rails release history

Ruby on Rails Version History

by Daniel Kehoe

Last updated 9 November 2016

A history of Ruby on Rails versions with summaries and advice.

If You Are New to Rails

If you’re new to Rails, see What is Ruby on Rails?, the book Learn Ruby on Rails, and recommendations for a Rails tutorial.

From the RailsApps Project

This is an article from the RailsApps project. The RailsApps project provides open source applications and detailed tutorials for Rails developers.

For Rails installation instructions or upgrade advice, see the articles:

Stay Informed

The railsdiff.org site shows differences between versions of the Rails default application.

These two weekly email newsletters will keep you informed about new Rails releases:

Another weekly email newsletter is more technical, and focused on code arriving in the next version of Rails:

This Week in Rails

You also can follow @rails_apps on Twitter for news.

Rails 5.0

Rails 5.0.0 was released June 30, 2016.

Notable additions in Rails 5.0 include an option for an API-only application suitable for use as a backend to JavaScript or mobile applications. Also Action Cable for live features such as chat and notifications.

Learn more about Rails 5.0:

What You Need to Know: Rails 5.0 is the current stable version. Upgrade older projects to Rails 5.0 now. See the article Updating to Rails 5.0 and Upgrading to Rails 5 Beta.

Rails 4.2

Rails 4.2.0 was released December 20, 2014. Notable additions in Rails 4.2 include Active Job for queueing tasks to run separately from the user request-response cycle.

Learn more about Rails 4.2:

What You Need to Know: Rails 4.2 is the current stable version. Upgrade older projects to Rails 4.2 now.

Rails 4.2 Release History

Rails 4.2.5 was released November 12, 2015. See Rails 4.2.5 and 4.1.14 have been released
Rails 4.2.4 was released August 24, 2015. See Rails 4.2.4 and 4.1.13 have been released.
Rails 4.2.3 was released June 25, 2015. See Rails 4.2.3 and 4.1.12 have been released.
Rails 4.2.2 was released June 16, 2015. See Rails 3.2.22, 4.1.11 and 4.2.2 have been released and more.
Rails 4.2.1 was released March 19, 2015. See Rails 4.2.1 and 4.1.10 have been released.
Rails 4.2.0 was released December 20, 2014. See Rails 4.2: Active Job, Asynchronous Mails, Adequate Record, Web Console, Foreign Keys.
Rails 4.2.0.rc2 was released December 5, 2014. See Rails 4.2.0.rc2 has been released.
Rails 4.2.0.rc1 was released November 28, 2014. See Rails 4.2.0.rc1 has been released.
Rails 4.2.0.beta1 was released August 20, 2014. See Rails 4.2 Release Announcement.

Rails 4.1

Rails 4.1.0 was released April 8, 2014. Two release candidates were released beginning February 18, 2014. See Rails 4.1.0 for a description.

Learn more about Rails 4.1:

What You Need to Know: The biggest change in Rails 4.1 is the new config/secrets.yml file.

Rails 4.1 Release History

Rails 4.1.8 was released November 16, 2014 with a security fix. See announcement
Rails 4.1.7 was released October 29, 2014 with a security fix. See announcement
Rails 4.1.6 was released September 11, 2014 with bug fixes. See announcement.
Rails 4.1.5 was released August 18, 2014 with a security fix. See announcement.
Rails 4.1.4 was released July 2, 2014 with a patch for a regression introduced in the previous release. See announcement.
Rails 4.1.3 was released July 2, 2014 with a security fix. See announcement.
Rails 4.1.2 was released June 26, 2014 with bug fixes. See announcement.
Rails 4.1.1 was released May 6, 2014 with a security fix. See announcement.
Rails 4.1.0 was released April 8, 2014. See Rails 4.1.0.
Rails 4.1.0.rc2 was released March 25, 2014. See Rails 4.1.0: Release candidate 2.
Rails 4.1.0.rc1 was released February 18, 2014. See Rails 4.1.0: Release candidate 1.
Rails 4.1.0.beta2 was released February 18, 2014. See Rails 3.2.17, 4.0.3 and 4.1.0.beta2 have been released!.
Rails 4.1.0.beta1 was released December 17, 2013. See Rails 4.1.0.beta1.

Rails 4.0

Rails 4.0 was released June 25, 2013. Two release candidates were released beginning April 29, 2013. The Rails 4.0: Beta 1 release announcement offers an overview of new features.

You can learn more about Rails 4.0:

Ebook: Andy Lindeman Upgrading to Rails 4
Ebook: Philip De Smedt Upgrade to Rails 4
Blog post: Mario Chavez Upgrading a Rails application to 4.0
Script: Michael de Silva upgrade_rails_3.2.12_to_4.0.0.beta1
Video: Code School Rails 4: Zombie Outlaws
Article: RailsGuides Upgrading from Rails 3.2 to Rails 4.0 (work-in-progress document)

What You Need to Know: The biggest changes are the use of strong parameters, which requires rewriting controller methods that process forms, and Turbolinks, which requires rewriting JavaScript code that depends on page loading.

