This is the release schedule for &os; &local.rel;. For more 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 are no longer being accepted.
&beta.local.where; &beta2.local.where;| Action | Expected | Actual | Description | |
| Initial release schedule announcement | - | 12 February 2018 | Release Engineers send announcement email to developers with a rough schedule. | |
| Release schedule reminder | 16 March 2018 | -- | +16 March 2018 | Release Engineers send reminder announcement e-mail to developers with updated schedule. |
| Code slush begins | 20 April 2018 | - | Release Engineers announce that all further commits to the &local.branch.stable; branch will not require explicit approval, however new features should be avoided. | |
| Code freeze begins | 4 May 2018 | - | Release Engineers announce that all further commits to the &local.branch.stable; branch will require explicit approval. Certain blanket approvals will be granted for narrow areas of development, documentation improvements, etc. | |
| BETA1 builds begin | 11 May 2018 | - | First beta test snapshot. | |
| BETA2 builds begin | 18 May 2018 | - | Second beta test snapshot. | |
| BETA3 builds begin * | 25 May 2018 | - | Third beta test snapshot. | |
| &local.branch.releng; branch | 1 June 2018 | - | Subversion branch created; future release engineering proceeds on this branch. | |
| RC1 builds begin | 1 June 2018 | - | First release candidate. | |
| &local.branch.stable; thaw | 3 June 2018 | - | The code freeze on the &local.branch.stable; branch is lifted. | |
| RC2 builds begin | 8 June 2018 | - | Second release candidate. | |
| RC3 builds begin * | 15 June 2018 | - | Third release candidate. | |
| RELEASE builds begin | 22 June 2018 | - | &local.rel;-RELEASE builds begin. | |
| RELEASE announcement | 27 June 2018 | - | &local.rel;-RELEASE press release. | |
| Turn over to the secteam | - | - | &local.branch.releng; branch is handed over to the &os; Security Officer Team in one or two weeks after the announcement. |
"*" indicates "as-needed" items.