their contributions accepted by meeting our [Definition of done](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#definition-of-done).
If an issue is complex and needs the attention of a specific person, assignment is a good option but assigning issues might discourage other people from contributing to that issue. We need all the contributions we can get so this should never be discouraged. Also, an assigned person might not have time for a few weeks, so others should feel free to takeover.
On the 7th of each month, RC1 of the upcoming release is released and the stable branch for this release is frozen, which means master is no longer merged into it.
Merge requests may still be merged into master during this period,
but they will go into the _next_ release, unless they are manually cherry-picked into the stable branch.
By freezing the stable branches prior to a release there's no need to worry
about last minute merge requests potentially breaking a lot of
Once the stable branch is frozen, only fixes for regressions (bugs introduced in that same release) and security issues will be cherry-picked into the stable branch, and released in the next RC (before the 22nd) or patch release (after the 22nd).
If your merge request does not meet that requirement but you still think it should go into the upcoming release,
you can ask for an exception to be made.
To make sure the advantages and disadvantages are well considered, exceptions require sign-off from 3 people besides the developer: a Release Manager, the relevant engineering lead, and an engineering director, VP, or CTO.
You and they should weigh the benefit and urgency of the change (how important it is to the company that this is released _right now_ instead of in a month)
against the potential negative impact (things breaking without enough time to comfortably find them and fix them before the release on the 22nd).
When in doubt, we err on the side of _not_ cherry-picking.
For example, an exception may be made for a trivial 1-5 line performance improvement
(e.g. adding an index or adding `includes` to a query), but not for a new feature, no matter how relatively small or thoroughly tested.
Thanks for the issue report. Please reformat your issue to conform to the [contributing guidelines](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#issue-tracker-guidelines).
Thanks for the issue report but we only support issues for the latest stable version of GitLab. I'm closing this issue but if you still experience this problem in the latest stable version, please open a new issue (but also reference the old issue(s)). Make sure to also include the necessary debugging information conforming to the issue tracker guidelines found in our [contributing guidelines](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#issue-tracker-guidelines).
Thanks for the issue report. This issue has already been fixed in newer versions of GitLab. Due to the size of this project and our limited resources we are only able to support the latest stable release as outlined in our [contributing guidelines](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#issue-tracker). In order to get this bug fix and enjoy many new features please [upgrade](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/tree/master/doc/update). If you still experience issues at that time please open a new issue following our issue tracker guidelines found in the [contributing guidelines](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#issue-tracker-guidelines).
Thanks for your interest in improving the GitLab codebase! Please update your merge request according to the [contributing guidelines](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#pull-request-guidelines).
It's been at least 2 weeks (and a new release) since we heard from you. I'm closing this issue but if you still experience this problem, please open a new issue (but also reference the old issue(s)). Make sure to also include the necessary debugging information conforming to the issue tracker guidelines found in our [contributing guidelines](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#issue-tracker-guidelines).
This merge request has been closed because a request for more information has not been reacted to for more than 2 weeks. If you respond and conform to the merge request guidelines in our [contributing guidelines](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#pull-requests) we will reopen this merge request.