FreezeExceptionProcess

Revision 3 as of 2006-10-13 18:51:10

Clear message

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.

TableOfContents()

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

UpstreamVersionFreeze (UVF) Exceptions

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 should include at least the following details:

  • An excerpt from the upstream changelog and/or release notes listing (only) the changes relative to the current version in Ubuntu
  • 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

FeatureFreeze Exceptions

Exceptions to FeatureFreeze

DeepFreeze Exceptions