glibc 2.43 suggested release schedule

[Carlos O'Donell]

On 11/10/25 9:15 AM, Andreas K. Huettel wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> the planned release date for glibc 2.43 is 1/February/2026.
> (Ideally a bit earlier since that is just the FOSDEM sunday.)

Releasing early is *absolutely* OK with me, and it has always been the intent
that if we have confidence in our testing that we could release early and
start the next development cycle early. Often though it takes a few weeks to
finalize the details of the release and hence the practical "release month"
window.

> So here's the suggested preparation schedule.
> 
> One change: because of the christmas / new year break where barely anyone
> is online, the soft freeze phase is extended by one week.
> 
>      14 Dec 2025: Soft freeze (3 instead of 2 weeks because of end of year / christmas break)
>          No *starting* of new features anymore
>          Decisions on what goes still in and what goes not
>          Review and addition of patches

Yes, starting the soft freeze on 14 Dec 2025 makes sense to me.

>      4 Jan 2026: Freeze
>          Machine testing
>          Bug fixes without large impact
>          No ABI changes without RM discussion
>          High risk bug fixes should be discussed on the list.

Agreed.

However, I will note that Fedora's currently F44 schedule puts their mass rebuild
at January 7th, which is earlier than ever before:

https://forge.fedoraproject.org/releng/tickets/issues/13102
https://fedorapeople.org/groups/schedule/f-44/f-44-all-tasks.html

If we could take Fedora into consideration when make these decisions that would
be great. That is to say if we can avoid ABI changes after the 7th that would be
great.

I'm hoping that the schedule shifts slightly since we're trying to integrate
GCC 16:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/GNUToolchainF44

>      18 Jan 2026: Hard freeze
>          Only critically important or technically straightforward bug fixes
>      1 Feb 2026 (or ideally a bit earlier): Release
> 
> Good to go?

Yes.

-- 
Cheers,
Carlos.