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As with most rules, there are occasional exceptions to the restrictions imposed by the various stages of the Ubuntu release process. These exceptions are granted by the release team based on information provided by the developer who proposes the change.

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General Instructions

Requests for freeze exceptions for main should be emailed to Matt Zimmerman <mdz@ubuntu.com> and Colin Watson <cjwatson@ubuntu.com>. All freeze exceptions must include the following information, in order to provide them with enough information to weigh the risk of regressions against the benefit of the changes:

• A description of the proposed changes, with sufficient detail to estimate their potential impact on the distribution
• A rationale for the exception, explaining the benefit of the change
• Any additional information which would be helpful in considering the decision

UpstreamVersionFreeze (UVF) Exceptions

A request for an exception to the UpstreamVersionFreeze should demonstrate that the proposed new upstream release is appropriate for the current phase of the Ubuntu release process. For example, if the current freeze guidelines allow only bug fixes, the proposed upstream release should contain only bug fixes. Reviewing the upstream changes with a third party helps to ensure that no unexpected changes are introduced which could disrupt the release process.

An UpstreamVersionFreeze exception request must include at least the following additional details:

• An excerpt from the upstream changelog and/or release notes listing (only) the changes relative to the current version in Ubuntu
• If the upstream version contains changes which require exceptions to other freeze guidelines, additional information should be provided according to the instructions below.

FeatureFreeze Exceptions

A request for an exception to FeatureFreeze should demonstrate that the benefit of new functionality, or the total benefit of a new upstream release which includes it, outweighs the risk of regressions and other potential disruption of the release process.

Exception requests must include the following additional details:

• diffstat output showing the magnitude of code changes relative to the current version in Ubuntu

• An explanation of the testing which has been performed on the new version in Ubuntu, including verification that the new package:
  • Builds
  • Installs
  • Does not break packages which depend on it, or that corresponding updates have been prepared

DeepFreeze Exceptions

During DeepFreeze periods, extreme caution is exercised when considering freeze exceptions, as a regression could cause a deadline to be missed, or a build to receive less testing than desired. A request for an exception must demonstrate strong rationale and minimal risk for the update to be considered.

Exception requests must include the following additional details:

• A complete debdiff of the proposed upload