[ANNOUNCE] X11R6.9/X11R7 Release Candidate 2 ready for testing

[Kevin E Martin]

We are pleased to announce the availability of the second full Release
Candidate (RC2) for the upcoming X.Org Foundation release of X11R6.9 and
X11R7.  This RC includes many bug fixes and updates since the first RC.
We have tagged both the monolithic and modular trees and have prepared
tarballs for you to test.

The X11R6.9-RC2 tarball was created from the traditional monolithic
source tree and can be found here:

  http://xorg.freedesktop.org/releases/X11R6.9-RC2/

X11R7-RC2 is based on the new modularized source tree and as such there
are individual tarballs for each module component in the tree.  The set
of tarballs can be found here:

  http://xorg.freedesktop.org/releases/X11R7.0-RC2/

Now that RC2 has been completed, we are moving into final the testing
and bug fixing phase.  We ask that you please test _both_ the modular
and monolithic trees.  If you find any problems, please file bugs in
fdo's bugzilla (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=xorg)
and mark them as blockers of the release bug (bug #1690) so that they
can be tracked.  Also, we encourage you to discuss any issues you
encounter on this mailing list.

The testing plan for this release can be found here:

  http://wiki.x.org/wiki/X11R6970Testing

Please read this page to find out what needs to be tested and how to run
the X Test Suite.  Note that for us to move forward with the release, we
need feedback on what works and what doesn't based on the tests outlined
in the testing plan.  So, please test this RC.  We would like to hear
about both successes and failures.

For those looking for known issues that need to be fixed, please see the
list of current blockers of the release bug:

  https://bugs.freedesktop.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1690

Now that we have tagged RC2, we are in a code freeze, which means that
the only people who may check-in bug fixes are one of the three release
managers or those people who a release manager designates to check-in an
approved bug.  If fixes not yet approved are checked in, they will be
backed out.

The process for having bug fixes approved for check-in is to file the
bug in bugzilla, mark it as a blocker of the release bug and set the
"6.9/7.0" flag to "?" on the attachment with the patch.  The release
managers will review the bugs blocking the release every few days and
add their comments in bugzilla.  If approval is given and the release
manager designates you as the person to check-in the fix, only then may
you check it in.  If you have any questions about your bugs or patches,
please ask one of the release managers on the xorg at lists.freedesktop.org
mailing list.

Also, note that the tree is closed for new features.  If you have any
questions about whether a particular patch would be considered a bug fix
or a feature, ask one of the release managers to review the patch.

The schedule (from http://wiki.x.org/wiki/X11R6970ReleasePlan) is listed
below:

  4 Jul 2005: Feature freeze for the monolithic source tree
  1 Aug 2005: RC0 (Release Candidate 0)
 18 Oct 2005: RC1 (Full release candidate)
  9 Nov 2005: RC2 (Code Freeze)
 30 Nov 2005: RCfinal
  7 Dec 2005: X11R6.9/X11R7 Release

This gives us three full weeks to test this release and fix bugs before
RCfinal, so please test early and often!

Thank you for your help with making this a successful release!

Alan Coopersmith
Adam Jackson
Kevin E. Martin