zulip/docs/subsystems/release-checklist.md

Zulip server release checklist

This document has reminders of things one might forget to do when preparing a new release.

A week before the release

• For a major release (e.g. 4.0):
  • Upgrade all Python dependencies in requirements to latest upstream versions so they can burn in (use pip list --outdated).
  • Update all the strings on Transifex and notify translators that they should translate the new strings to get them in for the next release.
• Create a burn-down list of bugs that need to be fixed before we can release, and make sure all of them are being worked on.
• Draft the release blog post (a.k.a. the release notes) in Paper. In it, list the important changes in the release, from most to least notable.

Final release preparation

• Update the Paper blog post draft with any new commits.
• Except minor releases: Download updated translation strings from Transifex and commit them.
• Use build-release-tarball to generate a release tarball.
• Test the new tarball extensively, both new install and upgrade from last release, on both Bionic and Focal.
• Repeat until release is ready.
• Send around the Paper blog post draft for review.
• Move the blog post draft to Ghost. (For a draft in Dropbox Paper, use "··· > Export > Markdown" to get a pretty good markup conversion.) Proofread the post, especially for formatting. Tag the post with "Release announcements" in Ghost.

Executing the release

• Create the release commit, on master (for major releases) or on the release branch (for minor releases):
  • Copy the Markdown release notes for the release into docs/overview/changelog.md.
  • Update ZULIP_VERSION and LATEST_RELEASE_VERSION in version.py.
  • Except minor releases: Update API_FEATURE_LEVEL to a feature level for the final release, and document a reserved range.
• Tag that commit with an unsigned Git tag named the release number.
• Use build-release-tarball to generate a final release tarball.
• Push the tag and release commit.
• Copy the tarball to zulip.org, and run /etc/zulip/ship-release.sh on it; this will put it in place, update the latest symlink, and update the SHA256 sums.
• Post the release by editing the latest tag on GitHub; use the text from changelog.md for the release notes.
• Update the Docker image and do a release of that.
• Update the image of DigitalOcean one click app using Fabric and publish it to DO marketplace.
• Publish the blog post; check the box to "send by email."
• Email zulip-announce, post to #announce, and send a tweet.

Post-release

• Following a major release (e.g. 4.0):
  • Create a release branch (e.g. 4.x).
  • On the release branch, update ZULIP_VERSION in version.py to the present release with a +git suffix, e.g. 4.0+git.
  • On master, update ZULIP_VERSION to the future major release with a -dev+git suffix, e.g. 5.0-dev+git. Make a Git tag for this update commit with a -dev suffix, e.g. 5.0-dev.
• Following a minor release (e.g. 3.2):
  • On the release branch, update ZULIP_VERSION to the present release with a +git suffix, e.g. 3.2+git.
  • Cherry-pick the changelog changes back to master.
• Consider removing a few old releases from ReadTheDocs; we keep about two years of back-versions.