---
title: "FreeBSD 7.3 Release Process"
sidenav: download
---

++++


  <h1>Introduction</h1>

  <p>This is a specific schedule for the release of FreeBSD 7.3.  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 pending release and known issues should be
    sent to the public
    <a href="mailto:FreeBSD-stable@FreeBSD.org" shape="rect">freebsd-stable</a> mailing list.
    <a href="../../../doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/freebsd-glossary.html#mfc-glossary" 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 class="heading">
      <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">Release schedule announcement</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">&#8212;</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">23&nbsp;January&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Release Engineers send announcement email to
	<tt>freebsd-stable@</tt> with a rough schedule for the FreeBSD
	7.3 release.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Code freeze begins</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">22&nbsp;January&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">23&nbsp;January&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">After this date, all commits to RELENG_7 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 developers, as well as <tt>stable@</tt>
	and <tt>qa@</tt> lists.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>BETA1</tt> builds</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">25&nbsp;January&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">27&nbsp;January&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin BETA1 builds.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Announce <tt>doc/</tt> tree slush</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">&#8212;</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">31&nbsp;January&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Notification of the impending <tt>doc/</tt> tree slush should
	be sent to <tt>doc@</tt>.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>doc/</tt> tree slush</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5&nbsp;February&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5&nbsp;February&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Non-essential commits to the <tt>en_US.ISO8859-1/</tt> subtree
	should be delayed from this point until after the <tt>doc/</tt>
	tree tagging, to give translation teams time to synchronize
	their work.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>doc/</tt> tree tagged.</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10&nbsp;February&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10&nbsp;February&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Version number bumps for <tt>doc/</tt> subtree.
      <tt>RELEASE_7_3_0</tt> tag for <tt>doc/</tt>.  <tt>doc/</tt>
	slush ends at this time.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Ports tree feature freeze</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">8&nbsp;February&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">15&nbsp;February&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Only feature safe commits will be permitted to the <tt>ports/</tt>
	tree during the freeze.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>RELENG_7_3</tt> branch</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">&#8212;</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10&nbsp;February&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">The new release branch is created. Update <tt>newvers.sh</tt>
	and <tt>release.ent</tt> on various branches involved.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>RC1</tt> builds</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">8&nbsp;February&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">10&nbsp;February&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin RC1 builds.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>RC2</tt> builds</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">22&nbsp;February&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">1&nbsp;March&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin RC2 builds.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>RELENG_7_3_0_RELEASE</tt> tagged</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">&#8212;</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">21&nbsp;March&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">The release tag for 7.3-RELEASE is set on RELENG_7_3 branch.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><tt>RELEASE</tt> builds</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">&#8212;</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">21&nbsp;March&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin RELEASE builds.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Announcement</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><strike>1&nbsp;March&nbsp;2010</strike><br clear="none" />23&nbsp;March&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">23&nbsp;March&nbsp;2010</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Announcement sent out after a majority of the mirrors have
	received the bits.</td>
    </tr>
  </table>

  <h1>Additional Information</h1>

  <ul>

    <li><a href="http://wiki.FreeBSD.org/Releng/7.3TODO" shape="rect">FreeBSD 7.3 status page.</a></li>
    <li><a href="../../../releng/index.html" shape="rect">FreeBSD Release Engineering website</a></li>
  </ul>


  </div>
          <br class="clearboth" />
        </div>
        
++++

