tahoe-lafs/docs/release-checklist.rst

Release Checklist

These instructions were produced while making the 1.15.0 release. They are based on the original instructions (in old revisions in the file docs/how_to_make_a_tahoe-lafs_release.org).

Any contributer can do the first part of the release preparation. Only certain contributers can perform other parts. These are the two main sections of this checklist (and could be done by different people).

Any Contributor

Anyone who can create normal PRs should be able to complete this portion of the release process.

Prepare for the Release

The master branch should always be releasable. However, it is worth asking on appropriate channels (IRC, the mailing-list, Nuts and Bolts meetings) whether there are interesting changes that should be included (or NOT included) etc.

• Create a ticket for the release in Trac
• Ticket number needed in next section

Create Branch and Apply Updates

• Create a branch for release-candidates (e.g. release-1.15.0.rc0)
• run tox -e news to produce a new NEWS.txt file (this does a commit)
• create the news for the release
  • newsfragments/<ticket number>.minor
  • commit it
• manually fix NEWS.txt
  • proper title for lastest release (instead of "Release ...post1432")
  • double-check date
  • spot-check the release notes (these come from the newsfragments files though so don't do heavy editing)
  • commit these changes
• update "relnotes.txt"
  • update all mentions of 1.14.0 -> 1.15.0
  • update "previous release" statement and date
  • summarize major changes
  • commit it
• update "CREDITS"
  • are there any new contributers in this release?
  • one way: git log release-1.14.0.. | grep Author | sort | uniq
  • commit it
• update "docs/known_issues.rst" if appropriate
• update "docs/INSTALL.rst" references to the new release
• Push the branch to github
• Create a (draft) PR; this should trigger CI (note that github doesn't let you create a PR without some changes on the branch so running + commiting the NEWS.txt file achieves that without changing any code)
• Confirm CI runs successfully on all platforms

Create Release Candidate

Before "officially" tagging any release, we will make a release-candidate available. So there will be at least 1.15.0rc0 (for example). If there are any problems, an rc1 or rc2 etc may also be released. Anyone can sign these releases (ideally they'd be signed "officially" as well, but it's better to get them out than to wait for that).

Typically expert users will be the ones testing release candidates and they will need to evaluate which contributers' signatures they trust.

• (all steps above are completed)
• sign the release
  • git tag -s -u 0xE34E62D06D0E69CFCA4179FFBDE0D31D68666A7A -m "release Tahoe-LAFS-1.15.0rc0" tahoe-lafs-1.15.0.rc0
  • (replace the key-id above with your own)
• build all code locally
  • these should all pass:
    • tox -e py27,codechecks,docs,integration
  • these can fail (ideally they should not of course):
    • tox -e deprecations,upcoming-deprecations
• build tarballs
  • tox -e tarballs
  • confirm it at least exists:
  • ls dist/ | grep 1.15.0rc0
• inspect and test the tarballs
  • install each in a fresh virtualenv
  • run basic tests
• when satisfied, sign the tarballs:
  • gpg --pinentry=loopback --armor --sign dist/tahoe_lafs-1.15.0rc0-py2-none-any.whl
  • gpg --pinentry=loopback --armor --sign dist/tahoe_lafs-1.15.0rc0.tar.bz2
  • gpg --pinentry=loopback --armor --sign dist/tahoe_lafs-1.15.0rc0.tar.gz
  • gpg --pinentry=loopback --armor --sign dist/tahoe_lafs-1.15.0rc0.zip

Privileged Contributor

Steps in this portion require special access to keys or infrastructure. For example, access to tahoe-lafs.org to upload binaries or edit HTML.

Hack Tahoe-LAFS

Did anyone contribute a hack since the last release? If so, then https://tahoe-lafs.org/hacktahoelafs/ needs to be updated.

Upload Artifacts

Any release-candidate or actual release plus signature (.asc file) need to be uploaded to https://tahoe-lafs.org in ~source/downloads

• secure-copy all release artifacts to the download area on the tahoe-lafs.org host machine. ~source/downloads on there maps to https://tahoe-lafs.org/downloads/ on the Web.
• scp dist/1.15.0 meejah@tahoe-lafs.org:/home/source/downloads
• the following developers have access to do this:
  • exarkun
  • meejah
  • warner

For the actual release, the tarball and signature files need to be uploaded to PyPI as well.

• how to do this?
• (original guide says only "twine upload dist/*")
• the following developers have access to do this:
  • exarkun
  • warner

Upload Dependencies

The original guide says, "upload wheels to https://tahoe-lafs.org/deps/" which seems to be all the wheels of all the dependencies. There are no instructions on how to collect these or where to put them on the tahoe-lafs.org machines.

Is this step still useful?