Khronos OpenGL Specification Update Policy

This page describes policy of the Khronos OpenGL Working Group for updating API and Shading Language Specification documents, as well as extension documents.

This policy was last updated on 2019-03-13.

Specification Updates

The current core (OpenGL 4.6, OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenGL SC 2.0, GLSL 4.60, GLSL ES 3.20, and GLX 1.4) documents are updated in response to issues and bugs the OpenGL Working Group considers priorities. The update frequency is irregular and dependent on the accumulated backlog of issues, up to several times per year.

While Khronos publishes older (non-current) Specifications such as OpenGL 4.5 or OpenGL ES 3.0, such Specifications are usually not updated in response to issues and bugs unless there's a compelling reason. One such compelling reason has been to update older OpenGL ES Specifications on which WebGL is based, in response to requests from the WebGL Working Group.

Extension Updates

Khronos-approved (ARB, OES, or KHR vendor suffixed) extensions are usually updated when corresponding changes are made to a core Specification, but with some time lag.

This is a recent policy. Older bug fixes to core Specifications have not always been back-ported to the corresponding extensions, and we are unlikely to perform this exercise for closed issues and bugs without compelling reason.

We will tag each Khronos-approved extension with a link to this policy document and a recommendation to refer to the current core Specification for the latest wording.