This is a specific schedule for the release of FreeBSD 5.1. 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.
One of the major features of FreeBSD 5.1 will be further refinement of the re-worked SMP support introduced in FreeBSD 5.0.
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 5-STABLE Roadmap page.
The current release engineering TODO list is also available. This list is updated periodically through the release cycle.
| Action | Expected | Actual | Description |
| -CURRENT code freeze | 5 May 2003 | 5 May 2003 | The src/ code freeze for 5.1. Commits to HEAD require re@FreeBSD.org approval. |
| 5.1-BETA | 5 May 2003 | 15 May 2003 | 5.1-BETA release of x86, alpha, sparc64, and ia64. |
| 5.1-BETA2 | 19 May 2003 | 22 May 2003 | Second 5.1-BETA release of x86, alpha, sparc64, and ia64. |
| RELENG_5_1 branched | 30 May 2003 | 31 May 2003 | Branch of src/ from HEAD for the release. Note: no branch for RELENG_5 will happen at this time. |
| Turn off debugging for RELENG_5_1 | 30 May 2003 | 31 May 2003 | Turn off WITNESS, INVARIANTS, and malloc debugging options similar to what was done for 5.0. |
| First release candidate | 30 May 2003 | 1 June 2003 | x86, alpha, sparc64, and ia64 images released and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. |
| src/ unfrozen | 30 May 2003 | 31 May 2003 | Unfreeze HEAD src. Continue to coordinate significant check-ins with re@FreeBSD.org in order to work towards 5-STABLE. |
| Ports tree tagged | 30 May 2003 | 27 May 2003 | Tentative date of RELEASE_5_1_0 tag for ports. |
| Version numbers bumped | 2 June 2003 | 3 June 2003 | The files listed here are updated to reflect FreeBSD 5.1. |
| src/ tree tagged | 2 June 2003 | 4 June 2003 | Tag the RELENG_5_1 branch with RELENG_5_1_0_RELEASE. |
| doc/ tree tagged | 2 June 2003 | 30 May 2003 | Tag the doc/ tree with RELEASE_5_1_0. |
| Final builds | 2 June 2003 | 4 June 2003 | Start x86, alpha, sparc64, ia64, and pc98 builds. |
| Warn hubs@FreeBSD.org | 5 June 2003 | 5 June 2003 | Heads up email to hubs@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 | 5 June 2003 | 8 June 2003 | Release and packages uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. |
| FreeBSD 5.1 Released | 9 June 2003 | 9 June 2003 | FreeBSD 5.1 is announced to the mailing lists. |
| FreeBSD 5.1 Press Release | 9 June 2003 | 9 June 2003 | A formal press release statement is in the works and should be released at this time to the www.FreeBSD.org website and various tech publications. |