Foreman 1.19.0-RC2 process

Current target for RC2: August 7th 9th 10th13th.
This post will be updated as we progress.

Writing release notes

  • Copy website manual content (theforeman.org repo) from previous version to this version (example)
    • add version number to documentation.md dropdown menu
  • Update manual if applicable for any additional installation steps
  • Draft release notes in markdown (example), with these sections (and do not use personal pronouns):
    • Headline features: half a dozen important features with a few sentences description each
    • Upgrade notes: all important notices that users must be aware of before upgrading
  • Release notes: bullet point list by category of most changes, excluding bug fixes for issues introduced during the release cycle, include link to bug numbers. You can auto-generate changes using a script from theforeman.org or use the ‘changelog’ command in tool_belt
    • CLI release notes are taken from the hammer-cli and hammer-cli-foreman changelogs
    • Link to installer changelogs and note versions being used
  • Get the apipie doc and place it in api/$release_num

Preparing code

  • Request Hammer CLI releases from maintainers if desired
  • Make patch releases of installer modules that have important changes
    • Branch to MAJ.MIN-stable if recent changes to the module aren’t suitable for patch (x.y.z) release
  • Compare tagged packages in nightly vs. release koji tag and re-tag any updated dependencies that are required
  • Add a new Redmine version for the next minor, unless the series is EOL
  • Remove/change release field for any open Redmine tickets assigned to the release still (next minor, unset it or reject)
  • List all issues targeted at the release, order by Closed date ascending and use git cherry-pick -x to cherry pick from develop to 1.19-stable branch
  • Clone tool_belt (foreman branch) and run:
    • ./tools.rb setup-environment configs/foreman_19.yaml
    • ./tools.rb cherry-picks --version 1.19.0 configs/foreman_19.yaml
    • Verify tickets in the cherry_picks_1.19.0 file are accounted for or additional cherry pick them

Tagging a release

  • In foreman 1.19-stable:
    • run make -C locale tx-update (if Transifex has not switched to the next major release yet, usually after .2)
    • run script/sync_templates.sh
    • change VERSION to 1.19.0-RC2
    • change package.json version field to 1.19.0-RC2
    • run extras/changelog
    • commit with message “Release 1.19.0-RC2”
  • In smart-proxy 1.19-stable commit with message “Release 1.19.0-RC2”:
    • change VERSION to 1.19.0-RC2
    • run extra/changelog
  • In foreman-selinux 1.19-stable commit with message “Release 1.19.0-RC2”:
    • change VERSION to 1.19.0-RC2
    • run extras/changelog
  • In foreman-installer 1.19-stable commit with message “Release 1.19.0-RC2”:
    • change VERSION to 1.19.0-RC2
  • Before tagging, make sure the test_xxxx_stable versions of each of the projects are green in http://ci.theforeman.org/
  • Tag commits in foreman, smart-proxy, foreman-installer and foreman-selinux: git tag -m “Release 1.19.0-RC2” 1.19.0-RC2
  • Push to the project repos: git push project && git push project 1.19.0-RC2
  • Run the Jenkins Release Pipeline to create tarballs
  • Verify tarballs are present on downloads.theforeman.org, download, sign and upload detached signatures
    • gpg --homedir gnupg/1.19-RC2 -b -u packages@theforeman.org foreman-1.19.0-RC2.tar.bz2 (requires 1.19 release GPG key generated above)
  • If for some reason there was an issue with the tarballs that required uploading new tarballs, CDN cache should be invalidated so that the builders use the updated tarballs.

Packaging a release

Completion tasks

  • Update theforeman.org:
    • release notes from earlier steps (use scripts/release_notes.rb in theforeman.org repository)
    • _includes/version.html
    • _includes/latest_news.html entry
    • security.md for any released CVE fixes
  • Publish announcement notice in Release Announcements: (https://community.theforeman.org/c/release-announcements)
  • Link to announcement post on IRC, Twitter, Google+ and update IRC /topic
  • Update the release schedule on Development_Resources to enter the date and for the following release(s)
2 Likes

Mental note for the future: in Foreman 1.19.0 RC1 process I already modified a lot of things to make it easier. We need a proper template somewhere with the checklist and a longer version that explains what it’s exactly doing and why.

2 Likes

Looks like a release job failed on Debian with npm install, probably a temporary network issue. I’m out tomorrow so if nobody else has a look I’ll continue on Friday.

From a packaging perspective RC2 is released. I’ll leave the announcements to @tbrisker.

2 Likes

Announced: Foreman 1.19.0-RC2 has been released