[Bioc-devel] Bioconductor 1.7 release schedule

[Seth Falcon]

Hello all,

Below is the release schedule for Bioconductor 1.7.  The schedule
includes critical deadlines for package maintainers.  Before I dive
into the dates, here are a few quick reminders:

1. Biocondcutor 1.7 will be built with R-2.2.0 (scheduled for release
   on 6 Oct).  Please start testing your package with this version of
   R now.

2. Please make a habit of reviewing the status of your package in the
   nightly build.  The build results are available here:
   http://www.bioconductor.org/checkResults/checkResults.html

3. The Bioconductor release schedule is tied to the release schedule
   of R; our deadlines have to fit within this schedule.  I've denoted
   deadlines dictated by R's release schedule as "(R)".


And now for the dates:


*** 6 September

- No new packages added to release roster.
- Testing versions of updated annotation data packages will be made
  available for testing.  These will not be the final set of packages,
  but should be representative of data and structure changes.
  

*** 8 September (R)

- Grand feature freeze for R-2.2.0.  Alpha versions available
  daily.  At this point there is no excuse for not using R-2.2.0 to
  test your package and fix any compatibility issues.


*** 18 September 

- Deadline for packages passing R CMD check without error. 
- Stage I Code Freeze: no API changes, no new features.


*** 22 September (R)

- Beta release of R-2.2.0 available.


*** 27 September

- Deadline for packages passing R CMD check without warning.

- Stage II Code Freeze: All packages are finalized


*** 30 September

- Stage III Code Freeze (aka "Absolute Zero").  We will be building
  release repositories and testing.  Only "show-stopper" bugs will be
  fixed where show-stopper is defined by the release team (not package
  maintainer).


*** 6 October (R)

- R 2.2.0 is released


*** 7 October

- Begin building final release repositories
- Testing install scripts, GUI installation


*** 11 October

- Release of Bioconductor 1.7



Best Wishes,

+ seth