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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.

  • TBD : FreeBSD 5.5

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/, doc/, and www/ is also provided below.

Branch Status Contact Notes
HEAD Open committers Active development branch for -CURRENT.
RELENG_6 Open committers Development branch for 6-STABLE.
RELENG_6_0 Frozen re@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 6.0 supported errata fix branch
RELENG_5 Open committers Development branch for 5-STABLE.
RELENG_5_4 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 5.4 supported errata fix branch (errata policy)
RELENG_5_3 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 5.3 supported errata fix branch (errata policy)
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 Development branch for 4-STABLE.
RELENG_4_11 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 4.11 supported errata fix branch (errata policy)
RELENG_4_10 Frozen security-officer@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD 4.10 supported errata fix branch.
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 SGML/XML based documentation set.
www/ Open freebsd-doc FreeBSD Web site sources.

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.

  • FreeBSD 5-STABLE Roadmap
    Describes the roadmap for the project for reaching the RELENG_5 branch. Includes overall status of 5.x, what's left to be done, and tentative schedules.

  • Choosing the FreeBSD Version That Is Right For You
    How to decide which version of FreeBSD is right for your needs. Topics include the releases, branches, the difference between -CURRENT and -STABLE, and the current scheduling goals of the project.

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) : Murray Stokely, Robert Watson, Scott Long, Doug White, Ken Smith, Hiroki Sato form the primary release engineering decision-making group.

The platform-specific release engineering teams are responsible for building and packaging FreeBSD releases on the given platforms.

Alpha Platform REs (re-alpha@FreeBSD.org) : Murray Stokely, Robert Watson, Scott Long, Wilko Bulte

AMD64 Platform REs (re-amd64@FreeBSD.org) : David O'Brien

ia64 Platform REs (re-ia64@FreeBSD.org) : Marcel Moolenaar

i386 Platform REs (re-x86@FreeBSD.org) : Murray Stokely, Robert Watson, Scott Long

pc98 Platform REs (re-pc98@FreeBSD.org) : Takahashi Yoshihiro

PowerPC Platform REs (re-ppc@FreeBSD.org) : Peter Grehan

sparc64 Platform REs (re-sparc64@FreeBSD.org) : Jake Burkholder, Murray Stokely, Poul-Henning Kamp, Robert Watson, Scott Long, Thomas Moestl, Ken Smith, David O'Brien

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) : Kris Kennaway, Joe Marcus Clarke, Mark Linimon, Clement Laforet, Kirill Ponomarew, Erwin Lansing

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 CDROM 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.