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+# Podman Releases
+
+## Overview
+
+Podman (and podman-remote) versioning is mostly based on [semantic-versioning
+standards](https://semver.org).
+Significant versions
+are tagged, including *release candidates* (`rc`).
+All relevant **minor** releases (`vX.Y`) have their own branches. The **latest**
+development efforts occur on the *master* branch. Branches with a
+*rhel* suffix are use for long-term support of downstream RHEL releases.
+
+## Release workflow expectations
+
+* You have push access to the [upstream podman repository](https://github.com/containers/podman.git)
+* You understand all basic `git` operations and concepts, like creating commits,
+ local vs. remote branches, rebasing, and conflict resolution.
+* You have access to your public and private *GPG* keys.
+* You have reliable internet access (i.e. not the public WiFi link at McDonalds)
+* Other podman maintainers are online/available for assistance if needed.
+* For a **major** release, you have 4-8 hours of time available, most of which will
+ be dedicated to writing release notes.
+* For a **minor** or **patch** release, you have 2-4 hours of time available
+ (minimum depends largely on the speed/reliability of automated testing)
+
+# Releases
+
+## Major (***X***.y.z) release
+
+These releases always begin from *master*, and are contained in a branch
+named with the **major** and **minor** version. **Major** release branches
+begin in a *release candidate* phase, with prospective release tags being
+created with an `-rc` suffix. There may be multiple *release candidate*
+tags before the final/official **major** version is tagged and released.
+
+## Significant minor (x.**Y**.z) and patch (x.y.**Z**) releases
+
+Significant **minor** and **patch** level releases are normally
+branched from *master*, but there are occsaional exceptions.
+Additionally, these branches may be named with `-rhel` (or another)
+suffix to signify a specialized purpose. For example, `-rhel` indicates
+a release intended for downstream *RHEL* consumption.
+
+## Unreleased Milestones
+
+Non-release versions may occasionally appear tagged on a branch, without
+the typical (major) receive media postings or artifact distribution. For
+example, as required for the (separate) RHEL release process. Otherwise
+these tags are simply milestones of reference purposes and may
+generally be safely ignored.
+
+## Process
+
+***Note:*** This is intended as a guideline, and generalized process.
+Not all steps are applicable in all situations. Not all steps are
+spelled with complete minutiae.
+
+1. Make a `[CI:DOCS]` release notes pull request.
+
+ 1. Ensure any/all intended PR's are completed and merged prior to any
+ processing of release notes. Ensure your local clone is fully up to
+ date with the remote upstream (`git remote update`).
+ 1. Check out (create) a local working branch for a release-notes PR,
+ based on the latest `upstream/master` or pre-existing version-named
+ branch - for example, if this is an additional *release-candidate*
+ you might use `vX.Y.Z-rc2`; **Note** this is a local branch name,
+ an upstream branch would never contain the `-rc?` suffix.
+ 1. Find all merged PRs since the last release, which were performed by
+ the merge-robot. For example, given the commit range `1234...5678`
+ you would run `git log --oneline --author=openshift-merge-robot 1234...5678`.
+ Keep this list open/available for reference as you edit.
+ 1. Edit `RELEASE_NOTES.md`
+
+ * If operating on a *release-candidate*, be sure to remove any
+ not-applicable items/sections. For example, those brought in
+ because of backports.
+ * Add/update the version-section of with sub-sections for *Features*
+ (new functionality), *Changes* (Altered podman behaviors),
+ *Bugfixes* (self-explanatory), *API* (All related features,
+ changes, and bugfixes), and *Misc* (include any **major**
+ library bumps, e.g. `c/buildah`, `c/storage`, `c/common`, etc).
+ * Use your merge-bot reference PR-listing to examine each PR in turn,
+ adding an entry for it into the appropriate section.
+
+ * Be sure to link any issue the PR fixed.
+ * Do not include any PRs that are only documentation or test/automation
+ changes.
+ * Do not include any PRs that fix bugs which we introduced due to
+ new features/enhancements. In other words, if it was working, broke, then
+ got fixed, there's no need to mention those items.
+
+ 1. Commit and **sign** the `RELEASE_NOTES.md` changes, using the description
+ `Create release notes for vX.Y.Z` (where `X`, `Y`, and `Z` are the
+ actual version numbers).
+ 1. Push your working branch to your github fork and create a new pull request.
+
+ * ***Ensure*** you properly select the base branch if not *master*.
+ For example, `vX.y.Z`.
+ * ***Before submitting*** the new PR, update the title with the
+ prefix `[CI:DOCS]` to avoid triggering lengthy automated testing.
+
+ 1. If this is a release on a pre-existing version-named branch
+ (e.x. *release-candidate* or `-rhel`), open another PR against
+ the upstream *master* branch. This is needed to ensure the new
+ notes are present for future releases.
+
+
+1. Create a new upstream release branch (if none already exist).
+
+ 1. After the release-notes pull requests have merged, a release branch is
+ needed. Branching ensures all changes are curated before inclusion in the
+ release, and no new features land after the *release-candidate* phases
+ are complete.
+ 1. Ensure your local clone is fully up to date with the remote upstream
+ (`git remote update`). Switch to this branch (`git checkout upstream/master`).
+ 1. Make a new local branch for the release based on *master*. For example,
+ `git checkout -b vX.Y`. Where `X.Y` represent the complete release
+ version-name, including any suffix (if any) like `-rhel`. ***DO NOT***
+ include any `-rc` suffix in the branch name.
+ 1. Edit the `.cirrus.yml` file, changing the `DEST_BRANCH` value (under the
+ `env` section) to the new, complete branch name (e.x. `vX.Y`).
