FreeBSD 6.1 Release Process

Introduction

This is a specific schedule for the release of FreeBSD 6.1. 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	--	25 January 2006	Release Engineers send announcement email to developers with a rough schedule for the FreeBSD 6.1 release.
Code freeze begins	31 January 2006	31 January 2006	After this date, all commits to HEAD 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, as well as stable@ and qa@ lists.
Announce the Ports Freeze	--	5 February 2006	Someone from portmgr@ should email freebsd-ports@ to set a date for the week long ports freeze and tagging of the ports tree.
Begin 6.1-BETA1 builds	5 February 2006	5 February 2006	Begin building the first public test release build for all Tier-1 platforms.
Release 6.1-BETA1	5 February 2006	5 February 2006	6.1-BETA1 tier-1 platform images built, released, and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org.
Begin 6.1-BETA2 builds	19 February 2006	16 February 2006	Begin building the second public test release build for all Tier-1 platforms.
Release 6.1-BETA2	19 February 2006	20 February 2006	6.1-BETA2 tier-1 platform images built, released, and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org.
Ports tree frozen	20 February 2006	23 February 2006	Only approved commits will be permitted to the ports/ tree during the freeze.
Begin 6.1-BETA3 builds	--	1 March 2006	Begin building the third public test release build for all Tier-1 platforms.
Release 6.1-BETA3	--	3 March 2006	6.1-BETA3 tier-1 platform images built, released, and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org.
Begin 6.1-BETA4 builds	12 March 2006	13 March 2006	Begin building the fourth public test release build for all Tier-1 platforms.
Release 6.1-BETA4	--	14 March 2006	6.1-BETA4 tier-1 platform images built, released, and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org.
RELENG_6_1 branch	5 March 2006 5 April 2006	5 April 2006	The new major version branch is created. Update newvers.sh and release.ent on various branches involved.
src/ unfrozen	TBD	--	Unfreeze RELENG_6 src. Continue to coordinate significant check-ins with re@FreeBSD.org until the release is final.
Build 6.1-RC1	5 March 2006 5 April 2006	5 April 2006	Begin building the first release candidate build for all Tier-1 platforms.
Release 6.1-RC1	5 March 2006 10 April 2006	--	6.1-RC1 tier-1 platform images released, and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org.
Ports tree tagged	6 March 2006	14 March 2006	RELEASE_6_1_0 tag for ports/.
Ports tree unfrozen	6 March 2006	14 March 2006	After the ports/ tree is tagged, the ports/ tree will be re-opened for commits, but commits made after tagging will not go in 6.1-RELEASE.
Final package build starts	TBD	--	The ports cluster and pointyhat build final packages.
Announce doc/ tree slush	6 March 2006	6 March 2006	Notification of the impending doc/ tree slush should be sent to doc@.
doc/ tree slush	10 March 2006 7 April 2006	7 April 2006	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.
Build 6.1-RC2	12 March 2006 30 April 2006	30 April 2006	Begin building the second release candidate build for all Tier-1 platforms.
Release 6.1-RC2	12 March 2006 2 May 2006	2 May 2006	6.1-RC2 tier-1 platform images released, and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org.
doc/ tree tagged.	13 March 2006 10 April 2006	17 April 2006	Version number bumps for doc/ subtree. RELEASE_6_1_0 tag for doc/. doc/ slush ends at this time.
Version numbers bumped	17 March 2006 7 May 2006	--	The files listed here are updated to reflect FreeBSD 6.1.
src/ tree tagged	17 March 2006 7 May 2006	7 May 2006	Tag the RELENG_6_1 branch with RELENG_6_1_0_RELEASE.
Begin 6.1-RELEASE builds	17 March 2006 7 May 2006	7 May 2006	Start 6.1-RELEASE Tier-1 builds.
Warn mirror-announce@FreeBSD.org	17 March 2006 7 May 2006	--	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	19 March 2006 8 May 2006	8 May 2006	Release and packages uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org.
Announcement	20 March 2006 8 May 2006	8 May 2006	Announcement sent out after a majority of the mirrors have received the bits.
Turn over to the secteam	TBD	--	RELENG_6_1 branch is handed over to the FreeBSD Security Officer Team in one or two weeks after the announcement.

Additional Information

• FreeBSD 6.1 developer todo list.
• FreeBSD 6.1 Code Freeze Commit Approval List.
• FreeBSD Release Engineering website.

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