A release candidate (RC) is a version that the developers consider feature-complete and ready to ship unless critical bugs appear. It follows the beta stage and precedes the final release.
Why it matters
RCs are the last chance to catch problems with real-world use. Teams test them against their own setups, such as plugins, integrations, and deployments, so surprises are found before general release. If no blocking bug appears, the same build becomes the official release; if one does, a new RC is issued.
RC numbering such as rc.1 and rc.2 shows how many candidates were needed.
Example
$ pip install --pre "somepackage==3.0.0rc1"The command installs a pre-release in a test environment. After checks pass, the team waits for the final 3.0.0.
Common mistakes
- Running an RC in production because it looks finished.
- Reporting issues without version and environment details.
- Assuming the final release is always identical to the RC.
Related
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