What Is a Maintenance Release?

A maintenance release (also called a minor release ) is a product release that does not add new features or content. For example, in computer software, maintenance releases usually address minor issues such as bug fixes or security issues.

Patches

Software version numbering refers to

Software version cycle refers to

The decimal point version is a maintenance release in a software project, especially if it only fixes bugs or cleans up the code in small areas instead of adding new features. In general, this version is released relatively frequently and is more common in open source projects.

Some retail software may frequently release decimal versions, but for users who have the latest full version, it may not be a free upgrade; and users of major versions, even previous versions, will almost always have to pay to upgrade. ^[2]