FreeBSD supported branches update

[FreeBSD Security Officer]

Hello Everyone,

The branches supported by the FreeBSD Security Officer have been updated
to reflect the EoL (end-of-life) of FreeBSD 7.0.  The new list is below
and at <URL: http://security.freebsd.org/ >.  Please note that FreeBSD
7.0 was originally announced with an EoL date of February 28, 2009, but
the EoL was delayed by two months in order to allow a 3 month window for
systems to be upgraded to FreeBSD 7.1.

Users of FreeBSD 7.0 are advised to upgrade promptly to FreeBSD 7.1,
either by downloading an updated source tree and building updates manually,
or (for i386 and amd64 systems) using the FreeBSD Update utility as
described in the FreeBSD 7.1 release announcement.  Some users may wish to
wait for the upcoming FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE; however, they should be aware
that FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE will only receive "normal" support (i.e., support
for 12 months) and consequently it will not be supported for as long as
FreeBSD 7.1.

[Excerpt from http://security.freebsd.org/ follows]

FreeBSD Security Advisories

    The FreeBSD Security Officer provides security advisories for
    several branches of FreeBSD development. These are the -STABLE
    Branches and the Security Branches. (Advisories are not issued for
    the -CURRENT Branch.)

      * The -STABLE branch tags have names like RELENG_7. The
        corresponding builds have names like FreeBSD 7.0-STABLE.

      * Each FreeBSD Release has an associated Security Branch. The
        Security Branch tags have names like RELENG_7_0. The
        corresponding builds have names like FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE-p1.

    Isses affecting the FreeBSD Ports Collection are covered in the
    FreeBSD VuXML document.

    Each branch is supported by the Security Officer for a limited
    time only, and is designated as one of `Early adopter', `Normal',
    or `Extended'.  The designation is used as a guideline for
    determining the lifetime of the branch as follows.

    Early adopter
        Releases which are published from the -CURRENT branch will be
        supported by the Security Officer for a minimum of 6 months
        after the release.

    Normal
        Releases which are published from a -STABLE branch will be
        supported by the Security Officer for a minimum of 12 months
        after the release, and for sufficient additional time (if
        needed) to ensure that there is a newer release for at least
        3 months before the older Normal release expires.

    Extended
        Selected releases (normally every second release plus the last
        release from each -STABLE branch) will be supported by the
        Security Officer for a minimum of 24 months after the release,
        and for sufficient additional time (if needed) to ensure that
        there is a newer Extended release for at least 3 months before
        the older Extended release expires.

    The current designation and estimated lifetimes of the currently
    supported branches are given below.  The Estimated EoL (end-of-life)
    column gives the earliest date on which that branch is likely to be
    dropped.  Please note that these dates may be extended into the
    future, but only extenuating circumstances would lead to a branch's
    support being dropped earlier than the date listed.

    +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |  Branch   |  Release  |  Type  |  Release date   |  Estimated EoL  |
    |-----------+-----------+--------+-----------------+-----------------|
    |RELENG_6   |n/a        |n/a     |n/a              |November 30, 2010|
    |-----------+-----------+--------+-----------------+-----------------|
    |RELENG_6_3 |6.3-RELEASE|Extended|January 18, 2008 |January 31, 2010 |
    |-----------+-----------+--------+-----------------+-----------------|
    |RELENG_6_4 |6.4-RELEASE|Extended|November 28, 2008|November 30, 2010|
    |-----------+-----------+--------+-----------------+-----------------|
    |RELENG_7   |n/a        |n/a     |n/a              |last release + 2y|
    |-----------+-----------+--------+-----------------+-----------------|
    |RELENG_7_1 |7.1-RELEASE|Extended|January 4, 2009  |January 31, 2011 |
    +--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[End excerpt]

-- 
Colin Percival
Security Officer, FreeBSD | freebsd.org | The power to serve
Founder / author, Tarsnap | tarsnap.com | Online backups for the truly paranoid