---
title: "FreeBSD 5.2 Release Process"
sidenav: download
---

++++


<h1>Introduction</h1>

<p>This is a specific schedule for the release of FreeBSD 5.2.  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>FreeBSD 5.2 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/5.2-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/5.2R/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>src/</tt> tree frozen</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">17&nbsp;Nov&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">18&nbsp;Nov&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Announce the <tt>src/</tt> code freeze for 5.2 on the <tt>HEAD</tt>
      branch.  Commits to <tt>HEAD</tt> require <tt>re@FreeBSD.org</tt>
      approval.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>ports/</tt> tree frozen</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">17&nbsp;Nov&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">19&nbsp;Nov&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Announce the <tt>ports/</tt> code freeze for 5.2.
      Commits to <tt>ports/</tt> require <tt>portmgr@FreeBSD.org</tt>
      approval.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin <tt>5.2-BETA</tt> builds</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">17&nbsp;Nov&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">24&nbsp;Nov&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin building 5.2-BETA disc1 and disc2 for all Tier-1 platforms.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Release <tt>5.2-BETA</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">19&nbsp;Nov&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">26&nbsp;Nov&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5.2-BETA tier-1 platform images released and uploaded to
      <tt>ftp-master.FreeBSD.org</tt>.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>RELENG_5_2</tt> branched</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">1&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">6&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;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_2</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">1&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">6&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Turn off WITNESS, INVARIANTS, and malloc debugging options similar to
      what was done for 5.1.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin <tt>5.2-RC1</tt> builds</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">1&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">7&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin building 5.2-RC1 disc1 and disc2 for all Tier-1 platforms.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>src/</tt> unfrozen</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">1&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">6&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;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">Release <tt>5.2-RC1</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">3&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5.2-RC1 tier-1 platform images released and uploaded to
      <tt>ftp-master.FreeBSD.org</tt>.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Ports tree tagged</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">3&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">3&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Tentative date of <tt>RELEASE_5_2_0</tt> tag for ports.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>doc/</tt> tree slush</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">8&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">9&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Announce the <tt>doc/</tt> slush for 5.2.
      From this time until the tagging of the <tt>doc/</tt> tree,
      non-critical changes should be postponed to allow translation
      teams time to finish their work for the release.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin <tt>5.2-RC2</tt> builds</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">19&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">21&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin building 5.2-RC2 disc1 and disc2 for all Tier-1 platforms.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Release <tt>5.2-RC2</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">21&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">23&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5.2-RC2 tier-1 platform images released and uploaded to
      <tt>ftp-master.FreeBSD.org</tt>.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>doc/</tt> tree tagged</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">12&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">12&nbsp;Dec&nbsp;2003</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Tag the <tt>doc/</tt> tree with <tt>RELEASE_5_2_0</tt>.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Version numbers bumped</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;2004</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;11&nbsp;2004</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 5.2.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>src/</tt> tree tagged</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;2004</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;11&nbsp;2004</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Tag the <tt>RELENG_5_2</tt> branch with <tt>RELENG_5_2_0_RELEASE</tt>.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin <tt>5.2-RELEASE</tt> builds</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;2004</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;11&nbsp;2004</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Start 5.2-RELEASE Tier-1 builds.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Warn <tt>mirror-announce@FreeBSD.org</tt></td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;2004</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;11&nbsp;2004</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Heads up email to <tt>mirror-announce@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">Jan&nbsp;2004</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;11&nbsp;2004</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 5.2 Announced</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;2004</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;12&nbsp;2004</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">FreeBSD 5.2 is announced to the mailing lists.</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">FreeBSD 5.2 Press Release</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;2004</td>
    <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Jan&nbsp;12&nbsp;2004</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>
          <br class="clearboth" />
        </div>
        
++++

