---
title: "FreeBSD 5.1 Release Process"
sidenav: download
---

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<h1>Introduction</h1>

<p>This is a specific schedule for the release of FreeBSD 5.1.  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>

<p>One of the major features of FreeBSD 5.1 will be further refinement of
  the re-worked SMP support introduced in FreeBSD 5.0.</p>

<p>FreeBSD 5.1 will continue to be released from the 5-CURRENT development
  stream.  For more details about the milestones for reaching
  5-STABLE, see the <a href="http://docs.freebsd.org/doc/5.1-RELEASE/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/5-roadmap/index.html" shape="rect">5-STABLE
  Roadmap</a> page.</p>

<p>The current release engineering <a href="../../../releases/5.1R/todo.html" shape="rect">TODO list</a> is also available.
  This list is updated periodically through the release cycle.</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"><tt>-CURRENT</tt> code freeze</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5&nbsp;May&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5&nbsp;May&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">The <tt>src/</tt> code freeze for 5.1.  Commits to
      <tt>HEAD</tt> require <tt>re@FreeBSD.org</tt> approval.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>5.1-BETA</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5&nbsp;May&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">15&nbsp;May&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>5.1-BETA</tt> release of x86, alpha, sparc64, and ia64.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>5.1-BETA2</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">19&nbsp;May&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">22&nbsp;May&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Second <tt>5.1-BETA</tt> release of x86, alpha, sparc64, and ia64.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>RELENG_5_1</tt> branched</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">30 May 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">31 May 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Branch of <tt>src/</tt> from <tt>HEAD</tt> for the release.
      Note: no branch for <tt>RELENG_5</tt> will happen at this time.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Turn off debugging for <tt>RELENG_5_1</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">30 May 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">31 May 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Turn off WITNESS, INVARIANTS, and malloc debugging options similar to
      what was done for 5.0.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">First release candidate</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">30&nbsp;May&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">1&nbsp;June&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">x86, alpha, sparc64, and ia64 images released and uploaded to
      <tt>ftp-master.FreeBSD.org</tt>.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>src/</tt> unfrozen</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">30 May 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">31 May 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Unfreeze <tt>HEAD</tt> src. Continue to coordinate significant
      check-ins with <tt>re@FreeBSD.org</tt> in order to work towards
      <tt>5-STABLE</tt>.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Ports tree tagged</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">30 May 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">27 May 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Tentative date of <tt>RELEASE_5_1_0</tt> tag for ports.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Version numbers bumped</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">2 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">3 June 2003</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 FreeBSD 5.1.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>src/</tt> tree tagged</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">2 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">4 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Tag the <tt>RELENG_5_1</tt> branch with <tt>RELENG_5_1_0_RELEASE</tt>.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>doc/</tt> tree tagged</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">2 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">30 May 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Tag the <tt>doc/</tt> tree with <tt>RELEASE_5_1_0</tt>.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Final builds</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">2 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">4 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Start x86, alpha, sparc64, ia64, and pc98 builds.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Warn <tt>hubs@FreeBSD.org</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Heads up email to <tt>hubs@FreeBSD.org</tt> to give admins
      time to prepare for the load spike to come. The site
      administrators have frequently requested advance notice
      for new ISOs.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Upload to <tt>ftp-master</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5&nbsp;June&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">8 June 2003</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">FreeBSD 5.1 Released</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">9 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">9 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">FreeBSD 5.1 is announced to the mailing lists.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">FreeBSD 5.1 Press Release</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">9 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">9 June 2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">A formal press release statement is in the works and should be
      released at this time to the <tt>www.FreeBSD.org</tt> website and various
      tech publications.</td>
  </tr>

</table>


  </div>
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