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title: "FreeBSD 4.6 Release Process"
sidenav: download
---

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<h1>Introduction</h1>

<p>This is a specific schedule for the release of FreeBSD 4.6.  For
  more general information about the release engineering process,
  please see the <a href="../../../releng/index.html" shape="rect">Release
  Engineering</a> section of the web site.</p>

<p>General discussions about the release engineering process or
  quality assurance issues should be sent to the public <a href="mailto:FreeBSD-qa@FreeBSD.org" shape="rect">FreeBSD-qa</a> mailing list.
  <a href="../../../doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/misc.html#DEFINE-MFC" shape="rect">MFC</a>
  requests should be sent to <a href="mailto:re@FreeBSD.org" shape="rect">re@FreeBSD.org</a>.</p>

<h1>Schedule</h1>

<table class="tblbasic">
  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Action</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Expected</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Actual</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Description</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Reminder announcement</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">01 Apr 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">09 Apr 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Release Engineers send announcement email to
      <tt>developers@FreeBSD.org</tt> with a rough schedule for the FreeBSD 4.6
      release.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">4.6-PRERELEASE Testing Guide published</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Ongoing</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">--</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">A <a href="../../../releases/4.6R/qa.html" shape="rect">testing guide</a>
      should be published with information about recent changes and
      areas of the system that should be thoroughly tested during the
      pre-release/RC period.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>4.6-PRERELEASE</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">01 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">01 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>newvers.sh</tt>, and <tt>release.ent</tt> updated.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">FTP site updated</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">01 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">18 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>pkg_add -r</tt> works for <tt>4.6-PRERELEASE</tt> machines.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Code freeze begins</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">01 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">01 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">After this date, all commits to the <tt>RELENG_4</tt> branch
      must be approved by <a href="mailto:re@FreeBSD.org" shape="rect">re@FreeBSD.org</a>.  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 <tt>developers@</tt>, <tt>stable@</tt>
      and <tt>qa@</tt> lists.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Commercial software demos updated.</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">15 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">--</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">The second disc contains commercial software demos, these
      demos should be updated to contain the latest versions.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>4.6-RC</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">15 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">15 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>newvers.sh</tt> and <tt>release.ent</tt> updated.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Announce the Ports Freeze</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">15 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">19 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Someone from <tt>portmgr</tt> should email
      <tt>freebsd-ports@</tt> and BCC: <tt>developers@</tt> to set a date
      for the week long ports freeze and tagging of the ports tree.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Heads up to hubs</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">28 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">--</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">A message should be sent to
      <tt>freebsd-hubs@FreeBSD.org</tt> before the release is uploaded.  The
      site administrators have frequently requested advance notice for
      new ISOs.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">First release candidate</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">16 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">17 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">The first release candidate for the x86 and Alpha architecture is
      released.  ISO images should be uploaded to
      <tt>ftp-master.FreeBSD.org</tt> and
      <tt>releng4.FreeBSD.org</tt>.  A network install directory should
      be uploaded to <tt>ftp-master.FreeBSD.org</tt>.  The
      <tt>packages/</tt> and <tt>XF86336/</tt> directories may be
      symlinked to save space, as long as you're sure to use
      <em>relative</em> symlinks.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Heads up to <tt>-stable</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">17 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">17 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">A message should be sent to <tt>qa@FreeBSD.org</tt> and
      <tt>stable@FreeBSD.org</tt> after the snapshot is uploaded.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Package split posted</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">17 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">--</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">The proposed package split (which packages go on which disc of
      the 4 CD set) should be posted to <tt>qa@FreeBSD.org</tt>,
      <tt>ports@FreeBSD.org</tt>, and <tt>stable@FreeBSD.org</tt>.</td>

  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Second release candidate</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">?? May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">18 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Note: the release date of this candidate depends on the user
      experience with RC1.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Third release candidate</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">--</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">--</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">There will be no 4.6 RC3 snapshot.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Ports tree frozen.</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">24 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">25 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>CVSROOT/avail</tt> locks out everyone but the person who
      does the tagging.  It will take approximately 2 hours to tag the
      entire ports tree with the <tt>RELEASE_4_6_0</tt> tag.  After
      this time, the ports/ tree will be re-opened for commits, but
      commits made after tagging will not go in 4.6-RELEASE.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Final package build starts</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">25 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">--</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">The ports cluster and <a href="http://bento.FreeBSD.org/" shape="rect">bento</a>
      build final packages.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Package split</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">26 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">--</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">The packages must be split so that packages with similar
      dependencies appear on each of the four discs, with the most
      popular packages appearing on the first disc.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>doc/</tt> tree tagged.</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">27 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">27 May 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>RELEASE_4_6_0</tt> tag for docs.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Fourth release candidate</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">3 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">6 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">4.6 RC4 for the x86 and Alpha architectures will be made
      available from <tt>ftp.FreeBSD.org</tt> and the mirrors.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>RELENG_4_6</tt> branch</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">6 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">The release branch is created.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Note to freebsd-stable@</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">6 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">A note should be sent to the <tt>freebsd-stable@</tt> to let
      over-anxious users know that the tags have been created but the
      release still isn't ready.  Tags may be slid before the
      announcement goes out.  Point users to <tt>freebsd-qa@</tt> for
      details.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Version numbers bumped.</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">8 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">The files listed <a href="../../../doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/releng/article.html#versionbump" shape="rect">here</a>
      are updated to reflect the fact that this is FreeBSD 4.6.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Update man.cgi on the website.</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">6 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">3 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Make sure the 4.6 manual pages are being displayed by default
      for the man-&gt;web gateway.  Also make sure these man pages are
      pointed to by docs.xml.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>src</tt> tree tagged.</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>RELENG_4_6_0_RELEASE</tt> tag for src.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Final builds.</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">--</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Final builds for x86 and Alpha in a pristine environment.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Warn <tt>hubs@FreeBSD.org</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">11 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Heads up email to <a href="mailto:hubs@FreeBSD.org" shape="rect">hubs@FreeBSD.org</a> to give admins
      time to prepare for the load spike to come.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Upload to <tt>ftp-master</tt>.</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">14 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">release and packages uploaded to <tt>ftp-master.FreeBSD.org</tt></td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Announcement</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10 Jun 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">15 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Announcement sent out after a majority of the mirrors have
      received the bits.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Unfreeze the tree</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10 June 2002</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">16 June</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Announcement to developers@ explaining that the release is
      out, and commits to <tt>RELENG_4</tt> no longer require approval.  Also
      note the policy for commits to the <tt>RELENG_4_6</tt> branch.</td>
  </tr>


</table>


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