use the "Track Details" icon to discover the list of tasks completed for v5.0 Release Candidate 2.

Daily v5.0 builds can be downloaded from the snapshot area.

v5.0 RC 2

Development

Popular

Manuais de referência

Firebird 5.0

Membership in Firebird Foundation

Firebird Roadmap