(resending this email in a modified version because the first attempt from about a week ago got filtered by the spam filter because the email contained a list of affected operator contact strings)
Hi,
according to tor's support policy [1] tor version 0.4.8.x reaches and of life 3 months after 0.4.9.x became stable.
The first tor 0.4.9.x stable release got published on 2026-02-12.
Would be great if someone with the necessary permissions could update the Tor Releases page, is has not seen any updates for a while: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/team/-/wikis/NetworkTeam/CoreTorRelea...
and maybe: * make a pre-announcement of the 0.4.8.x eol date on this mailing list / blog? * stop recommending versions one month before they become EoL [2] so people get some log entries in advance even if they don't read this mailing list / blog
The TROVE page could also be updated with regards to tor release 0.4.9.6 ("fixed in" column for lines TROVE-2026-003 and TROVE-2026-004) https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/team/-/wikis/NetworkTeam/TROVE
Below is a list of ~170 operators running >1 relays on tor version 0.4.8.x. If you are still running relays on tor version 0.4.8 consider upgrading before it reaches end of life.
If you are still using tor version 0.4.8.x clients consider upgrading today because tor 0.4.8.x does not support Happy Family and MyFamily does not allow large operators to declare all their relays in a single family. That means you run into the risk of using multiple relays from a single operator in a single circuit. By moving to tor 0.4.9.x clients you also help relay operators and the entire tor network because that helps us with deprecating MyFamily.
kind regards, nusenu
[1] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/team/-/wikis/NetworkTeam/SupportPolic... [2] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/network-health/team/-/issues/443#note_3391...
related gitlab issues: Stop recommending tor client versions that do not support Happy Families: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/network-health/team/-/issues/447
tor network stats for relays running tor version 0.4.8.x as of 2026-04-13: relays count: 2249 exit probability: 11% guard probability: 29% kind regards, nusenu -- https://nusenu.github.io