# Support Information

## Supported Platforms

For Botan 2, the tier-1 supported platforms are

- Linux x86-64, GCC 4.8 or higher

- Linux x86-64, Clang 3.5 or higher

- Linux aarch64, GCC 4.8+

- Linux ppc64le, GCC 4.8+

- Windows x86-64, Visual C++ 2015 and 2017

These platforms are all tested by continuous integration, and the developers have access to hardware in order to test patches. Problems affecting these platforms are considered release blockers.

For Botan 2, the tier-2 supported platforms are

- Linux x86-32, GCC 4.8+

- Linux arm32, GCC 4.8+

- Windows x86-64, MinGW GCC

- macOS x86-64, XCode Clang

- iOS aarch64, XCode Clang

- Android aarch64, NDK Clang

- FreeBSD x86-64, Clang 3.8+

Some (but not all) of the tier-2 platforms are tested by CI. Everything should work, and if problems are encountered, the developers will probably be able to help. But they are not as carefully tested as tier-1.

Of course most other modern OSes such as QNX, AIX, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and Solaris also work just fine. Some are tested occasionally, usually just before a new release. But very little code specific to these platforms is written by the primary developers. For example, any functionality in the library which utilizes OpenBSD specific APIs was likely contributed by someone interested in that platform.

In theory any working C++11 compiler is fine but in practice, we only regularly test with GCC, Clang, and Visual C++. Recent versions of IBM XLC can compile the library but occasionally codegen bugs occur. Several other compilers (such as Intel and PGI) are supported by the build system but are not tested by the developers and may have build or codegen problems. Patches to improve support for these compilers is welcome.

## Branch Support Status

Following table provides the support status for Botan branches as of August 2018. Any branch not listed here (including 1.11) is no longer supported. Dates in the future are approximate.

Branch | First Release | End of Active Development | End of Life
--- | --- | --- | ---
1.8 | 2008-12-08 | 2010-08-31 | 2016-02-13
1.10 | 2011-06-20 | 2012-07-10 | 2018-12-31
2.x | 2017-01-06 | 2020? | 2022 or later
3.x | 2020? | ? | ?

“Active development” refers to adding new features and optimizations. At the conclusion of the active development phase, only bugfixes are applied.

## Getting Help

To get help with Botan, open an issue on GitHub