[ros-users] [Discourse.ros.org] [Next Generation ROS] Timeline for Crystal

[Dirk Thomas]

With the ROS 2 Crystal release getting closer and the number of contributors increasing we want to provide a more concrete timeline to give everyone a heads up to update / release packages. All of the following dates are our best estimates when things will happen:

**Milestone 1**, week Nov 5th - 9th, first round of `bloom` releases:
* Alpha status.
* Allows maintainers to register their repositories for release / CI / PR testing.
* At that point we don't guarantee that the API is 100% final yet (see next milestone).

**Milestone 2**, Wed Nov 21st, API freeze for core packages - avoid breaking API changes after this:
* Beta status.
* Until that date work is ongoing on the `rmw` interface, `rcl*` as well as `rosidl*` which is expected to break some API used by downstream packages, we will update the documentation on the (to be generated) [Crystal release page](https://index.ros.org/doc/ros2/Release-Crystal-Clemmys/) as we go.
* Afterwards external contributors have enough time to update rmw implementations and message generators to match changed API and get them released before the Crystal release date.

**Milestone 3**, Tue Dec 4th, feature freeze packages for roughly everything in the `ros2.repos` file
* RC status.
* Cut-off for `bloom` releases introducing features (bug fixes during the testing phase will still be accepted).
* Other packages / repositories can of course be released any time - even after the release announcement (same as for existing ROS distros).

**Release** announcement on Fri Dec 14th :crossed_fingers: 

**Post-release**, on demand:
* Make patch releases where necessary.
* Sync on demand (same as of existing ROS distros).

*Your friendly ROS team*





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