The Apache CloudStack project is changing how it numbers releases. The release that would have been 4.24 will be released as 24. The "4." prefix is gone.
What changes
· The next feature release is 24, with the full version 24.0.0
· Maintenance releases on that branch become 24.1.0, 24.2.0, and so on
· Feature releases after that become 25, 26, 27
· The branch is called 24, packages and tarballs will say 24.0.0
What does not change
· 4.23 is not affected. It was released as planned under the old scheme
· The release cadence stays the same
· The LTS policy stays the same
· The branching and release process stays the same
· The backwards compatibility guarantees stay the same
Dropping the "4." is not a signal that 24 breaks APIs or brings disruptive changes. It is a naming change and nothing else.
Why
The leading "4." has not meant anything for years. We have not had a 5.0, and there was never a plan for one. In practice everybody already talks about "4.20" as twenty, and about "4.22" as twenty two. The docs, the branch names, the release notes and the mailing list all work that way.
So the version we publish now matches the version people actually use. It also removes a question that kept coming back, which is what a major version bump would even mean for CloudStack.
What you may need to check
· If you have tooling, scripts or monitoring that parses the CloudStack version and assumes it starts with "4.", update it. A version can now be three numbers, such as 24.0.0
· Repository paths and package names will use 24.x once 24.0.0 is out
· The upgrade path itself is unchanged. Upgrading from 4.23 to 24 works the same way any other upgrade does
How this was decided
This was a vote on the dev@cloudstack.apache.org mailing list. It opened on 14 August 2026, closed on 21 August 2026, and passed by lazy majority with four binding votes in favour, one non binding vote in favour, one abstention and one against.
You can read the full thread here: VOTE Version naming: drop the "4." prefix starting with release 24
The version change has been made on the main branch. We will also talk about it at the CloudStack Collaboration Conference in November, so there is a chance to ask questions in person.
If anything is unclear, ask on the users or dev mailing list. We would rather answer it now than have people confused about which release they are running.