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+<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
+"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd"
+[<!ENTITY % poky SYSTEM "../poky.ent"> %poky; ] >
+<!--SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-2.0-UK-->
+
+<chapter id='ref-release-process'>
+<title>Yocto Project Releases and the Stable Release Process</title>
+
+<para>
+    The Yocto Project release process is predictable and consists of both
+    major and minor (point) releases.
+    This brief chapter provides information on how releases are named, their
+    life cycle, and their stability.
+</para>
+
+<section id='major-and-minor-release-cadence'>
+    <title>Major and Minor Release Cadence</title>
+
+    <para>
+        The Yocto Project delivers major releases (e.g. &DISTRO;) using a six
+        month cadence roughly timed each April and October of the year.
+        Following are examples of some major YP releases with their codenames
+        also shown.
+        See the
+        "<link linkend='major-release-codenames'>Major Release Codenames</link>"
+        section for information on codenames used with major releases.
+        <literallayout class='monospaced'>
+    2.2 (Morty)
+    2.1 (Krogoth)
+    2.0 (Jethro)
+        </literallayout>
+        While the cadence is never perfect, this timescale facilitates
+        regular releases that have strong QA cycles while not overwhelming
+        users with too many new releases.
+        The cadence is predictable and avoids many major holidays in various
+        geographies.
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+        The Yocto project delivers minor (point) releases on an unscheduled
+        basis and are usually driven by the accumulation of enough significant
+        fixes or enhancements to the associated major release.
+        Following are some example past point releases:
+        <literallayout class='monospaced'>
+    2.1.1
+    2.1.2
+    2.2.1
+        </literallayout>
+        The point release indicates a point in the major release branch where
+        a full QA cycle and release process validates the content of the new
+        branch.
+        <note>
+            Realize that there can be patches merged onto the stable release
+            branches as and when they become available.
+        </note>
+    </para>
+</section>
+
+<section id='major-release-codenames'>
+    <title>Major Release Codenames</title>
+
+    <para>
+        Each major release receives a codename that identifies the release in
+        the
+        <ulink url='&YOCTO_DOCS_OM_URL;#yocto-project-repositories'>Yocto Project Source Repositories</ulink>.
+        The concept is that branches of
+        <link linkend='metadata'>Metadata</link>
+        with the same codename are likely to be compatible and thus
+        work together.
+        <note>
+            Codenames are associated with major releases because a Yocto
+            Project release number (e.g. &DISTRO;) could conflict with
+            a given layer or company versioning scheme.
+            Codenames are unique, interesting, and easily identifiable.
+        </note>
+        Releases are given a nominal release version as well but the codename
+        is used in repositories for this reason.
+        You can find information on Yocto Project releases and codenames at
+        <ulink url='https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Releases'></ulink>.
+    </para>
+</section>
+
+<section id='stable-release-process'>
+    <title>Stable Release Process</title>
+
+    <para>
+        Once released, the release enters the stable release process at which
+        time a person is assigned as the maintainer for that stable release.
+        This maintainer monitors activity for the release by investigating
+        and handling nominated patches and backport activity.
+        Only fixes and enhancements that have first been applied on the
+        "master" branch (i.e. the current, in-development branch) are
+        considered for backporting to a stable release.
+        <note>
+            The current Yocto Project policy regarding backporting is to
+            consider bug fixes and security fixes only.
+            Policy dictates that features are not backported to a stable
+            release.
+            This policy means generic recipe version upgrades are unlikely to
+            be accepted for backporting.
+            The exception to this policy occurs when a strong reason exists
+            such as the fix happens to also be the preferred upstream approach.
+        </note>
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+        Stable release branches have strong maintenance for about a year after
+        their initial release.
+        Should significant issues be found for any release regardless of its
+        age, fixes could be backported to older releases.
+        For issues that are not backported given an older release,
+        Community LTS trees and branches exist where
+        community members share patches for older releases.
+        However, these types of patches do not go through the same release
+        process as do point releases.
+        You can find more information about stable branch maintenance at
+        <ulink url='https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Stable_branch_maintenance'></ulink>.
+    </para>
+</section>
+
+<section id='testing-and-quality-assurance'>
+    <title>Testing and Quality Assurance</title>
+
+    <para>
+        Part of the Yocto Project development and release process is quality
+        assurance through the execution of test strategies.
+        Test strategies provide the Yocto Project team a way to ensure a
+        release is validated.
+        Additionally, because the test strategies are visible to you as a
+        developer, you can validate your projects.
+        This section overviews the available test infrastructure used in the
+        Yocto Project.
+        For information on how to run available tests on your projects, see the
+        "<ulink url='&YOCTO_DOCS_DEV_URL;#performing-automated-runtime-testing'>Performing Automated Runtime Testing</ulink>"
+        section in the Yocto Project Development Tasks Manual.
