The Debian developers have published a plan to freeze the package base of the Debian 12 "Bookworm" release. Debian 12 is expected to be released in mid-2023.
On January 12, 2023, the first stage of freezing the package database will begin, within which the execution of "transitions" (updating packages that require adjustment of dependencies for other packages, which leads to the temporary removal of packages from Testing) will be stopped, as well as updating the packages necessary for assembly will be stopped (build-essential).
On February 12, 2023, a soft freeze of the package base will take place, during which the acceptance of new source packages will be stopped and the possibility of re-enabling previously deleted packages will be closed.
On March 12, 2023, a hard freeze will be applied before the release, during which the process of transferring key packages and packages without autopkgtests from unstable to testing will be completely stopped and the stage of intensive testing and fixing problems blocking the release will begin. The hard freeze stage is introduced for the first time and is considered as a necessary intermediate step before a full freeze, covering all packages. The time of complete freezing has not yet been precisely determined.
Source: opennet.ru