bits from the release team: are you ready to skate yet?

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Hi all,

First freeze is getting nearer
==============================

On 12 January 2023 we're hitting the first milestone of the bookworm
release: the Transition and Toolchain Freeze. If you made plans for
the bookworm release, now is the time to evaluate if it's realistic to
go ahead or if time is running too short. Keep in mind that others may
have less time to work on your plans than you do. Remember you always
have experimental to stage changes. If there is an unfixed bug that is
nagging you, remember to fix it (e.g. via an NMU) now rather than
later.

When the Transition and Toolchain Freeze starts, we'll be expecting
maintainers to not start new transitions, and to avoid large and/or
disruptive changes in their uploads. Maintainers of packages that are
part of the toolchain [TOOLCHAIN] are expected to stop uploading these
packages. In case an upload is really needed, align with us before
uploading to unstable.

Please consult the bookworm freeze policy and timeline
[BOOKWORM-FREEZE] for detailed information about the different types
of freezes and what they mean for you.

[TOOLCHAIN] https://release.debian.org/testing/essential-and-build-essential.txt
[BOOKWORM-FREEZE] https://release.debian.org/testing/freeze_policy.html


Help fixing bugs
================

We know that many people would like short freezes (we do as well). We
can achieve this if we all pull up our sleeves and fix RC bugs in
testing before the transition freeze starts (or help remove packages
with RC bugs from testing). You can do that now, by looking at the list
of RC bugs [BUGS] or joining the #debian-bugs irc channel on
irc.oftc.net.

You may also want to check if your favorite packages are still in
bookworm, and haven't been removed because of issues. This is your
chance to bring them back.

Now is also a good time to join one of the planned Bug Squashing
Parties[BSP], or organize one yourself [HOSTINGBSP]. Note that Debian
is willing to reimburse [REIMBURSE] reasonable expenses to attend Bug
Squashing Parties.

[BUGS] https://udd.debian.org/bugs/
[BSP] https://wiki.debian.org/BSP
[HOSTINGBSP] https://wiki.debian.org/HostingBSP
[REIMBURSE] https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DPL/Reimbursement


nocheck and nodoc build profiles
================================

On our everlasting quest to make the key package set definition as
useful as possible [ON-KEY-PACKAGES], we have established that it's
often important to know if Build-Depends are needed for tests
only. Therefore we would appreciate it if maintainers (particularly
those of key packages) would actively seek for build dependencies that
can be rightfully annotated with <!nocheck> [BUILD-PROFILES].

For this to work it means that failing to build from source with the
nocheck build profile will have to be RC, but until the bookworm
release we will accept lower severity. Please consider checking that
the annotation works as intended by building with --nocheck and
comparing results with diffoscope.

Please also consider supporting the nodoc build profile. We are aware
that nodoc is regularly used in a non-reproducible way (as intended,
but with this consequence), so checking for correctness of this
profile may be a bit harder. Ideally, using the profile would just
make documentation binaries virtually empty.

[ON-KEY-PACKAGES] https://release.debian.org/key-packages.html
[BUILD-PROFILES] https://wiki.debian.org/BuildProfileSpec


Debian 14
=========

The release team has decided that the release after bookworm and
trixie will be called forky.

On behalf of the Release Team
Paul
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iQEzBAEBCAAdFiEEWLZtSHNr6TsFLeZynFyZ6wW9dQoFAmNHxJ8ACgkQnFyZ6wW9
dQrDDgf/Ws5lHpcnPxAA3T8mmSyFTgKFihysX10UvlIHcT6eOgUIzKwnUOcgYqsv
DUdiUQ9j6dQfMkY3wC/Koau2SanAezoo+lHLSQGp/GSefKq2DVeVH0CBA2cYa9Yb
L8ZVL/fYX5n8OvdV/FpJtr0AjEfwvox7qfKYAv3SsBXrMWB/Nm4kNbpmzbpfyUiD
YdlxQ5gHRubVQQM4zfyB+MZ3tgldLyYsemVfXUiIN6ppdnM/1w5vbXKKH/068AAC
Vnd4mcwL+sGf1jqULh6Q8Xp2cR5sn3yBFokKSHFz+c1N0JtyKDSzY/CloBtJVfuN
T+PU25iVPgpXPuM45pHcr88UuNLH5Q==
=TKFq
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----