Final Objectives
The objective of the Final release is to:
- Provide a polished final release suitable for meeting the needs of our Target Audience
Final Release Requirements
In order to be released to the general public, a compose must meet all of the following criteria. This is intended to make the decision process as clear and straightforward as possible. Mostly met items are incomplete until they are met. Optional and nice to have items should not be included in this list.
There may be times where a requirement is unmet only in a particular configuration, such as with some keyboard layouts but not others, or if a particular character is used in a username, password or passphrase. In such cases, the release team should use their judgement and refer to precedent to determine whether or not the issue should be considered to block the release. They should consider the number of users likely to be affected by the issue, the severity of the case when the issue is encountered, and the ease or otherwise with which the issue can be avoided by both informed and uninformed users.
The term release-blocking desktops means all the desktop environments in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking desktops for x86_64 is GNOME and KDE, and for aarch64 is GNOME. Note that bugs in desktops that are not part of this set which would infringe these criteria automatically qualify for freeze exception status, according to the freeze exception bug process.
The term release-blocking images means all the images in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking images includes the images defined by the three Editions - Server, Workstation and IoT - in their product requirement documents and/or technical specifications, the Everything network install image, key Cloud images, and the KDE live image. The canonical list of release-blocking images for Fedora 42 is on this page.
Process requirements
Beta criteria met
All Fedora 20 Beta Release Criteria must be met.
Final blockers CLOSED
All bugs blocking the Final tracker must be CLOSED.
Media consistency verification
Validation of install media must work correctly for all release-blocking images.
This means that the installer's mechanism for verifying that the install medium is intact must complete successfully if the medium is correctly written and return a legible failure message if it is not.
- Proposed 2012-02-01, implemented 2012-02-20
- Re-worded 2012-06-29, extended 2012-10-24, and re-written again for major Fedora 19 criteria revision
- Test case: QA:Testcase_Mediakit_ISO_Checksums (incomplete)
Virtualization requirements
Xen DomU
The release must boot successfully as Xen DomU with releases providing a functional, supported Xen Dom0 and widely used cloud providers utilizing Xen.
This criterion specifically does not cover Dom0 functionality: we only absolutely require that DomU functionality must work.
- Issue raised 2011-09-26, criterion proposed 2011-10-13, implemented 2011-10-14
- EC2 is by far the most significant use case here
- Test case: QA:Testcase_Boot_Methods_Xen_Para_Virt
Post-install requirements
System services
All system services present after installation with one of the release-blocking package sets must start properly, unless they require hardware which is not present.
- Part of initial Fedora 13 criteria revision
- Rewritten more specifically for major Fedora 19 criteria revision
- Test case: QA:Testcase_Services_start
SELinux and crash notifications
There must be no SELinux denial notifications or crash notifications on boot of or during installation from a release-blocking live image, or at first login after a default install of a release-blocking desktop.
Notifications that only happen on unusual configurations are excluded: see Blocker_Bug_FAQ.
- Part of initial Fedora 13 criteria revision
- Slightly revised for major Fedora 19 criteria revision
- Test case: QA:Testcase_desktop_error_checks
Data corruption
All known bugs that can cause corruption of user data must be fixed or documented at Common F20 bugs.
"User data" really means data: attempts have been made to apply this criterion to things like trivial items of configuration being reset on upgrades or the setting of the system clock, but that is not going to fly.
If the issue is sufficiently serious, we may consider that documenting it is not sufficient and it must be fixed. This is a subjective determination that will be made at blocker review or Go/No-Go meetings.
- Part of initial Fedora 13 criteria revision
- Test case: N/A (a test case for this criterion is not practical, it instead covers all "known bugs")
Security bugs
The release must contain no known security bugs of 'important' or higher impact according to the Red Hat severity classification scale which cannot be satisfactorily resolved by a package update (e.g. issues during installation).
Determination of the classification of a bug can be done by those present at a blocker review or Go/No-Go meeting if necessary, but if the Fedora or Red Hat security team provides a classification, we will usually defer to their wisdom.
- Proposed 2012-10-25, implemented 2012-11-08
- Test case: N/A (a test case for this criterion is not practical, it instead covers all "known bugs")
Release notes
The final branded release notes must be present on release-blocking images and the appropriately versioned generic release notes must be available in the release repository.
- Proposed 2010-10-18, implemented 2011-05-17
- Slightly revised as part of major Fedora 19 criteria revision
- Test case: missing
Release identification
A 
fedora-release
- Proposed 2010-10-18, implemented 2011-05-17
- Test case: missing
Final Blocker Bugs
A bug is considered a Final blocker bug if any of the following criteria are met:
- A bug in a Critical Path package that:
- Cannot be fixed with a future stable update
- Has a severity rating of high or greater and no reasonable workaround (see definition of severity and priority)
- Bug hinders execution of required Final test plans or dramatically reduces test coverage
- Bug relates to an unmet Final Release Requirement
A Fedora Change being incomplete, in and of itself, does not constitute a blocker bug. The Change process is separate from this process. Changes are required to meet certain standards at certain points of the release cycle, but this is part of the Change process and managed, tracked and enforced separately from this process. However, if a proposed feature being incomplete causes any of the above criteria to be met, then the bug is a release blocker.
Contingency Plan
- If all of the Final Release Requirements are not met by 20:00 UTC on Tuesday the week prior to release day, the release will be delayed by one week so that the Final Release Requirements can be met.
- One week will be added to all remaining tasks in the release schedule, including the final release date.
- This decision will be made at the Go/No-Go Meeting.
Confirming Final Requirements
QA has the responsibility of determining whether the criteria for the release has been met (as outlined above) through discussion with Development and Release Engineering. QA's findings will be reviewed and discussed at the Go/No-Go Meeting.