"On behalf of the NetBSD Release Engineering Team, it is my pleasure to announce that the first release candidate for NetBSD 4.0 has been released," Liam Foy posted [1] to the NetBSD -announce mailing list. The release has been a long time coming, first announced in August of 2006 by Jeff Rizzo, "NetBSD 4.0_BETA was branched on August 8, 2006 (UTC), and the beta-testing process has officially begun." Shortly after that, Charles Hannum, one of the NetBSD creators, posted an email [2] self-described as a possible eulogy and calling into question the future of the NetBSD project. Updates regarding NetBSD 4.0 were posted in November and December of 2006 regarding delays resulting from two IRC hackathons which caused "a huge flurry of bug-fixing activity, which improved the quality of NetBSD-current a huge amount." This led to NetBSD 4.0 being rebranched from -current to preserve the large number of bug fixes that were made there.
The project's website maintains a comprehensive list of changes in NetBSD 4.0 [3] as compared to the current stable 3.x branch. Liam continued in the release announcement, "we expect to release a second release candidate in about two weeks. Please help us test these release candidates as much as possible, to make sure NetBSD 4.0 will be a solid release.".
From: Liam Foy [email blocked] Subject: NetBSD 4.0 Release Candidate 1 available for download [4] Date: 09/04/2007 10:35:37 Hello, On behalf of the NetBSD Release Engineering Team, it is my pleasure to announce that the first release candidate for NetBSD 4.0 has been released. Binaries and ISO's are available from: ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-4-0-RC1/200709011431Z/ [5] Please view the following link for a complete list of changes/features: ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-4-0-RC1/200709011431Z/i386/INSTALL.html#Changes%20Between%20The%20NetBSD%203.0%20and%204.0%20Releases [6] If you want to build NetBSD 4.0_RC1 from source, cvs up your source tree to "netbsd-4-0-RC1", or just along the "netbsd-4" branch. Alternatively, you can download the source sets from the URL above, under the source/ directory. We expect to release a second release candidate in about two weeks. Please help us test these release candidates as much as possible, to make sure NetBSD 4.0 will be a solid release. Thanks, -- Liam J. Foy [email blocked] http://bsdportal.org [7] <- BSD News
From: Jeff Rizzo [email blocked] Subject: Announcing the start of the NetBSD 4.0 release process [8] Date: 08/25/2006 07:44:09 --Q68bSM7Ycu6FN28Q Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On behalf of the NetBSD release engineering team, I'd like to announce the beginning of the NetBSD 4.0 release process. NetBSD 4.0 will be the twelfth major release of the NetBSD Operating System. As some of you may have noticed, NetBSD 4.0_BETA was branched on August 8, 2006 (UTC), and the beta-testing process has officially begun. It is expected that we will remain in beta until approximately October 1, at which time the first Release Candidate will be tagged, and binaries and ISO images will be made available within a few days. New release candidates will be tagged approximately every two weeks following, to address any critical bugs which may arise. It is anticipated that at least three Release Candidates will be required, putting the approximate release date of NetBSD 4.0 around December 1. PLEASE NOTE, this is independent of the release process for NetBSD 3.1, which is also occurring during this time. You can check the progress and status of the beta at: http://www.netbsd.org/releng/releng-4.html [9] HOW YOU CAN HELP ---------------- Please test NetBSD 4.0_BETA on your hardware! A lot of work has gone into getting us this far, but we don't have access to every piece of hardware out there. If you've used previous releases of NetBSD, please make sure all your devices continue to work; if you have spare machines, please test the installation procedures. With your help, this will be the best release of NetBSD yet! As always, problems should be reported using send-pr, or you may use the web submission form at:=20 http://www.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/sendpr.cgi?gndb=3Dnetbsd [10] GETTING THE BETA ---------------- Getting source code via anonymous CVS: -------------------------------------- To switch your existing tree to track NetBSD-4.0_BETA, use the "netbsd-4" tag: cd /usr/src cvs update -rnetbsd-4 -dP For more information about anonymous CVS, see http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/current/#using-anoncvs [11] Getting pre-built binaries: --------------------------- The new netbsd-4 branch (which represents NetBSD 4.0_BETA) is being periodically built by the NetBSD Foundation's autobuild cluster. When all is working smoothly, it should be built two or three times per week during the beta cycle. You can access the latest autobuilds of NetBSD here: http://releng.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/builds.cgi [12] and snapshots of NetBSD 4.0_BETA, in particular, can be found here: ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-4/ [13] Please keep in mind that the autobuilds do fail for some platforms occasionally, especially during the beta process. If you don't see a directory for your platform of choice for a given date, please try another. We will be keeping up to three autobuilds of NetBSD 4.0_BETA around at any given time. In order to make testing the beta easier, ISO images have been built for the most recent 4.0_BETA autobuild. They can be retrieved at: ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-4/200608230000Z/iso/ [14] . --Q68bSM7Ycu6FN28Q Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (NetBSD) iQCVAwUBRO8MubOuUtxCgar5AQIq7wQArRPh7uJVc1TOpd6ujBHeIMnD5IPbK+lJ FtXTCiXD3Gnx97UDiMtwEEpd4yeKD5NU9NEbl2b0Nd5vqWsARKClyqBaKhMMcbE+ 4J5qyP6Sg6jxmPOOWn2N+oBkCMmlDGJ1X4gI4g3+/zEht+ONpzANP/ZXz14JWc05 aWgYHyQJT8M= =oqXZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --Q68bSM7Ycu6FN28Q--
