Eclipse Project 3.0.2
Endgame Plan
Updated frequently to reflect current status
Status

Wednesday March 23, 2005 15:30 EDT Status: Done! Build 3.0.2RC3 is in the process of being promoted to the official Eclipse 3.0.2 release.
Detailed Timeline
Feburary 2005 
 16  Wed 12:00 EDT   Release Candidate 1 build      details   
 23  Wed 12:00 EDT   Release Candidate 2 build      details   
 24  Thu 08:00 EDT   Start of test pass against RC2      details   
March 2005 
 10  Thu 18:00 EDT   End of test pass against RC2         
11  Fri 08:00 EDT   Release Candidate 3 build     details   
23  Wed   Release 3.0.2 available      details   
Useful Links

Build Schedule - details on build times.
What is the game plan?
The Eclipse 3.0.2 maintenance release endgame involves building a series of release candidates leading to the official 3.0.2 release. By its nature, this maintenance release contains fixes to a small number of serious problems found in the 3.0.0 and 3.0.1 releases. We make and verify each fix carefully, so that we do not need to tie up the entire development team in time-consuming test passes. The maintenance release endgame goes a little slower that the regular release endgame, so that everyone has a little more time to work with each release candidate. As always, we welcome help from the community with testing the release candidates. By default,  3.0.2 is supposed to work exactly like 3.0.1 except for the problems we intended to fix. All problems fixed in 3.0.2 are in the Eclipse bugzilla database and flagged with Target Milestone "3.0.2" (query bugzilla for the complete list of bugs fixed in 3.0.2). So we're most interested in identifying regressions where we've changed something that we did not intend to.

General announcements during the 3.0.2 endgame are posted to the platform-releng-dev@eclipse.org developer mailing list. Anyone participating in the endgame should be subscribed to this list, and should direct any general questions and comments about the process there as well.
Details
RC1
Release candidate containing fixes for the majority of known outstanding defects that we intend to fix for 3.0.2. Since a handful of fixes will not be in for RC1, we will wait until RC2 to do our comprehensive test pass.
RC2
Release candidate containing fixes for all known outstanding defects that we intend to fix for 3.0.2.
Test pass using RC2
Rather than the usual concerted 1-day test pass, we're scheduling a 2 week period during which all component teams are expected to test their components using RC2. EclipseCON which takes place in the middle of it (week of Feb. 28-Mar. 4); this gives the teams some flexibility as to when they'll do their testing. Since this is the only test pass scheduled for this maintenance release, the goal is to verify all the fixes and check for any regressions.
RC3
Release candidate 3, if required, to fix problems detected during the test pass. There is no formal test pass for RC3 and beyond, other than a careful check for last minute regressions.
Release 3.0.2
Release 3.0.2 should be complete and available for download by Friday March 18. If product teams intending to ship on 3.0.2 uncover further serious defects during the endgame, we may schedule additional release candidate builds to incorporate fixes.