Synopsis #
A FreeBSD release stops receiving security advisories and errata notices after its support period ends. A system does not become unusable on that date, but newly discovered base-system problems may remain uncorrected. Package availability can also become difficult after a release leaves the supported set.
The FreeBSD Security Officer currently lists these supported release branches:
| Release | Release date | Earliest expected end of support |
|---|---|---|
| 15.1-RELEASE | June 16, 2026 | March 31, 2027 |
| 15.0-RELEASE | December 2, 2025 | September 30, 2026 |
| 14.4-RELEASE | March 10, 2026 | December 31, 2026 |
These dates are planning inputs, not values to copy permanently into monitoring code. The official support page states that an expected end date can be extended. Check that page again before every maintenance window.
Understand the support model #
Each minor release is supported until three months after the next minor release in the same major series. The final minor release remains supported until the corresponding stable branch reaches its end of support. From FreeBSD 15 onward, a stable branch is explicitly supported for four years from its .0 release. The FreeBSD 14 stable branch has an expected end date of November 30, 2028.
Support for a stable branch does not keep every earlier X.Y-RELEASE supported. Security advisories name the affected and corrected release branches. A host on an end-of-life minor release should be upgraded rather than treated as covered by the continued existence of stable/X.
-BETA and -RC builds are short-lived test releases and are not production alternatives to a supported -RELEASE.
Identify the installed state #
Record the running kernel, installed kernel, and installed userland:
$ freebsd-version -kru
A patch suffix such as -p4 identifies a security or errata patch level within the release. A difference between the running and installed kernel can be expected immediately after installing a kernel update and before rebooting. It should not be mistaken for a different supported release.
Also identify how the base system is maintained:
$ pkg which /usr/bin/uname
If the file is not registered to a package, the host normally uses distribution sets and freebsd-update. A result such as FreeBSD-runtime-15.0 identifies pkgbase. The update, upgrade, or package-update guide
explains the maintenance boundary.
Plan before the end date #
Schedule a supported upgrade while both the source and destination releases are still documented and package repositories remain available. The upgrade path is based on release chronology, not only the major number. Moving backward chronologically or skipping a major series is unsupported even when a tool accepts the target string.
For the current production release, use the 15.1 upgrade checklist . Systems older than 14.4-RELEASE or 15.0-RELEASE must first move incrementally to a documented source release.