FreeBSD 4.10 Release Process

Introduction

This is a specific schedule for the release of FreeBSD 4.10. 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.

Schedule

Action	Expected	Actual	Description
Reminder announcement	30 Mar 2004	30 Mar 2004	Release Engineers send announcement email to developers@FreeBSD.org with a rough schedule for the FreeBSD 4.10 release.
4.10-BETA Testing Guide published	30 Mar 2004	30 Mar 2004	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	03 Apr 2004	03 Apr 2004	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.
4.10-BETA	7 Apr 2004	10 Apr 2004	newvers.sh, and release.ent updated.
Code freeze begins	7 Apr 2004	7 Apr 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_4_10 branch	20 Apr 2004	21 Apr 2004	The release branch is created.
Unfreeze the tree	20 Apr 2004	22 Apr 2004	Announcement to developers@ explaining that commits to RELENG_4 no longer require approval. Also note the policy for commits to the RELENG_4_10 branch.
4.10-RC	20 Apr 2004	24 Apr 2004	newvers.sh and release.ent updated.
First release candidate	21 Apr 2004	22 Apr 2004	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	21 Apr 2004	23 Apr 2004	A message should be sent to qa@FreeBSD.org and stable@FreeBSD.org after the first snapshot is uploaded.
Second release candidate	27 Apr 2004	2 May 2004	Note: the release date of this candidate depends on the user experience with RC1.
Heads up to -stable	28 Apr 2004	3 May 2004	A message should be sent to qa@FreeBSD.org and stable@FreeBSD.org after the second snapshot is uploaded.
Third release candidate	--	17 May 2004	Note: the release date of this candidate depends on the user experience with RC2.
Heads up to -stable	--	17 May 2004	A message should be sent to qa@FreeBSD.org and stable@FreeBSD.org after the third snapshot is uploaded.
Ports tree frozen	20 Apr 2004	20 Apr 2004	Only approved commits will be permitted to the ports/ tree during the freeze.
Announce doc/ tree slush	--	12 Apr 2004	Notification of the impending doc/ tree slush should be sent to doc@.
doc/ tree slush	17 Apr 2004	17 Apr 2004	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	27 Apr 2004	28 Apr 2004	RELEASE_4_10_0 tag for ports/.
Ports tree unfrozen	27 Apr 2004	28 Apr 2004	After the ports/ tree is tagged, the ports/ tree will be re-opened for commits, but commits made after tagging will not go in 4.10-RELEASE.
Final package build starts	--	--	The ports cluster and bento build final packages.
doc/ tree tagged.	24 Apr 2004	24 Apr 2004	Version number bumps for doc/ subtree. RELEASE_4_10_0 tag for doc/. doc/ slush ends at this time.
Version numbers bumped.	4 May 2004 22 May 2004	24 May 2004	The files listed here are updated to reflect the fact that this is FreeBSD 4.10.
Update man.cgi on the website.	4 May 2004 22 May 2004	25 May 2004	Make sure the 4.10 manual pages are being displayed by default for the man->web gateway. Also make sure these man pages are pointed to by docs.xml.
src tree tagged.	4 May 2004 22 May 2004	25 May 2004	RELENG_4_10_0_RELEASE tag for src/.
Final builds.	4 May 2004 22 May 2004	26 May 2004	Final builds for x86 and Alpha in a pristine environment.
Warn mirror-announce@FreeBSD.org	4 May 2004 23 May 2004	25 May 2004	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.	4 May 2004 23 May 2004	26 May 2004	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)
Announcement	5 May 2004 24 May 2004	27 May 2004	Announcement sent out after a majority of the mirrors have received the bits.
Turn over to the secteam	--	3 June 2004	RELENG_4_10 branch is handed over to the FreeBSD Security Officer Team in one or two weeks after the announcement.

Additional Information

• FreeBSD 4.10 developer todo list.
• FreeBSD 4.10 Quality Assurance Guide.
• FreeBSD Release Engineering website.
• FreeBSD busdma driver project page.

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