From: Geert Hendrickx [email blocked] Subject: The NetBSD 4.0_BETA branch [15] Date: 11/18/2006 22:01:57 --VS++wcV0S1rZb1Fb Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Hi, as you may have noticed, the netbsd-4 branch has stalled since a number of weeks. This is because there are a number of problems with that branch, which have (mostly) been fixed in HEAD, but require a lot of work to pull up into the branch. Therefore we are planning to re-branch netbsd-4 from HEAD in a few weeks. Releng is still allocating resources for this, so we cannot provide any schedule yet, but for the mean time the autobuilds for the netbsd-4 branch have been stopped and no more pullups will be processed anymore. If you are tracking the netbsd-4 branch, it is a good idea to switch to -current now, and return to netbsd-4 after the re-branch. Anything that is in -current now, will make it into NetBSD 4.0. Thanks a lot for your testing and patience, we appreciate it, the NetBSD Release Engineering team --VS++wcV0S1rZb1Fb Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (NetBSD) iQEVAwUBRV90xYLS9urEu56fAQpypQf/RgJC1qULAgP7xDUJF4g3FKNl0xCgIWm0 uDsfQ9g1PFyUNfPrkB82YwMwJ6lIHKdB7GkwLXHkpHssMuqwxDxBG5AYJHoiNFNv TUPQuC/R/OkoESWO+v9Zay9Vds4btJt5MCsToCvtmL1pQx2Nm08+4/RJkN0LnkfO tMFG2JJu2zllMB6knQGthqdJzjUefxzBQYYMpU96/hdu12sQIajgwi4HtkDVnFRc VpNsJZzuVOazKfmkHx3zdO9t9CppxDbJgkCknLzG7Ebvf+PDqZRyfwWJOHnkwLEh g+2pTCnAS49L1rDKayUUnUYu3dl7b4xv3XtvD5BrtY2+wnufdFTJWQ== =8eTL -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --VS++wcV0S1rZb1Fb--
Subject: NetBSD 4.0 release process restarted [16] From: Jeff Rizzo [email blocked] List: netbsd-announce Date: 12/02/2006 17:54:19 --fUYQa+Pmc3FrFX/N Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline On behalf of NetBSD release engineering, I'd like to announce that we have re-started the process of releasing NetBSD 4.0. The process was originally started back in August, with a goal of releasing by right about now- however, in September and October, we had a huge flurry of bug-fixing activity, which improved the quality of NetBSD-current a huge amount (thanks to Elad Efrat for organizing the first two IRC hackathons which closed hundreds of outstanding Problem Reports). At the same time, we realized that if NetBSD 4.0 was to benefit from this work, it would take a superhuman effort from the entire project to get all these fixes pulled up to the release branch. It was clear that it would be unrealistic to expect that to happen through the normal process. We weighed the various options, and decided that our best course of action was to simply start the branch over once we fixed a couple more issues. I'm happy to say that yesterday, December 1, we did just that. The netbsd-4 branch is once again 'open for business', and we're pushing full steam ahead to release. Of course, this means a delay from the original projected release date; we now expect to be able to release NetBSD 4 in March. A couple of minor details: to differentiate the new branch, and new beta process, we have designated this test as NetBSD 4.0_BETA2. If you have source trees from the original netbsd-4 branch, we recommend that you delete them and check out a fresh copy with the netbsd-4 tag (see below). It will be a couple of days until the first test builds of the new branch are available, but we wanted to get the announcement out as soon as possible. You can check the progress and status of the beta at: http://www.netbsd.org/releng/releng-4.html [17] HOW YOU CAN HELP ---------------- Please test NetBSD 4.0_BETA2 on your hardware! A lot of work has gone into getting us this far, but we don't have access to every piece of hardware out there. If you've used previous releases of NetBSD, please make sure all your devices continue to work; if you have spare machines, please test the installation procedures. With your help, this will be the best release of NetBSD yet! As always, problems should be reported using send-pr, or you may use the web submission form at: http://www.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/sendpr.cgi?gndb=netbsd [18] GETTING THE BETA ---------------- Getting source code via anonymous CVS: -------------------------------------- To switch your existing tree to track NetBSD-4.0_BETA2, use the "netbsd-4" tag: cd /usr/src cvs update -rnetbsd-4 -dP For more information about anonymous CVS, see http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/current/#using-anoncvs [19] Getting pre-built binaries: --------------------------- The new netbsd-4 branch (which represents NetBSD 4.0_BETA2) is being periodically built by the NetBSD Foundation's autobuild cluster. When all is working smoothly, it should be built two or three times per week during the beta cycle. You can access the latest autobuilds of NetBSD here: http://releng.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/builds.cgi [20] and snapshots of NetBSD 4.0_BETA2, in particular, can be found here: ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-4/ [21] Please keep in mind that the autobuilds do fail for some platforms occasionally, especially during the beta process. If you don't see a directory for your platform of choice for a given date, please try another. We will be keeping up to three autobuilds of NetBSD 4.0_BETA around at any given time. --fUYQa+Pmc3FrFX/N Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (NetBSD) iQCVAwUBRXIuS7OuUtxCgar5AQI0TAQAjEflq/9ZatzVhF6lot2NfX3p1q5S8/Hz 66KWeiexe+AqicZwnZw+C+7KyIKCWWhV4biJ9CtuFm9gs3/qp9ma44V1eoOkCuYg iygQkVyZcC/lfN/bKXIE89T6YL4R9gzF6Ikvcz19cvRi5WpKqCoyk/u17EKNg6/0 SsY+OnlneSw= =3obb -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --fUYQa+Pmc3FrFX/N--