HEADS UP: Ports freeze on Feb 20

[Kris Kennaway]

The ports freeze for the 6.1/5.5 release cycles is scheduled to begin
at 23:59 UTC (18:59 EST) on Feb 20.  This is the day after 6.1-BETA2
is due; if for some reason that slips, we might also slip the freeze
dates -- but Feb 20 is the date you should prepare for.

The freeze will last until March 6.  Note that this time the release
cycles for 6.1 and 5.5 are happening concurrently.  This was decided
to try and reduce the amount of time that the ports tree needs to be
frozen.

The same ports tree will be tagged for both *both* the 6.1 and 5.5
releases at the end of the freeze.  Therefore, you should try to test
things on both releases during the freeze.

The package builds will be focusing on 6.1, so 5.5 will receive less
testing on our end.  Therefore, it's up to you guys to help out with
QA of the ports tree on 5.5.

Because of the compressed schedule, there will not be as much scope as
in the past for correcting things after the freeze ends.  Please try
to fix as many problems as you can during the 2 weeks of freeze, or
it's likely that both releases will have to ship with the problems
still there.

Finally, in the 2 weeks before the freeze begins, please continue to
exercise discretion in your commits to the ports tree.  We have
crammed a lot of changes into the tree over the past few weeks, and we
are still fixing some of the resulting bugs that eluded all of the
pre-commit testing.

If you are planning a commit that has the potential to destabilize
things further (e.g. major upgrade, or upgrade of a core port), please
consult with portmgr@ first so we don't have to fight fires (or set
you on fire) afterwards.

Thanks,

Kris



-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 187 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ports/attachments/20060205/949617b7/attachment.bin