Gamma Freeze (GF)

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

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 ReleaseCandidateFreeze, 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 bugfix that is not on the release-critical buglist yet, follow those steps:

If there is no bug opened about the issue in Launchpad yet, please open one
In the description, provide the following information:
- Benefit of the branch
- Risk of regression
Link the proposed branch to the bug
Propose the branch for merging
Target the bug for the current release

The Release manager, together with 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.