karmic release freeze approaching; FTBFS packages need attention

[Steve Langasek]

Dear developers,

With the release of Ubuntu 9.10 just over two weeks away, it will shortly
be time to freeze the archive to limit the number of last-minute changes
entering the release.  On Thursday, October 15, the archive will be frozen,
after which uploads to main will require approval from the release team and
should be done only for changes which are critical for the release.

The list of release-critical bugs is tracked here:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/+bugs?field.milestone=12698

Additional bugs that are considered "targets of opportunity" for the release
are found at:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/+bugs

If there are other bugs that you believe are important to fix before the
release which are not yet listed on the above pages, please get in touch
with me or another member of the release team.

Although uploads to main must be approved by the release team before they
are accepted, this does not mean that you need to get approval from the
release team prior to upload.  If you have a reasonable belief that the
upload will be accepted (for example, because it includes minimal changes
necessary to fix a release-targetted bug), you are encouraged to upload
directly, so that the package can be reviewed in the "unapproved" queue
itself.

For uploads to universe and multiverse, the guidelines published a few
releases ago should still be a good starting point:

  https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2008-April/025259.html

If you have any questions about this process, please follow up to the
ubuntu-devel mailing list.


One area that still needs attention between now and the release are package
build failures.  You can find a combined list of FTBFS packages in main and
universe at:

  http://people.ubuntuwire.org/~wgrant/rebuild-ftbfs-test/test-rebuild-20090909-karmic.html

In total, there are 836 packages which fail to build.  And with a total of
143 Ubuntu Developers, you should fix 5.85 build failures to meet your
quota.  Of course, fixing more build failures is also highly appreciated.

For main, there was a newer automated run, for which bugs have been filed.
You can find the list with:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.tag=karmic-autotest

The number of build failures in main definitely needs to be brought *way*
down from its current level before we release at the end of the month.

Please always check the sponsor queues before you start, there may already
be a patch.

For main:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-main-sponsors/+subscribedbugs

And for universe:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-universe-sponsors/+subscribedbugs

And please always forward changes to Debian/upstream.

Thanks,
-- 
Steve Langasek
On behalf of the Ubuntu release team