Suggested release plan...

[tomchristie]

Hey team. We still have a couple of remaining issues that we ought to address to get back to a neater clearer and more stable release process. Suggested release roadmap from here...

---

REST framework 3.15.3

(Date: ASAP)

• Revert or otherwise address UniqueConstraint validator regressions. (3.15 regression: Serializer validation failed for unique together constraint  #9358, 3.15 is raising required error on model nullable fields #9378, Issue with upgrade from 3.14 to 3.15.1, null values no longer allowed in POST #9410, List Serializer Breaks on Unique Constraint Validator #9484)
• Keep same Python/Django versions as 3.15.1. (3.15.2 includes two undocumented breaking changes #9450)

REST framework 3.16.0

(Date: ASAP)

• Support Django 5.1. (Add official support for Django 5.1 #9514)
• Drop support for Django < 4.2 and Python < 3.8. (Cleanup #9393)
• Drop deprecated AutoSchema._get_reference method. Currently marked as RemovedInDRF316Warning.

REST framework 3.17.0

(Date: T+6 months)

• Support Django 5.2
• Drop coreapi support throughout codebase. Currently marked as RemovedInDRF317Warning.

---

(Onwards... continue with a 6 monthly release cycle in line with new Django releases)

[browniebroke]

As Python 3.13 is just around the corner, should DRF wait for it to release 3.16?

I think support could be added in 3.16.1 (assuming no major changes), as Django sometimes add support to earlier versions, when the effort is acceptable.

EDIT: addressed in #9527

[browniebroke]

What is going to be the branching strategy for 3.15.3? I see 2 options:

1. Branch off 3.15.2 as e.g. stable/3.15.x (same as Django) to cherry pick the changes from master
2. Release it directly from master

There are a few changes in master that may be better of saving for 3.16, and reinstating older Python/Django versions (IMO) might be easier off master: no need to remove them again. Thoughts? A third option I missed?

[tomchristie]

To date we've just released everything from master.
Right now I'd suggest we don't make any changes there.

(Also. master Ugh. Let's switch up to main sometime...)