Emergency Release: When a software fault prevents the system from operating correctly, a fix (patch) is made available as an emergency release. Such action may also be necessary when certain enhancements are urgently needed in order to comply with external regulatory requirements. An emergency release has the following characteristics:
- It is supplied only to the site that reported the problem. Other sites will get the fix along with the minor (maintenance) release in which the fault is fixed.
- It addresses only the critical problem in question.
- The emergency fix is temporary in nature and will be replaced by the next maintenance release.