This weekend has been a busy one for the Debian project. First, the Debian 13 installer hit the release candidate stage. Then came the 12.11 update for the “Bookworm” series.
And now, there’s yet another important update—the development team has officially moved “Trixie,” its upcoming Debian 13 release, into a “hard freeze” state as of May 17, 2025. In simple terms, this is the final stage before a new version of Debian is officially released.
Debian’s hard freeze typically lasts several weeks to a few months, depending on how quickly the release team can resolve any remaining critical issues. It ends when everything is stable and ready—that’s when the new Debian version officially launches.
Based on everything we’ve seen so far, while it’s still a bit speculative, it’s fair to say we can probably expect Debian 13 to land sometime in July.
During the hard freeze phase, strict guidelines now apply to package updates. Specifically, key packages and those without thorough autopkgtest coverage will require explicit approval from Debian’s release team before migrating from the “unstable” branch to the “testing” branch.
Developers are reminded to carefully adhere to Debian’s freeze policy, submitting unblock requests through the recommended channels, notably the “reportbug” tool, to ensure compliance.
However, packages not designated as key packages, which boast robust autopkgtests passing across all architectures without regressions, will continue to migrate automatically after a 20-day period. Developers unsure about their package statuses are encouraged to consult Debian’s QA or package tracker tools.
It’s also critical to note that Debian’s release team emphasizes caution: packages exhibiting bugs can still be removed from Trixie during this freeze. Importantly, these packages won’t be permitted to return once removed.
Additionally, Debian calls on its community to help identify any lingering issues through extensive installation and upgrade testing, actively contributing to bug resolution efforts, particularly for key packages.
Last but not least, the project has officially confirmed architecture changes for Trixie: “mips64el” will no longer be supported, while “riscv64” is being introduced as a new release architecture.
For more information, see the announcement on Debian’s mailing list.
