--- title: "FreeBSD 7.2 Release Process" sidenav: download --- ++++

# Introduction

This is a specific schedule for the release of FreeBSD 7.2. For more general information about the release engineering process, please see the Release Engineering section of the web site.

General discussions about the pending release and known issues should be sent to the public freebsd-stable mailing list. MFC requests should be sent to re@FreeBSD.org.

# Schedule

Action | Expected | Actual | Description
Reminder announcement | 16 March 2009 | 17 March 2009 | Release Engineers send announcement email to developers with a rough schedule for the FreeBSD 7.2 release.
Announce the Ports Freeze | 3 April 2009 | 3 April 2009 | Someone from `portmgr@` should email `freebsd-ports@` to set a date for the week long ports freeze and tagging of the ports tree.
Code freeze begins | 23 March 2009 | 23 March 2009 | After this date, all commits to RELENG_7 must be approved by re@FreeBSD.org. 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 `stable@` and `qa@` lists.
Announce `doc/` tree slush | -- | 3 April 2009 | Notification of the impending `doc/` tree slush should be sent to `doc@`.
Ports tree frozen | 13 April 2009 | 13 April 2009 | Only approved commits will be permitted to the `ports/` tree during the freeze.
`doc/` tree slush | 10 April 2009 | 10 April 2009 | Non-essential commits to the `en_US.ISO8859-1/` subtree should be delayed from this point until after the `doc/` tree tagging, to give translation teams time to synchronize their work.
`doc/` tree tagged. | 17 April 2009 | 17 April 2009 | Version number bumps for `doc/` subtree. `RELEASE_7_2_0` tag for `doc/`. `doc/` slush ends at this time.
`BETA1` builds | 30 March 2009 | 31 March 2009 | Begin BETA1 builds.
`RELENG_7_2` branch | 10 April 2009 | 15 April 2009 | The new release branch is created. Update `newvers.sh` and `release.ent` on various branches involved.
`RC1` builds | 13 April 2009 | 15 April 2009 | Begin RC1 builds.
Ports tree tagged | 20 April 2009 | 21 April 2009 | `RELEASE_7_2_0` tag for `ports/`.
Ports tree unfrozen | 20 April 2009 | 21 April 2009 | After the `ports/` tree is tagged, the `ports/` tree will be re-opened for commits, but commits made after tagging will not go in 7.2-RELEASE.
Final package build starts | 20 April 2009 | 21 April 2009 | The ports cluster and pointyhat build final packages.
`RC2` builds | 20 April 2009 | 23 April 2009 | Begin RC2 builds.
`RELEASE` builds | 1 May 2009 | 1 May 2009 | Begin RELEASE builds.
Announcement | 4 May 2009 | 4 May 2009 | Announcement sent out after a majority of the mirrors have received the bits.
Turn over to the secteam | TBD | -- | RELENG_7_2 branch is handed over to the FreeBSD Security Officer Team in one or two weeks after the announcement.

# Additional Information

- FreeBSD Release Engineering website

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