---
title: Deprecation
description: The Hugo project follows a formal and consistent process to deprecate functions, methods, and configuration settings.
categories: [troubleshooting]
keywords: []
menu:
  docs:
    parent: troubleshooting
    weight: 50
weight: 50
---

When a project _deprecates_ something, they are telling its users:

1. Don't use Thing One anymore.
2. Use Thing Two instead.
3. We're going to remove Thing One at some point in the future.

[reasons for deprecation]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deprecation

Common [reasons for deprecation]:

- A feature has been replaced by a more powerful alternative.
- A feature contains a design flaw.
- A feature is considered extraneous, and will be removed in the future in order to simplify the system as a whole.
- A future version of the software will make major structural changes, making it impossible or impractical to support older features.
- Standardization or increased consistency in naming.
- A feature that once was available only independently is now combined with its co-feature.

After the project team deprecates something in code, Hugo will:

1. Log an INFO message for 6 minor releases[^1]
2. Log a WARN message for another 6 minor releases
3. Log an ERROR message and fail the build thereafter

To see the INFO messages, you must use the `--logLevel` command line flag:

```text
hugo --logLevel info
```

To limit the output to deprecation notices:

```text
hugo --logLevel info | grep deprecate
```

Run the above command every time you upgrade Hugo.

[^1]: For example, v0.1.1 => v0.2.0 is a minor release.