curl/docs/EXPERIMENTAL.md
Daniel Stenberg 7490d5488e
EXPERIMENTAL: add graduation requirements for each feature
Starting now, experimental features should have a set of documentated
requirements of what is needed for the feature to graduate.

This adds requirements to all existing experiments.

Closes #13541
2024-05-06 17:05:04 +02:00

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<!--
Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
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# Experimental
Some features and functionality in curl and libcurl are considered
**EXPERIMENTAL**.
Experimental support in curl means:
1. Experimental features are provided to allow users to try them out and
provide feedback on functionality and API etc before they ship and get
"carved in stone".
2. You must enable the feature when invoking configure as otherwise curl is
not built with the feature present.
3. We strongly advise against using this feature in production.
4. **We reserve the right to change behavior** of the feature without sticking
to our API/ABI rules as we do for regular features, as long as it is marked
experimental.
5. Experimental features are clearly marked so in documentation. Beware.
## Graduation
1. Each experimental feature should have a set of documented requirements of
what is needed for that feature to graduate. Graduation means being removed
from the list of experiments.
2. An experiment should NOT graduate if it needs test cases to be disabled,
unless they are for minor features that are clearly documented as not
provided by the experiment and then the disabling should be managed inside
each affected test case.
## Experimental features right now
### The Hyper HTTP backend
Graduation requirements:
- HTTP/1 and HTTP/2 support, including multiplexing
### HTTP/3 support (non-ngtcp2 backends)
Graduation requirements:
- The used libraries should be considered out-of-beta with a reasonable
expectation of a stable API going forward.
- Using HTTP/3 with the given build should perform without risking busy-loops
### The rustls backend
Graduation requirements:
- a reasonable expectation of a stable API going forward.
### WebSocket
Graduation requirements:
- feedback from users saying that the API works for their specific use cases
- unless the above happens, we consider WebSocket silently working by
September 2024 when it has been stewing as EXPERIMENTAL for two years.
## ECH
Use of the HTTPS resource record and Encrypted Client Hello (ECH) when using
DoH
Graduation requirements:
- ECH support exists in at least one widely used TLS library apart from
BoringSSL and wolfSSL.
- feedback from users saying that ECH works for their use cases
- it has been given time to mature, so no earlier than April 2025 (twelve
months after being added here)