Release Candidates

From time-to-time, Lighthouse release candidates will be published on the sigp/lighthouse repository. Release candidates are previously known as Pre-Releases. These releases have passed the usual automated testing, however the developers would like to see it running "in the wild" in a variety of configurations before declaring it an official, stable release. Release candidates are also used by developers to get feedback from users regarding the ergonomics of new features or changes.

Github will clearly show such releases as a "Pre-release" and they will not show up on sigp/lighthouse/releases/latest. However, release candidates will show up on the sigp/lighthouse/releases page, so please pay attention to avoid the release candidates when you're looking for stable Lighthouse.

From time to time, Lighthouse may use the terms "release candidate" and "pre release" interchangeably. A pre release is identical to a release candidate.

Examples

v1.4.0-rc.0 has rc in the version string and is therefore a release candidate. This release is not stable and is not intended for critical tasks on mainnet (e.g., staking).

However, v1.4.0 is considered stable since it is not marked as a release candidate and does not contain rc in the version string. This release is intended for use on mainnet.

When to use a release candidate

Users may wish to try a release candidate for the following reasons:

  • To preview new features before they are officially released.
  • To help detect bugs and regressions before they reach production.
  • To provide feedback on annoyances before they make it into a release and become harder to change or revert.

There can also be a scenario that a bug has been found and requires an urgent fix. An example of incidence is v4.0.2-rc.0 which contains a hot-fix to address high CPU usage experienced after the Capella upgrade on 12th April 2023. In this scenario, we will announce the release candidate on Github and also on Discord to recommend users to update to the release candidate version.

When not to use a release candidate

Other than the above scenarios, it is generally not recommended to use release candidates for any critical tasks on mainnet (e.g., staking). To test new release candidate features, try one of the testnets (e.g., Holesky).