One more comment on the development cycle -- Releases occur twice per year. Each represents approximately four months of heavy development, then two months of heavy testing. During the test period, development is intentionally cut back -- new functionality is effectively excluded. Patches continue for break/fix.
So, taking 5.4 as an example, development work began in February, about two months before 5.3 was released. and ceased in June, while break/fix patches continued into July and August.
From a support perspective, 5.4 is currently unsupported. Bug reports will not be accepted against 5.4-release until the day of release. Support for 5.4 will continue with patches in the -stable branch (and any major patches published as errata), until the release of 5.6, which is expected on or about November 1, 2014.
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