Rails 4.0 Release History

Rails 4.0.4 was released March 14, 2014 with bug fixes. See Rails 4.0.4 has been released!.
Rails 4.0.3 was released February 18, 2014 with security fixes. See Rails 3.2.17, 4.0.3 and 4.1.0.beta2 have been released!.
Rails 4.0.2 was released December 3, 2013 with security fixes. See Rails 3.2.16 and 4.0.2 have been released!.
Rails 4.0.1 was released November 1, 2013 with performance gains and many bug fixes. See Rails 4.0.1 has been released!.
Rails 4.0.0 was released June 25, 2013. See Rails 4.0: Final version released!.

Rails 3.2

Rails 3.2 was released January 20, 2012. Improvements over Rails 3.1 include faster execution in development mode. The speed of resolving routes also improved. There are many tiny (but helpful) improvements throughout the framework. Rails 3.2 deprecates plugins so you must find Ruby gems to replace any plugins used in earlier Rails projects. You can use Ruby 1.8.7 but you should use Ruby 1.9.3 or Ruby 2.0. See the Rails 3.2.0 Announcement and Ruby on Rails 3.2 Release Notes (with upgrade instructions). There’s a Railscast from Ryan Bates titiled Upgrading to Rails 3.2. Michael Hartl’s popular Ruby on Rails Tutorial book covers Rails 3.2 (Ruby on Rails Tutorial Version 3.2). Finally, José Valim highlights his Five Favorite ‘Hidden’ features in Rails 3.2.

What You Need to Know: Rails 3.2.16 is far more secure than earlier versions. If an application uses an older version of Rails, you should update to Rails 3.2.16 immediately and then begin an upgrade to Rails 4.0.

Rails 3.2 Release History

Rails 3.2.17 was released February 18, 2014 with security fixes. See Rails 3.2.17, 4.0.3 and 4.1.0.beta2 have been released!.
Rails 3.2.16 was released December 3, 2013 with security fixes. See Rails 3.2.16 and 4.0.2 have been released!.
Rails 3.2.15 was released October 16, 2013 with security fixes. See Rails 3.2.15 has been released!.
Rails 3.2.14 was released July 22, 2013 with many minor bug fixes. See Rails 3.2.14 has been released.
Rails 3.2.13 was released March 18, 2013 with security fixes plus patches to assure that all Rails 3.2 projects run with Ruby 2.0. See Rails 3.2.13.rc1 has been released and Rails 3.2.13, 3.1.12, and 2.3.18 have been released.
Rails 3.2.12 was released February 11, 2013 with an “update immediately” security fix. See Rails 3.2.12, 3.1.11, and 2.3.17 have been released.
Rails 3.2.11 was released January 8, 2013 with an “upgrade right now!” security fix. Security researcher HD Moore called it, “The worst security issue that the Rails platform has seen to date” (details and discussion). If you’re running any earlier version of Rails, your application and its server are vulnerable to attack and the exploit code is readily available. See Rails 3.2.11, 3.1.10, 3.0.19, and 2.3.15 have been released and a preliminary Analysis of Rails XML Parameter Parsing Vulnerability.
Rails 3.2.10 was released January 2, 2013 with a fix for a Rails SQL injection vulnerability. See Rails 3.2.10, 3.1.9, and 3.0.18 have been released
Rails 3.2.9 was released November 12, 2012 with many small bug fixes. See Rails version 3.2.9 has been released.
Rails 3.2.8 was released August 9, 2012 with a security fix that potentially impacts all users. See Rails version 3.2.8 has been released.
Rails 3.2.7 was released July 26, 2012 with a security fix for digest authentication plus various minor fixes. See Rails version 3.2.7 has been released.
Rails 3.2.6 was released June 12, 2012 with two important security fixes. See Rails version 3.2.6 has been released.
Rails 3.2.5 was released June 1, 2012 to correct a regression in Rails 3.2.4. See Rails version 3.2.5 has been released.
Rails 3.2.4 was released May 31, 2012 with minor bug fixes plus two important security fixes. See Rails version 3.2.4 has been released.
Rails 3.2.3 was released March 31, 2012 with improved protection from mass assignment vulnerabilities. See the Rails 3.2.3 Announcement.
Rails 3.2.2 was released March 1, 2012 with some minor bug fixes plus two important security fixes. See the Rails 3.2.2 Announcement.
Rails 3.2.1 was released January 26, 2012 with some minor fixes. See Ruby on Rails v3.2.1 Changelogs.

Rails 3.1

Rails 3.1.0 was released August 31, 2011. Eight release candidates were released beginning May 21, 2011. Rails 3.1 introduced the asset pipeline which enables proper organization of CSS and JavaScript. Other features include HTTP streaming, default jQuery, reversible migrations, mountable engines, identity map, prepared statements, Rack::Cache on by default, forced SSL, role-based mass-assignment protection, has_secure_password, and custom serializers. See the Rails 3.1 release candidate announcement for details. There’s a Rails 3.1 Overview from Ryan Bates and a changelog for all the details. Yehuda Katz explains What’s Up With All These Changes in Rails?. The best overview of Rails 3.1 is Michael Hartl’s chapter on Rails 3.1 in his Ruby on Rails Tutorial book.

What You Need to Know: The greatest impact for developers moving from Rails 3.0 to 3.1 is the new location for CSS and JavaScript files and changes to the application layout file. See the official Rails 3.1 Asset Pipeline guide for details.