2 Putting out a new release
3 -------------------------
5 Here are the steps that the maintainer should take when putting out a
10 1. Get at least two of weasel/arma/Sebastian to put the new
11 version number in their approved versions list. Give them a few
12 days to do this if you can.
14 2. If this is going to be an important security release, give the packagers
15 some advance warning: See this list of packagers in IV.3 below.
17 3. Given the release date for Tor, ask the TB team about the likely release
18 date of a TB that contains it. See note below in "commit, upload,
21 === I. Make sure it works
23 1. Make sure that CI passes: have a look at Travis, Appveyor, and
24 Jenkins. Make sure you're looking at the right branches.
26 If there are any unexplained failures, try to fix them or figure them
29 2. Verify that there are no big outstanding issues. You might find such
38 3. Run checks that aren't covered above, including:
40 * clang scan-build. (See the script in ./scripts/test/scan_build.sh)
42 * make test-network and make test-network-all (with
43 --enable-expensive-hardening)
45 * Running Tor yourself and making sure that it actually works for you.
48 === II. Write a changelog
51 1a. (Alpha release variant)
53 Gather the `changes/*` files into a changelog entry, rewriting many
54 of them and reordering to focus on what users and funders would find
55 interesting and understandable.
58 `./scripts/maint/sortChanges.py changes/* > changelog.in`
59 to combine headings and sort the entries. Copy the changelog.in file
60 into the ChangeLog. Run 'format_changelog.py' (see below) to clean
63 After that, it's time to hand-edit and fix the issues that
64 lintChanges can't find:
66 1. Within each section, sort by "version it's a bugfix on", else by
67 numerical ticket order.
73 Describe the user-visible problem right away
75 Mention relevant config options by name. If they're rare or unusual,
76 remind people what they're for
78 Avoid starting lines with open-paren
80 Present and imperative tense: not past.
82 "Relays", not "servers" or "nodes" or "Tor relays".
84 "Onion services", not "hidden services".
86 "Stop FOOing", not "Fix a bug where we would FOO".
88 Try not to let any given section be longer than about a page. Break up
89 long sections into subsections by some sort of common subtopic. This
90 guideline is especially important when organizing Release Notes for
93 If a given changes stanza showed up in a different release (e.g.
94 maint-0.2.1), be sure to make the stanzas identical (so people can
95 distinguish if these are the same change).
97 3. Clean everything one last time.
99 4. Run `./scripts/maint/format_changelog.py --inplace` to make it prettier
101 1b. (old-stable release variant)
103 For stable releases that backport things from later, we try to compose
104 their releases, we try to make sure that we keep the changelog entries
105 identical to their original versions, with a "backport from 0.x.y.z"
106 note added to each section. So in this case, once you have the items
107 from the changes files copied together, don't use them to build a new
108 changelog: instead, look up the corrected versions that were merged
109 into ChangeLog in the master branch, and use those.
111 Add "backport from X.Y.Z" in the section header for these entries.
113 2. Compose a short release blurb to highlight the user-facing
114 changes. Insert said release blurb into the ChangeLog stanza. If it's
115 a stable release, add it to the ReleaseNotes file too. If we're adding
116 to a release-* branch, manually commit the changelogs to the later
119 3. If there are changes that require or suggest operator intervention
120 before or during the update, mail operators (either dirauth or relays
121 list) with a headline that indicates that an action is required or
124 4. If you're doing the first stable release in a series, you need to
125 create a ReleaseNotes for the series as a whole. To get started
126 there, copy all of the Changelog entries from the series into a new
127 file, and run `./scripts/maint/sortChanges.py` on it. That will
128 group them by category. Then kill every bugfix entry for fixing
129 bugs that were introduced within that release series; those aren't
130 relevant changes since the last series. At that point, it's time
131 to start sorting and condensing entries. (Generally, we don't edit the
132 text of existing entries, though.)
135 === III. Making the source release.
