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Release Engineering Information

This page contains documentation about the FreeBSD release engineering process.

Upcoming Release Schedule

NOTE: Release dates are approximate and may be subject to schedule slippage.

Date Event Information
TBD FreeBSD 8.4 Target Schedule
TBD FreeBSD 9.2

Code-Freeze Status

The following table lists the code freeze status for the major branches of the src/ subtree of the FreeBSD CVS repository. Commits to any branch listed as "frozen" must first be reviewed and approved by the relevant contact party. The status of other subtrees such as ports/ and doc/, is also provided below.

Branch Status Contact Notes
HEAD Open committers Active development branch for 10-CURRENT.
stable/9 Open committers Development branch for FreeBSD 9-STABLE.
releng/9.1 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 9.1 supported errata fix branch.
releng/9.0 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 9.0 supported errata fix branch.
RELENG_8 Open committers Development branch for 8-STABLE.
RELENG_8_3 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 8.3 supported errata fix branch.
RELENG_8_2 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 8.2 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_8_1 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 8.1 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_8_0 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 8.0 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_7 Open committers Development branch for 7-STABLE.
RELENG_7_4 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 7.4 supported errata fix branch.
RELENG_7_3 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 7.3 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_7_2 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 7.2 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_7_1 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 7.1 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_7_0 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 7.0 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_6 Open committers Maintenance branch for 6-STABLE (not officially supported).
RELENG_6_4 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 6.4 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_6_3 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 6.3 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_6_2 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 6.2 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_6_1 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 6.1 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_6_0 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 6.0 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_5 Open committers Maintenance branch for 5-STABLE (not officially supported).
RELENG_5_5 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 5.5 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_5_4 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 5.4 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_5_3 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 5.3 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_5_2 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 5.2 / 5.2.1 security fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_5_1 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 5.1 security fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_5_0 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 5.0 security fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_4 Open committers Maintenance branch for 4-STABLE (not officially supported).
RELENG_4_11 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 4.11 errata fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_4_10 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 4.10 security fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_4_9 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 4.9 security fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_4_8 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 4.8 security fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_4_7 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 4.7 security fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_4_6 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 4.6 security fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_4_5 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 4.5 security fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_4_4 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 4.4 security fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_4_3 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 4.3 security fix branch (not officially supported).
RELENG_3 Open committers Maintenance branch for 3-STABLE (not officially supported).
RELENG_2_2 Open committers Maintenance branch for 2.2-STABLE (not officially supported).
Subtree Status Contact Notes
ports/ Open portmgr@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD Ports Collection.
doc/ Open freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org SGML/XML based documentation set.

Release Engineering Documentation

  • FreeBSD Release Engineering
    Describes the approach used by the FreeBSD release engineering team to make production quality releases of the FreeBSD Operating System. It describes the tools available for those interested in producing customized FreeBSD releases for corporate rollouts or commercial productization.

  • FreeBSD Release Engineering for Third Party Packages
    Describes the approach used by the FreeBSD release engineering team to produce a high quality package set suitable for official FreeBSD release media. This document is a work in progress, but eventually it will cover the process used to build a clean package set on the FreeBSD.org "Ports Cluster", how to configure any other set of machines as a ports cluster, how to split up the packages for the release media, and how to verify that a package set is consistent.

Release Engineering Team

The primary release engineering team is responsible for approving MFC requests during code freezes, setting release schedules, and all of the other responsibilities laid out in our charter.

Primary RE Team (re@FreeBSD.org) : Konstantin Belousov, Marc Fonvieille, Josh Paetzel, Hiroki Sato, Ken Smith form the primary release engineering decision-making group.

The builders release engineering team is responsible for building and packaging FreeBSD releases on the various supported platforms.

Builders REs (re-builders@FreeBSD.org) : Marcel Moolenaar, Yoshihiro Takahashi, Nathan Whitehorn

The third party packages in the Ports Collection are managed by the portmgr@ team. Among many other responsibilities, the port managers keep the ports cluster running smoothly to produce binary packages.

Package Builders (portmgr@FreeBSD.org) : Thomas Abthorpe, Joe Marcus Clarke, Baptiste Daroussin, Bernhard Fröhlich, Beat Gätzi, Erwin Lansing, Ion-Mihai Tetcu, Martin Wilke

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I find the release directory or ISO images for older FreeBSD releases?

The FreeBSD Project does not maintain a centralized historical archive of old release ISO images, but there are still many options. First, a large collection of the old releases (many complete with the package sets) is at ftp://ftp-archive.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases/. Second, try looking on http://mirrorlist.FreeBSD.org. If you are unable to find an FTP mirror that still contains the release you are looking for, then you can email CD-ROM vendors to see if they have any old releases available. In September 2003, we know of a case where FreeBSD 1.1 was used in a court of law to invalidate a bogus software patent. Clearly, older releases can be very important in some situations.