Changes Freeze Policy

Feature Freeze Policy

After feature freeze for a release, no new features or major version bumps are allowed for packages already in the Fedora collection (new packages can still be reviewed, added in CVS and built). The purpose of the feature freeze is to help ensure that changes have adequate time to be tested as well as to provide some focus on bug-fixing for the release.

Exception Process

If you believe you have a good reason to break feature freeze, please ask for approval prior to breaking the freeze. To do so, file a ticket in the Release Engineering Trac Space.

Please include the following information:

• A description of what you want to change
• Rationale for why the change is important enough to be allowed in after the feature freeze.
• Impact of not accepting the feature at this point of the schedule.
• Information on what testing you've already done on the feature to help reduce the risk.

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What Happens Next?

The release engineering team will evaluate your request and provide feedback. If your request is rejected, you will have to wait for the next development cycle to add your package to Fedora. Disputes over rejected changes can be escalated to FESCo.

Approval comes in the form of +1's. Two +1's (without any negative feedback) are necessary to build. If there is negative feedback, conversation will ensue and a new vote will take place.

Ignoring the freeze process and introducing new features anyway may lead to your package being reverted and a reduction of the chances of an exception being made.