137 1. In `maint-0.?.x`, bump the version number in `configure.ac` and run
138 `make update-versions` to update version numbers in other
139 places, and commit. Then merge `maint-0.?.x` into `release-0.?.x`.
141 When you merge the maint branch forward to the next maint branch, or into
142 master, merge it with "-s ours" to avoid a needless version bump.
144 2. Make distcheck, put the tarball up in somewhere (how about your
145 homedir on your homedir on people.torproject.org?) , and tell `#tor-dev`
148 If you want, wait until at least one person has built it
149 successfully. (We used to say "wait for others to test it", but our
150 CI has successfully caught these kinds of errors for the last several
154 3. Make sure that the new version is recommended in the latest consensus.
155 (Otherwise, users will get confused when it complains to them
158 If it is not, you'll need to poke Roger, Weasel, and Sebastian again: see
159 item 0.1 at the start of this document.
161 === IV. Commit, upload, announce
163 1. Sign the tarball, then sign and push the git tag:
165 gpg -ba <the_tarball>
166 git tag -s tor-0.4.x.y-<status>
167 git push origin tag tor-0.4.x.y-<status>
169 (You must do this before you update the website: the website scripts
170 rely on finding the version by tag.)
172 (If your default PGP key is not the one you want to sign with, then say
173 "-u <keyid>" instead of "-s".)
175 2. scp the tarball and its sig to the dist website, i.e.
176 `/srv/dist-master.torproject.org/htdocs/` on dist-master. Run
177 "static-update-component dist.torproject.org" on dist-master.
179 In the webwml.git repository, `include/versions.wmi` and `Makefile`
180 to note the new version. Push these changes to master.
182 (NOTE: Due to #17805, there can only be one stable version listed at
183 once. Nonetheless, do not call your version "alpha" if it is stable,
184 or people will get confused.)
186 (NOTE: It will take a while for the website update scripts to update
189 3. Email the packagers (cc'ing tor-team) that a new tarball is up.
190 The current list of packagers is:
192 - {weasel,gk,mikeperry} at torproject dot org
193 - {blueness} at gentoo dot org
194 - {paul} at invizbox dot io
195 - {vincent} at invizbox dot com
196 - {lfleischer} at archlinux dot org
197 - {Nathan} at freitas dot net
198 - {mike} at tig dot as
199 - {tails-rm} at boum dot org
200 - {simon} at sdeziel.info
201 - {yuri} at freebsd.org
202 - {mh+tor} at scrit.ch
204 Also, email tor-packagers@lists.torproject.org.
206 Mention where to download the tarball (https://dist.torproject.org).
208 Include a link to the changelog.
211 4. Add the version number to Trac. To do this, go to Trac, log in,
212 select "Admin" near the top of the screen, then select "Versions" from
213 the menu on the left. At the right, there will be an "Add version"
214 box. By convention, we enter the version in the form "Tor:
215 0.4.0.1-alpha" (or whatever the version is), and we select the date as
216 the date in the ChangeLog.
218 5. Wait for the download page to be updated. (If you don't do this before you
219 announce, people will be confused.)
221 6. Mail the release blurb and ChangeLog to tor-talk (development release) or
222 tor-announce (stable).
224 Post the changelog on the blog as well. You can generate a
225 blog-formatted version of the changelog with
226 `./scripts/maint/format_changelog.py --B`
228 When you post, include an estimate of when the next TorBrowser
229 releases will come out that include this Tor release. This will
230 usually track https://wiki.mozilla.org/RapidRelease/Calendar , but it
233 For templates to use when announcing, see:
234 https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/teams/NetworkTeam/AnnouncementTemplates
236 === V. Aftermath and cleanup
238 1. If it's a stable release, bump the version number in the
239 `maint-x.y.z` branch to "newversion-dev", and do a `merge -s ours`
240 merge to avoid taking that change into master.
242 2. Forward-port the ChangeLog (and ReleaseNotes if appropriate) to the
245 3. Keep an eye on the blog post, to moderate comments and answer questions.