Fedora Beta Freeze And updates-testing Activation Point

Description

This SOP covers two distinct events that happen at the same time. Two weeks after Mass Branching, at 14:00 UTC, the Beta freeze is imposed, and use of updates-testing is enabled for the new release.

Release Engineering Freeze Guidelines

During the Beta and Final Freeze periods, Release Engineering should avoid making changes that could affect the release in unexpected ways. This includes, but is not limited to, merging changes to the Ansible repository, modifying Koji configuration policies, updating signing infrastructure, or changing compose tooling.

Routine operations that do not affect the frozen release, such as Rawhide builds, side tag work, or ELN tasks may continue as normal.

Freeze exception requests should be processed following the standard approval workflow.

Emergency fixes to frozen systems require a freeze break request with two approvals before proceeding.

If you are unsure whether a change is safe, defer it until after the freeze or ask a more senior team member for guidance.

For more details on the Beta and Final Freeze from the Fedora Infrastructure point of view, please visit this link.

Action

Making Koji changes

Make the following Koji tag changes:

$ koji remove-tag-inheritance f44-updates-candidate f44
$ koji remove-tag-inheritance f44-updates-testing f44
$ koji remove-tag-inheritance f44-updates-pending f44
$ koji remove-tag-inheritance f44-override f44
$ koji add-tag-inheritance f44-updates-candidate f44-updates
$ koji add-tag-inheritance f44-updates-testing f44-updates
$ koji add-tag-inheritance f44-updates-pending f44-updates
$ koji add-tag-inheritance f44-override f44-updates
$ koji edit-tag --perm=admin f44

Bodhi configuration

Configure Bodhi to create composes, not to automatically create updates, and to be frozen.

$ bodhi releases edit --name "F44" --stable-tag f44 --testing-repository updates-testing --package-manager dnf --no-create-automatic-updates --composed-by-bodhi --state frozen

Add the container and flatpak releases if they weren’t already added to bodhi

Update Ansible vars

Set the infra ansible FedoraBranchedBodhi variable to prebeta and the NextReleaseFrozen variable to True.

Run the playbooks

$ rbac-playbook openshift-apps/bodhi.yml -t all,rollout
$ rbac-playbook groups/bodhi-backend.yml
$ rbac-playbook groups/koji-hub.yml

Send Announcement

Email devel-announce and test-announce lists about Beta freeze and updates-testing activation.

Hi all,

Today's an important day on the Fedora Linux 44 schedule [1], with
several significant cut-offs. First of all, today is the Bodhi
updates-testing activation point [2]. That means that from now all
Fedora Linux 44 packages must be submitted to updates-testing and pass
the relevant requirements [3] before they will be marked as 'stable' and
moved to the Fedora Repository.

Today is also the Beta freeze [4]. This means that only packages which
fix accepted blocker or freeze exception bugs [5][6] will be marked as
'stable' and included in the Beta composes. Other builds will remain in
updates-testing until the Beta release is approved, at which point the
Beta freeze is lifted and packages can move to 'stable' as usual until
the Final freeze.

Today is also the Software String freeze [7], which means that strings
marked for translation in Fedora-translated projects should not now be
changed for Fedora Linux 44.

Finally, today is the 'completion deadline' Change Checkpoint [8],
meaning that Fedora Linux 44 Changes must now be 'feature complete or
close enough to completion that a majority of its functionality can be
tested'. All tracking bugs should be on ON_QA state or later to reflect
this.

Regards,
Fedora Release Engineering

[1] https://fedorapeople.org/groups/schedule/f-44/f-44-key-tasks.html
[2] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Updates_Policy#Bodhi_enabling
[3] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Updates_Policy#Branched_release
[4] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Milestone_freezes
[5] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:SOP_blocker_bug_process
[6] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:SOP_freeze_exception_bug_process
[7] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ReleaseEngineering/StringFreezePolicy
[8] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Policy

Verification

Compare koji tagging structure with older release

$ koji list-tag-inheritance 44 --reverse
$ koji list-tag-inheritance 43 --reverse

Compare the bodhi release with older release

$ bodhi releases info 44
$ bodhi releases info 43

Check for other variants like container and flatpaks.

During the Beta freeze

Process stable push requests

During freezes we need to push updates that fix blocker and freeze exception issues to stable when requested. QA will file a ticket with the updates to push, which will include the appropriate command(s). Verify the command(s) and run them.

Consider Before Running

FIXME

Want to help? Learn how to contribute to Fedora Docs ›