GammaFreeze

= Gamma Freeze (GF) =

GammaFreeze (GF) is one of the milestones in OpenStack's release schedule. Like all freezes, it happens at the end of the day (or 23:59 PST).

Freeze
Once GF kicks in, you are no longer allowed to merge branches containing random fixes into the current development release. Such branches should be rejected by the review team. Only branches related to release-critical bugfixes are allowed.

Rationale
GF ensures that minimal changes are applied in the last week before release, to reduce the risk of a last-minute regression. All bugfixes are a trade-off between the benefit of the fix and the risk of regression it introduces, and the closer we get to release, the more on the safe side we need to err.

GF occurs one week before RCFreeze, to give time to concentrate on the release-critical bugs.

Exception procedure
If, after GF, you want to propose or merge a branch containing a critical bugfix, you should propose the bug for inclusion in the release-critical buglist:


 * If there is no bug opened about the issue in Launchpad yet, please open one
 * In a comment in the bug, provide the following information:
 * Benefit of the bugfix
 * Risk of regression
 * The release manager or a product driver should pick it up and consider it for the RC buglist.
 * If not, attract their attention by:
 * Pinging them on IRC
 * Prefixing the bug summary with [RC]

The Release manager, with the assistance of the core developers of the associated product, will evaluate the request and accept or reject the proposed targeting. The closer we are to release, the less likely it is for the exception to be granted. The bug will be added to the known bugs list instead.