Yocto Project Release Checklist

Major Release

• Week prior to build of release candidate
  • Updates to the following packages will have occurred. DO NO PANIC, these come late in the release cycle
    • wic
    • meta-yocto-bsp
    • meta-yocto
    • linux-firmware
    • bootloaders (grub, syslinux, u-boot, gummiboot, etc..)
    • hwdata
    • pciutils
    • util-linux
    • i2c-tools
    • alsa
    • graphics drivers
    • cryptodev
    • systemtap
    • perf
    • linux-yocto

• Prior to build of the first release candidate
  • Does LAYERSERIES_CORENAMES in layer.conf in OE-Core contain the current release name with the previous release removed?
  • Is DISTRO_VERSION updated in poky.conf? (e.g. https://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-yocto/commit/?h=wrynose&id=904846ae078ee20de073040ebb77c86e19250f56)
  • Is SANITY_TESTED_DISTROS updated in poky.conf? (e.g. see above)
  • Is bitbake version updated? (e.g. https://git.openembedded.org/bitbake/commit/?h=2.18&id=33581c84f3a85008239acbd940501a35de48dc91)
  • Are yocto-docs merged to the release branch?
  • Has bitbake -f -c distrodata universe been run?
  • Add a new bitbake-setup configuration file in BitBake's registry (create a new one, do not delete old ones, e.g. https://lore.kernel.org/bitbake-devel/20260422095624.241708-1-richard.purdie@linuxfoundation.org/T/)
  • Add branch selectors and scheduled jobs to autobuilder configuration (e.g. https://lore.kernel.org/yocto-patches/20260423214412.2387367-2-richard.purdie@linuxfoundation.org/T/)
    • Add the release to schedulers.py/branchdefaults for the dropdown a-full selector (e.g. https://git.yoctoproject.org/yocto-autobuilder2/commit/?id=09e83bc8c7737c6e36914d651d1620df9eca0cca)
    • Update schedulers.py/schedulers (e.g. https://git.yoctoproject.org/yocto-autobuilder2/commit/?id=80ce858b499f7c91cd7a2a0990f6e28e879f0fca)
  • Create&push the yocto-autobuilder-helper branch matching the new release
  • Update Toaster fixtures files
  • Update SRCREVs in build-appliance-image (e.g. https://git.openembedded.org/openembedded-core/commit/?h=wrynose&id=42fa856a00ac16b2a7a83d7ecfa60a5be192b16c)
  • Add new release series to the Layerindex

• After the final release candidate has returned from QA and is approved, verify the following:
  • BSP tarballs have been generated.
  • Release Notes have been created, finalized, and approved.
  • Release Notes have been signed.
  • Repos have been tagged with correct commit and signature.
  • The README for each BSP has been checked and updated if necessary.
  • Artifacts correctly moved to https://downloads.yoctoproject.org/releases/yocto/.
  • The kernel.org mirror sync has been triggered and completed successfully.
  • The release announcement has been sent to the appropriate mailing lists. (yocto and yocto-announce)
  • docs.yoctoproject.org updated correct dropdown version.
  • Files to update in yocto-docs:
    • Create new release note templates in documentation/migration-guides/ (e.g. https://lore.kernel.org/yocto-docs/20251218-release-notes-templates-6-0-v1-1-61690583cef2@bootlin.com/)
    • Update documentation/ref-manual/svg/releases.svg (e.g. https://lore.kernel.org/yocto-docs/20251204-release-updates-v2-2-04ca6c26ddd5@bootlin.com/)
  • Files to update in yocto-autobuilder2:
    • update workers_prev_releases in config.py (e.g. https://lore.kernel.org/yocto-patches/20251217-add-whinlatter-to-config-v1-1-9aeb42d212bd@bootlin.com/)
  • Files to update in yocto-autobuilder-helper:
    • Update scripts/release-parser.py
  • Files to update in yocto-metrics:
    • Update patch-status/releases.csv