Configurations of components are maintained by releasing editions of components to the enclosing component. When a software component edition is maintaining a configuration of parts, releasing a part updates the referenced edition of the part. Releasing can modify only a component edition. Once a component has been versioned, its configurations cannot be modified.

Releasing determines what gets loaded into an image. Once a component edition is released into some other component, the released edition gets loaded when the enclosing component is loaded.

When lineups are being used, releasing applies to each lineup. If an application or configuration map has more than one lineup, you release separately for each lineup.

In general, it does not matter whether the component to be released is an edition or a version. For example, an application edition can be released to a configuration map edition. There is one major exception to this rule: classes can be released only to their containing application after being versioned. The reason is that classes change quite often, so releasing class editions could result in a very unstable application.

A component cannot be versioned until all of its released subcomponents have been versioned. This applies to all configurations that reflect containment relationships. The same does not apply to application prerequisites or required maps for configuration maps.

See Releasing components for information on how to release components.