Right after update release 11.0.<n-1> was branched from mercurial repository jdk11u-dev to jdk11u, the release cycle for release 11.0.<n> starts. As the very first step, the jdk11u-dev repository will be tagged with jdk11.0.<n>+0. One of the first changes should be to bump the version, e.g. something similar to JDK-8219710. At about 6 weeks before its general availability (GA), an update release enters ramp down phase 2 (RDP2) and the current state of jdk11u-dev will be transported to jdk11u. From that point onwards, the update release is stabilized by only accepting very select fixes in jdk11u. Eligible candidates are fixes that Oracle has brought to their correspondent JDK11 update release, fixes for high priority issues or test fixes. Builds from jdk11u will be tagged on a weekly basis, when new changesets have been pushed. The tags will have the format of jdk11.0.<n>+<build>, where <n> is the placeholder for the update release and <build> is the monotonically increasing build number. Each tag that gets set in jdk11u will be integrated back to jdk11u-dev in a timely manner. At about 2 weeks before GA, a complete freeze will be anounced for jdk11u, allowing the maintainers of the security changes (currently Red Hat) to integrate and test the collected fixes in a secure, internal environment. At the release day, these will be merged into jdk11u and the final tags jdk11.0.<n>+<build> and jdk11.0.<n>-ga will be set.