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>Does anybody know why the update is announced a couple of days in advance?

For server operators to be prepared. (And I would prefer if they would narrow the timescales more for that.)

>Are e.g. maintainers of corresponding packages in Linux distros or *BSD given access to the code ahead of time so they can build new packages?

Yes, but that doesn't require a public announcement.

Thanks for clearing that up!

The early announcement allows our sysadmins to plan to work during those hours, and for the rest of our org to know that we'll have rolling infrastructure downtime, and that isn't the best time to plan a new feature launch etc.

presumably, the newly released code might teach malicious users what vulnerabilities are there, which in turn makes everyone who didn't patch quickly vulnerable.

By announcing in advance what is going to happen, people can be ready to update as soon as the patch is available.