FreeBSD 4.11 Errata Processing Policy

Introduction

The following is the general policy for submitting requests to have Errata Fixes applied to FreeBSD 4.11.

Procedures

The Errata fixes will be applied by a member of the Release Engineering Team, coordinating the fix with the Security Officer who owns the branch. An Errata Notice will also be issued. The Release Engineering Team may choose to handle several Errata with one Errata Notice if several are being processed at roughly the same time.

Policy

Errata Candidates

The classification of things that are Errata candidates are things that are severe service-disrupting bugs for which there is no known work-around. Things like bugs in device drivers that impair their expected functionality, things that can cause kernel panics, etc.

Initial Patch

During the initial phases the fix for Errata should be handled exactly like any other fix. It should initially be committed to HEAD if possible and go through the normal testing period there. The fix should then be MFCed as usual. Since HEAD and RELENG_5 have become dramatically different from RELENG_4 in many areas this may not be possible, and the initial commit may need to be applied straight to RELENG_4. At this point if you feel a fix is an Errata Notice candidate please contact the Release Engineering Team to make them aware of it.

The fix should then sit in RELENG_4 for one to two weeks. During this period please try to have the fix reviewed by another senior Developer familiar with the section of the code you are working with. You should also get confirmation that the fix solves the problem from someone who had reported the problem. Assuming no problems come up during this testing period then send in the formal request to re@FreeBSD.org. Please include the patch that will need to be applied to 4.11 and who has reviewed the fix.

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