nixpkgs/nixos/doc/manual/development/releases.xml

<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
        xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
        xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
        version="5.0"
        xml:id="ch-releases">

<title>Releases</title>

<section xml:id="release-process">
  <title>Release process</title>

  <para>
    Going through an example of releasing NixOS 15.09:
  </para>

  <section xml:id="one-month-before-the-beta">
    <title>One month before the beta</title>
    <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Send an email to nix-dev mailinglist as a warning about upcoming beta "feature freeze" in a month.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Discuss with Eelco Dolstra and the community (via IRC, ML) about what will reach the deadline.
          Any issue or Pull Request targeting the release should have assigned milestone.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </section>
  <section xml:id="at-beta-release-time">
    <title>At beta release time</title>
    <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Rename <literal>rl-unstable.xml</literal> -&gt;
          <literal>rl-1509.xml</literal>.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <literal>git tag -a -m &quot;Release 15.09-beta&quot; 15.09-beta &amp;&amp; git push --tags</literal>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          From the master branch run <literal>git checkout -B release-15.09</literal>.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-org-configurations/pull/18">
            Make sure channel is created at http://nixos.org/channels/.
          </link>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/settings/branches">
            Lock the branch on github (so developers can’t force push)
          </link>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/compare/bdf161ed8d21...6b63c4616790">bump
          <literal>system.defaultChannel</literal> attribute in
          <literal>nixos/modules/misc/version.nix</literal></link>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/d6b08acd1ccac0d9d502c4b635e00b04d3387f06">update
          <literal>versionSuffix</literal> in
          <literal>nixos/release.nix</literal></link>, use
          <literal>git log --format=%an|wc -l</literal> to get commit
          count
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <literal>echo -n &quot;16.03&quot; &gt; .version</literal> in
          master.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/b8a4095003e27659092892a4708bb3698231a842">pick
          a new name for unstable branch.</link>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/13559">Create
            an issue for tracking Zero Hydra Failures progress. ZHF is an effort
            to get build failures down to zero.</link>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Use https://lwn.net/Vulnerabilities/ and 
          <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=vulnerabilities&type=Issues">triage vulnerabilities in an issue</link>.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Create two Hydra jobsets: release-15.09 and release-15.09-small with <literal>stableBranch</literal> set to false
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Edit changelog at
          <literal>nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-1509.xml</literal>
          (double check desktop versions are noted)
        </para>
        <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
          <listitem>
            <para>
              Get all new NixOS modules
              <literal>git diff release-14.12..release-15.09 nixos/modules/module-list.nix|grep ^+</literal>
            </para>
          </listitem>
          <listitem>
            <para>
              Note systemd, kernel, glibc and Nix upgrades.
            </para>
          </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </section>
  <section xml:id="before-the-final-release">
    <title>Before the final release</title>
    <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Release Nix (currently only Eelco Dolstra can do that).
          <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/53710c752a85f00658882531bc90a23a3d1287e4">
            Make sure fallback is updated.
          </link>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/40fd9ae3ac8048758abdcfc7d28a78b5f22fe97e">
            Update README.md with new stable NixOS version information.
          </link>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Change <literal>stableBranch</literal> to true and wait for channel to update.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </section>
  <section xml:id="at-final-release-time">
    <title>At final release time</title>
    <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <literal>git tag -s -a -m &quot;Release 15.09&quot; 15.09</literal>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Update http://nixos.org/nixos/download.html and http://nixos.org/nixos/manual in https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-org-configurations
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Get number of commits for the release:
          <literal>git log release-14.04..release-14.12 --format=%an|wc -l</literal>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Commits by contributor:
          <literal>git log release-14.04..release-14.12 --format=%an|sort|uniq -c|sort -rn</literal>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Send an email to nix-dev to announce the release with above information. Best to check how previous email was formulated
          to see what needs to be included.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </section>
</section>

<section xml:id="release-schedule">
  <title>Release schedule</title>

  <informaltable>
    <tgroup cols="2">
      <colspec align="left" />
      <colspec align="left" />
      <thead>
        <row>
          <entry>
            Date
          </entry>
          <entry>
            Event
          </entry>
        </row>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        <row>
          <entry>
            2016-07-25
          </entry>
          <entry>
            Send email to nix-dev about upcoming branch-off
          </entry>
        </row>
        <row>
          <entry>
            2016-09-01
          </entry>
          <entry>
            <literal>release-16.09</literal> branch and corresponding jobsets are created,
            change freeze
          </entry>
        </row>
        <row>
          <entry>
            2016-09-30
          </entry>
          <entry>
            NixOS 16.09 released
          </entry>
        </row>
      </tbody>
    </tgroup>
  </informaltable>
</section>

</chapter>