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
  • Is DISTRO_VERSION updated in poky.conf?
  • Is SDK_VERSION updated in poky.conf?
  • Is SANITY_TESTED_DISTROS updated in poky.conf?
  • 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/)
  • Update Toaster fixtures files
  • Update SRCREVs in build-appliance-image

• 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/
    • Update documentation/ref-manual/svg/releases.svg
  • Files to update in yocto-autobuilder2:
    • update workers_prev_releases in config.py
  • Files to update in yocto-autobuilder-helper:
    • Update scripts/release-parser.py
  • Files to update in yocto-metrics:
    • Update patch-status/releases.csv