Branch history #

This page explains how the Exponential repositories use branches and tags: where development happens, how a release is made, which lines are maintained, and which branch or tag to build a site on. The last section keeps the branches of the original SVN repository, from the years when the software was called eZ Publish.

Every branch and tag named here was checked against the repositories on GitHub on 2026-10-18. Branches and tags move on; the commands under each heading show the current state.

In short #

The kernel repository #

github.com/se7enxweb/exponential holds the kernel, the administration designs, the bundled extensions (ezjscore, ezoe, ezformtoken, expservices) and this documentation.

main, the only long-lived branch #

main is the default branch of 6.0, where all work lands. It identifies itself as 6.0.15 (lib/version.php) and carries the changes of Changelog 6.0.15. For Composer it is dev-main, with the branch alias 6.0.x-dev, so packages that require the kernel with a version constraint such as ^6.0.14 resolve against it.

All work reaches main in the same way:

1. A change starts on a short-lived branch (a feature, a fix, or one wave of related work), in a fork or in the repository.
2. The branch is proposed as a pull request against main.
3. Every pull request is merged, as a merge commit. While it is open, its author squashes it and rebases it onto main as the reviews ask; once it is merged, main is never rewritten, and a later fix comes as a new pull request, so main stays safe.
4. The branch is deleted or simply left behind; nothing else is merged from it.

git log --merges origin/main lists the merges. Commits by project authors start with Added:, Updated:, Fixed:, Removed: or Renamed:, which is what the changelogs are assembled from.

The checks on every push and pull request #

GitHub Actions runs the same blocking checks on a push to main and on a pull request (on the merge of the branch into main). Quality checks describes each one; in short:

On a pull request, a stale manifest line and a contributor's commit message are warnings; the person who merges refreshes the manifest on main. Before you push lists the commands that run the blocking checks locally.

Release tags #

A release is a tag on a commit of main, named v6.0.<n>. Each one has a changelog page in doc/changelogs/6.0 (for example Changelog 6.0.14) and a release on GitHub Releases:

A tag is permanent. Composer and Packagist read it once, and a "corrected" tag would give two different packages the same version number. A mistake in a release is fixed by the next release. Sort tags by version, never by name (v6.0.10 sorts before v6.0.8 by name):

git fetch --tags
git tag -l 'v*' --sort=version:refname | tail -5

Release branches #

Next to main, the repository keeps one branch per release from 6.0.7 on: 6.0.7 to 6.0.14. From 6.0.8 on, each points at the commit of its tag; 6.0.7 has later commits than v6.0.7. They are a record of each release, not a place where development continues; a fix goes to main and into the next release.

A few older branches are left from the start of the 6.0 line (6.0.0-beta2, 6.0.1-beta1, 6.0.8-devel), and some topic branches from pull requests that were merged long ago. None of them is maintained.

git ls-remote --heads https://github.com/se7enxweb/exponential.git

Release lines #

The release history lists the releases from 2.9 to 6.0.15 with their dates and sources.

Extension repositories #

Each extension that Exponential installs with Composer lives in its own repository under github.com/se7enxweb. On 2026-10-18 the kernel's composer.json required 66 of them:

• 34 have master as their default branch and 32 have main; it is the development line in both cases.
• Releases are tags, mostly with a v (eztags v2.4.21, explayouts v1.4.39); a few have none (cjw_newsletter 4.2.12, enhancedselection2 2.1.8, birthday 1.3.3, ngclasslist 1.1.4, exponential-legacy-installer 2.2.4).
• The kernel requires each one with a tilde constraint on its current release, such as ~2.4.21, which also accepts the later releases of the same line (2.4.22 and on).
• Each release raises the version in the extension's ezinfo.php and extension.xml to the release's number in the commit that is tagged, so an installed copy says which release it is.

The extensions bundled with the kernel carry their own version: ezjscore is released at the same time as its mirror se7enxweb/ezjscore (both 1.8.4).

To see an extension's branches and tags:

git ls-remote --heads --tags https://github.com/se7enxweb/eztags.git

Velocity and the platform distributions #

Read a repository's default branch and newest releases with the GitHub CLI:

gh api repos/se7enxweb/exponential-platform-nexus --jq .default_branch
gh release list -R se7enxweb/exponential-platform-nexus --limit 5

Which branch or tag to build a site on #

Develop with Git shows how to install the kernel and the extensions as Git clones, start a branch for your site, keep it up to date and send a fix back as a pull request. Versions, tags and branches lists which release needs which PHP version.

Historical branches (original SVN, 3.x) #

The original repository was SVN, where a branch was a directory: stable/3.x for the maintenance of a release line and unstable/... for development work. A branch started at a revision ("Revision") and, when it was closed, ended at a final revision. These branches are not in the Git repository; the release tags of the same years are.

Stable branches #

Development branches #

The datatype branch was merged into the trunk in revision 2714; the release history has its record and the releases of the 3.x and 4.x lines.

The whole story of the code, from eZ publish in 1999 to Exponential today, is told in History of Exponential (1999 - 2026).