This is a specific schedule for the release of FreeBSD 5.3. 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.
FreeBSD 5.3 will be the first release from the RELENG_5 branch and thus will also be the first 5-STABLE release.
The current release engineering TODO list is also available. This list is updated periodically through the release cycle.
| Action | Expected | Actual | Description |
| Announce the Ports Freeze | 15 Aug 2004 | 15 Aug 2004 | Someone from portmgr@ should email for the two week long ports freeze and tagging of the ports tree. |
| src/ tree frozen | 16 Aug 2004 | 16 Aug 2004 | Announce the src/ code freeze for 5.3. Commits to the HEAD branch will be locked until the RELENG_5 branch is created. |
| RELENG_5 branch creation | 16 Aug 2004 | 17 Aug 2004 | Create the RELENG_5 branch. Commits to this branch will require Release Engineering approval until the RELENG_5_3 branch is created. |
| Begin 5.3-BETA1 builds | 16 Aug 2004 | 20 Aug 2004 | Begin building 5.3-BETA1 disc1 and disc2 for all Tier-1 platforms. The first built typically requires several days to resolve latent problems on all platforms, so it will be started early. |
| Release 5.3-BETA1 | 20 Aug 2004 | 22 Aug 2004 | 5.3-BETA1 tier-1 platform images released and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. |
| Build and release 5.3-BETA2 | 27 Aug 2004 | 29 Aug 2004 | 5.3-BETA2 tier-1 platform images built, released, and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. |
| Build and release 5.3-BETA3 | 3 Sep 2004 | 5 Sep 2004 | 5.3-BETA3 tier-1 platform images built, released, and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. |
| Ports tree frozen | 3 Sep 2004 | 3 Sep 2004 | Only approved commits will be permitted to the ports/ tree during the freeze. |
| Build and release 5.3-BETA4 | 10 Sep 2004 | 12 Sep 2004 | 5.3-BETA4 tier-1 platform images built, released, and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. |
| Build and release 5.3-BETA5 | 17 Sep 2004 | 20 Sep 2004 | 5.3-BETA5 tier-1 platform images released and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. |
| Ports tree tagged | 17 Sep 2004 | 11 Oct 2004 | RELEASE_5_3_0 tag for ports/. |
| Ports tree unfrozen | 17 Sep 2004 | 11 Oct 2004 | After the ports/ tree is tagged, the ports/ tree will be re-opened for commits, but commits made after tagging will not go in 5.3-RELEASE. |
| Final package build starts | 17 Sep 2004 | 11 Oct 2004 | The ports cluster and pointyhat build final packages. |
| Turn off debugging for RELENG_5 | 17 Sep 2004 | 7 Sep 2004 | Turn off WITNESS, INVARIANTS, and malloc debugging options. This will be the default for all RELENG_5 releases. |
| doc/ tree slush | 17 Sep 2004 | 17 Sep 2004 | Announce the doc/ slush for 5.3. From this time until the tagging of the doc/ tree, non-critical changes should be postponed to allow translation teams time to finish their work for the release. If we can resolve problems before this expected date, doc/ slush could start earlier. At this point, we are considering on 10 Sep at earliest, and on 17 Sep at latest. |
| Build and release 5.3-BETA6 | 24 Sep 2004 | 26 Sep 2004 | 5.3-BETA6 tier-1 platform images released and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. |
| doc/ tree tagged | 24 Sep 2004 | 26 Sep 2004 | Tag the doc/ tree with RELEASE_5_3_0. |
| Build and release 5.3-BETA7 | 1 Oct 2004 | 3 Oct 2004 | 5.3-BETA7 tier-1 platform images released and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. |
| RELENG_5_3 branched | 8 Oct 2004 | 16 Oct 2004 | Branch of src/ from RELENG_5 for the release. |
| src/ unfrozen | 8 Oct 2004 | 16 Oct 2004 | Unfreeze RELENG_5 src. Continue to coordinate significant check-ins with re@FreeBSD.org until the release is final. |
| Build and release 5.3-RC1 | 17 Oct 2004 | 19 Oct 2004 | 5.3-RC1 tier-1 platform images released and uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. |
| Version numbers bumped | 22 Oct 2004 | 24 Oct 2004 | The files listed here are updated to reflect FreeBSD 5.3. |
| src/ tree tagged | 22 Oct 2004 | 24 Oct 2004 | Tag the RELENG_5_3 branch with RELENG_5_3_0_RELEASE. |
| Begin 5.3-RELEASE builds | 5 Nov 2004 | 4 Nov 2004 | Start 5.3-RELEASE Tier-1 builds. |
| Warn mirror-announce@FreeBSD.org | 5 Nov 2004 | 5 Nov 2004 | 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 | 5 Nov 2004 | 6 Nov 2004 | Release and packages uploaded to ftp-master.FreeBSD.org. |
| FreeBSD 5.3 Announced | 5 Nov 2004 | 6 Nov 2004 | FreeBSD 5.3 is announced to the mailing lists. |
| FreeBSD 5.3 Press Release | 5 Nov 2004 | 6 Nov 2004 | 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. |