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+        The QA/testing infrastructure is woven into the project to the point
+        where core developers take some of it for granted.
+        The infrastructure consists of the following pieces:
+        <itemizedlist>
+            <listitem><para>
+                <filename>bitbake-selftest</filename>:
+                A standalone command that runs unit tests on key pieces of
+                BitBake and its fetchers.
+                </para></listitem>
+            <listitem><para>
+                <link linkend='ref-classes-sanity'><filename>sanity.bbclass</filename></link>:
+                This automatically included class checks the build environment
+                for missing tools (e.g. <filename>gcc</filename>) or common
+                misconfigurations such as
+                <link linkend='var-MACHINE'><filename>MACHINE</filename></link>
+                set incorrectly.
+                </para></listitem>
+            <listitem><para>
+                <link linkend='ref-classes-insane'><filename>insane.bbclass</filename></link>:
+                This class checks the generated output from builds for sanity.
+                For example, if building for an ARM target, did the build
+                produce ARM binaries.
+                If, for example, the build produced PPC binaries then there
+                is a problem.
+                </para></listitem>
+            <listitem><para>
+                <link linkend='ref-classes-testimage*'><filename>testimage.bbclass</filename></link>:
+                This class performs runtime testing of images after they are
+                built.
+                The tests are usually used with
+                <ulink url='&YOCTO_DOCS_DEV_URL;#dev-manual-qemu'>QEMU</ulink>
+                to boot the images and check the combined runtime result
+                boot operation and functions.
+                However, the test can also use the IP address of a machine to
+                test.
+                </para></listitem>
+            <listitem><para>
+                <ulink url='&YOCTO_DOCS_DEV_URL;#testing-packages-with-ptest'><filename>ptest</filename></ulink>:
+                Runs tests against packages produced during the build for a
+                given piece of software.
+                The test allows the packages to be be run within a target
+                image.
+                </para></listitem>
+            <listitem><para>
+                <filename>oe-selftest</filename>:
+                Tests combination BitBake invocations.
+                These tests operate outside the OpenEmbedded build system
+                itself.
+                The <filename>oe-selftest</filename> can run all tests by
+                default or can run selected tests or test suites.
+                <note>
+                    Running <filename>oe-selftest</filename> requires
+                    host packages beyond the "Essential" grouping.
+                    See the
+                    "<link linkend='required-packages-for-the-build-host'>Required Packages for the Build Host</link>"
+                    section for more information.
+                </note>
+                </para></listitem>
+        </itemizedlist>
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+        Originally, much of this testing was done manually.
+        However, significant effort has been made to automate the tests so
+        that more people can use them and the Yocto Project development team
+        can run them faster and more efficiently.
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+        The Yocto Project's main Autobuilder
+        (<filename>autobuilder.yoctoproject.org</filename>) publicly tests
+        each Yocto Project release's code in the
+        <link linkend='oe-core'>OE-Core</link>, Poky, and BitBake
+        repositories.
+        The testing occurs for both the current state of the
+        "master" branch and also for submitted patches.
+        Testing for submitted patches usually occurs in the
+        "ross/mut" branch in the <filename>poky-contrib</filename> repository
+        (i.e. the master-under-test branch) or in the "master-next" branch
+        in the <filename>poky</filename> repository.
+        <note>
+            You can find all these branches in the Yocto Project
+            <ulink url='&YOCTO_DOCS_OM_URL;#source-repositories'>Source Repositories</ulink>.
+        </note>
+        Testing within these public branches ensures in a publicly visible way
+        that all of the main supposed architectures and recipes in OE-Core
+        successfully build and behave properly.
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+        Various features such as <filename>multilib</filename>, sub
+        architectures (e.g. <filename>x32</filename>,
+        <filename>poky-tiny</filename>, <filename>musl</filename>,
+        <filename>no-x11</filename> and and so forth),
+        <filename>bitbake-selftest</filename>, and
+        <filename>oe-selftest</filename> are tested as part of
+        the QA process of a release.
+        Complete testing and validation for a release takes the Autobuilder
+        workers several hours.
+        <note>
+            The Autobuilder workers are non-homogeneous, which means regular
+            testing across a variety of Linux distributions occurs.
+            The Autobuilder is limited to only testing QEMU-based setups and
+            not real hardware.
+        </note>
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+        Finally, in addition to the Autobuilder's tests, the Yocto Project
+        QA team also performs testing on a variety of platforms, which includes
+        actual hardware, to ensure expected results.
+    </para>
+</section>
+
+</chapter>
+<!--
+vim: expandtab tw=80 ts=4
+-->