We cut a release branch for the 2.12.0 release.

Our plan from this point from this point is roughly:

• Phase 1 (until 27/4/26): work on finalizing the release branch
• Phase 2 (after 27/4/26): perform extended integration/stability/performance testing based on Release Candidate builds.

This issue is for tracking cherry-picks to the release branch.

Cherry-Pick Criteria

Phase 1 (until 27/4/26):

Only low-risk changes may be cherry-picked from main:

1. Fixes to regressions against the most recent minor release (e.g. 2.11.x for this release; see module: regression issue list)
2. Critical fixes for: silent correctness, backwards compatibility, crashes, deadlocks, (large) memory leaks
3. Critical fixes to new features introduced in the most recent minor release (e.g. 2.11.x for this release)
4. Test/CI fixes
5. Documentation improvements
6. Compilation fixes or ifdefs required for different versions of the compilers or third-party libraries
7. Release branch specific changes (e.g. change version identifiers)

Any other change requires special dispensation from the release managers (currently @atalman, @malfet ). If this applies to your change please write "Special Dispensation" in the "Criteria Category:" template below and explain.

Phase 2 (after 27/4/26):

Note that changes here require us to rebuild a Release Candidate and restart extended testing (likely delaying the release). Therefore, the only accepted changes are Release-blocking critical fixes for: silent correctness, backwards compatibility, crashes, deadlocks, (large) memory leaks

Changes will likely require a discussion with the larger release team over VC or Slack.

Cherry-Pick Process

1. Ensure your PR has landed in master. This does not apply for release-branch specific changes (see Phase 1 criteria).

2. Create (but do not land) a PR against the release branch.

   <details>

   # Find the hash of the commit you want to cherry pick
   # (for example, abcdef12345)
   git log
   
   git fetch origin release/2.12
   git checkout release/2.12
   git cherry-pick -x abcdef12345
   
   # Submit a PR based against 'release/2.11' either:
   # via the GitHub UI
   git push my-fork
   
   # via the GitHub CLI
   gh pr create --base release/2.12

   You can also use the @pytorchbot cherry-pick command to cherry-pick your PR. To do this, just add a comment in your merged PR. For example:

   @pytorchbot cherry-pick --onto release/2.12 -c docs

   (-c docs - is the category of your changes - adjust accordingly):

   For more information, see pytorchbot cherry-pick docs.

   </details>

3. Make a request below with the following format:

Link to landed trunk PR (if applicable):
* 

Link to release branch PR:
* 

Criteria Category:
*

1. Someone from the release team will reply with approved / denied or ask for more information.
2. If approved, someone from the release team will merge your PR once the tests pass. Do not land the release branch PR yourself.

NOTE: Our normal tools (ghstack / ghimport, etc.) do not work on the release branch.

Please note HUD Link with branch CI status and link to the HUD to be provided here. HUD

cc @seemethere @malfet @pytorch/pytorch-dev-infra

Versions

2.12.0