This is a specific schedule for the release of FreeBSD &local.rel;. For + more general information about the release engineering process, + please see the Release + Engineering section of the web site.
+ +General discussions about the release engineering process or + quality assurance issues should be sent to the public freebsd-qa mailing list. + MFC + requests should be sent to re@FreeBSD.org.
+ +| Action | Expected | Actual | Description | +
| Reminder announcement | +30 Nov 2004 | +-- | +Release Engineers send announcement email to + developers@FreeBSD.org with a rough schedule for the FreeBSD + &local.rel; release. | +
| &local.rel;-BETA Testing Guide published | +-- | +-- | +A testing guide + should be published with information about recent changes and + areas of the system that should be thoroughly tested during the + pre-release/RC period. | +
| Announce the Ports Freeze | +-- | +-- | +Someone from portmgr@ should email + freebsd-ports@ and BCC: developers@ to set a date + for the week long ports freeze and tagging of the ports tree. | +
| &local.rel;-PRERELEASE | +6 Dec 2004 | +-- | +newvers.sh, and release.ent updated. | +
| Code freeze begins | +13 Dec 2004 | +-- | +After this date, all commits to the RELENG_4 branch + must be approved by re@FreeBSD.org. Certain highly + active documentation committers are exempt from this rule for + routine man page / release note updates. Heads-up emails + should be sent to the developers@, stable@ + and qa@ lists. | +
| RELENG_&local.rel.tag; branch | +27 Dec 2004 | +-- | +The release branch is created. | +
| Unfreeze the tree | +27 Dec 2004 | +-- | +Announcement to developers@ explaining that + commits to RELENG_4 no longer require approval. Also + note the policy for commits to the RELENG_&local.rel.tag; + branch. | +
| &local.rel;-RC | +27 Dec 2004 | +-- | +newvers.sh and release.ent updated. | +
| First release candidate | +3 Jan 2005 | +-- | +The first release candidate for the x86 and Alpha architecture is + released. ISO images should be uploaded to + ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. A network install directory should + be uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. The + packages/ directory should be a relative symlink, + as described in the releng article. When the builds begin send a note to + mirror-announce@FreeBSD.org + saying a "Normal Release Cycle" is beginning, RC ISOs and install + directories will be coming through the next few weeks. | +
| Heads up to -stable | +3 Jan 2005 | +-- | +A message should be sent to qa@FreeBSD.org and + stable@FreeBSD.org after the first snapshot is uploaded. | +
| Second release candidate | +10 Jan 2005 | +-- | +Note: the release date of this candidate depends on the user + experience with RC1. | +
| Heads up to -stable | +10 Jan 2005 | +-- | +A message should be sent to qa@FreeBSD.org and + stable@FreeBSD.org after the second snapshot is uploaded. | +
| Third release candidate | +17 Jan 2005 | +-- | +Note: the release date of this candidate depends on the user + experience with RC2. | +
| Heads up to -stable | +17 Jan 2005 | +-- | +A message should be sent to qa@FreeBSD.org and + stable@FreeBSD.org after the third snapshot is uploaded. | +
| Ports tree frozen | +-- | +-- | +Only approved commits will be permitted to the ports/ + tree during the freeze. | +
| Announce doc/ tree slush | +-- | +-- | +Notification of the impending doc/ tree slush should + be sent to doc@. | +
| doc/ tree slush | +-- | +-- | +Non-essential commits to the en_US.ISO8859-1/ subtree + should be delayed from this point until after the doc/ + tree tagging, to give translation teams time to synchronize + their work. | +
| Ports tree tagged | +-- | +-- | +RELEASE_&local.rel.tag;_0 tag for ports/. | +
| Ports tree unfrozen | +-- | +-- | +After the ports/ tree is tagged, + the ports/ tree will be re-opened for commits, but + commits made after tagging will not go in &local.rel;-RELEASE. | +
| Final package build starts | +-- | +-- | +The ports cluster and bento + build final packages. | +
| doc/ tree tagged. | +-- | +-- | +Version number bumps for doc/ subtree. + RELEASE_&local.rel.tag;_0 tag for doc/. doc/ + slush ends at this time. | +
| Version numbers bumped. | +20 Jan 2005 | +-- | +The files listed here + are updated to reflect the fact that this is FreeBSD &local.rel;. | +
| src tree tagged. | +20 Jan 2005 | +-- | +RELENG_&local.rel.tag;_0_RELEASE tag for src/. | +
| Final builds. | +20 Jan 2005 | +-- | +Final builds for x86 and Alpha in a pristine environment. | +
| Warn mirror-announce@FreeBSD.org | +21 Jan 2005 | +-- | +Heads up email to mirror-announce@FreeBSD.org + to give admins time to prepare for the load spike to come. The + site administrators have frequently requested advance notice for + new ISOs. | +
| Upload to ftp-master. | +22 Jan 2005 | +-- | +Release uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org (packages + should have been done before now, otherwise it chokes the mirror + sites and propagation of the release bits takes too long) | +
| Update man.cgi on the website. | +24 Jan 2005 | +-- | +Make sure the &local.rel; manual pages are being displayed by default + for the man->web gateway. Also make sure these man pages are + pointed to by docs.sgml. | +
| Announcement | +24 Jan 2005 | +-- | +Announcement sent out after a majority of the mirrors have + received the bits. | +
| Turn over to the secteam | +-- | +-- | +RELENG_&local.rel.tag; branch is handed over to + the FreeBSD Security Officer Team in one or two weeks after the announcement. | +