+ Commit and sign, using the description
+ `Cirrus: Update operating branch`.
+ 1. Push the new branch otherwise unmodified (`git push upstream vX.Y`).
+ 1. Automation will begin executing on the branch immediately. Because
+ the repository allows out-of-sequence PR merging, it is possible that
+ merge order introduced bugs/defects. To establish a clean
+ baseline, observe the initial CI run on the branch for any unexpected
+ failures. This can be done by going directly to
+ `https://cirrus-ci.com/github/containers/podman/vX.Y`
+ 1. If there are CI test or automation boops that need fixing on the branch,
+ attend to them using normal PR process (to *master* first, then backport
+ changes to the new branch). Ideally, CI should be "green" on the new
+ branch before proceeding.
+
+1. Create a new branch-verification Cirrus-Cron entry.
+
+ 1. This is to ensure CI's VM image timestamps are refreshed. Without this,
+ the VM images ***will*** be permanently pruned after 60 days of inactivity
+ and are hard/impossible to re-create accurately.
+ 1. Go to
+ [https://cirrus-ci.com/github/containers/podman](https://cirrus-ci.com/github/containers/podman)
+ and press the "gear" (Repository Settings) button on the top-right.
+ 1. At the bottom of the settings page is a table of cron-job names, branches,
+ schedule, and recent status. Below that is an editable new-entry line.
+ 1. Set the new job's `name` and `branch` to the name of new release branch.
+ 1. Set the `expression` using the form `X X X ? * 1-6` where 'X' is a number
+ between 0-23 and not already taken by another job in the table. The 1-hour
+ interval is used because it takes about that long for the job to run.
+ 1. Add the new job by pressing the `+` button on the right-side of the
+ new-entry line.
+
+1. Update version numbers and push tag
+
+ **TODO:** This process can be simplified by updating the script for the
+ "Optional Release Test" such that it tests the first commit, not the second.
+ In this way, pushing twice to the same PR won't be required.
+
+ 1. Assuming CI Test and automation ran clean on the release branch,
+ update your local repo to be fully up to date with the remote upstream
+ (`git remote update`). Check out a local copy of the upstream
+ release branch (`git checkout upstream/vX.Y`).
+ 1. Create a new local working-branch to develop the release PR,
+ `git checkout -b bump_vX.Y.Z`.
+ 1. Lookup the *COMMIT ID* of the last release,
+ `git log -1 $(git tag | sort -V | tail -1)`.
+ 1. Run `make changelog CHANGELOG_BASE=`*COMMIT ID*. This will modify the
+ `changelog.txt` file. Manually edit it to change the first line
+ (“Changelog for …”) to include the current (new) release version number.
+ For example, `- Changelog for v2.1.0 (2020-09-22):`.
+ 1. Edit `version/version.go` and bump the `Version` value to the new
+ release version. If there were API changes, also bump `APIVersion` value.
+ 1. Commit this and sign the commit (`git commit -a -s -S`). The commit message
+ should be `Bump to vX.Y.Z` (using the actual version numbers).
+ 1. Push this single change to your github fork, and make a new PR,
+ **being careful** to select the proper release branch as its base.
+ 1. Wait for all automated tests pass (including on an RC-branch PR). Re-running
+ and/or updating code as needed.
+ 1. In the PR, under the *Checks* tab, locate and clock on the Cirrus-CI
+ task `Optional Release Test`. In the right-hand window pane, click
+ the `trigger` button and wait for the test to go green. *This is a
+ critical step* which confirms the commit is worthy of becoming a release.
+ 1. Tag the `Bump to vX.Y.Z` commit as a release by running
+ `git tag -s -m 'vX.Y.Z' vX.Y.Z $HASH` where `$HASH` is specified explicitly
+ and carefully, to avoid (basically) unfixable accidents (if they are pushed).
+ 1. Change `version/version.go` again. This time, bump the **patch** version and
+ re-add the `-dev` suffix to indicate this is a non-released version of Podman.
+ 1. Change `contrib/spec/podman.spec.in`, bumping **patch** number of `Version`.
+ 1. Commit these changes with the message `Bump to X.Y.Z-dev`.
+ 1. Push your local branch to your github fork (and the PR) again.
+ 1. The PR should now have two commits that look very similar to
+ https://github.com/containers/podman/pull/7787
+ 1. Wait for at least all the "Build" and "Verify" (or similar) CI Testing
+ steps to complete successfully. No need to wait for complete integration
+ 4and system-testing (it was already done on substantially the same code, above).
+ 1. Merge the PR (or ask someone else to review and merge, to be safer).
+ 1. **Note:** This is the last point where any test-failures can be addressed
+ by code changes. After pushing the new version-tag upstream, no further
+ changes can be made to the code without lots of unpleasent efforts. Please
+ seek assistance if needed, before proceeding.
+
+ 1. Assuming the "Bump to ..." PR merged successfully, and you're **really**
+ confident the correct commit has been tagged, push it with
+ `git push upstream vX.Y.Z`
+
+1. Locate, Verify release testing is proceeding
+
+ 1. When the tag was pushed, an automated build was created. Locate this
+ by starting from
+ `https://github.com/containers/podman/tags` and finding the recent entry
+ for the pushed tag. Under the tag name will be a timestamp and abbrieviated
+ commit hash, for example `<> 5b2585f`. Click the commit-hash link.
+ 1. In the upper-left most corner, just to the left of the "Bump to vX.Y"
+ text, will be a small status icon (Yellow circle, Red "X", or green check).
+ Click this, to open a small pop-up/overlay window listing all the status
+ checks.
+ 1. In the small pop-up/overlay window, press the "Details" link on one of the
+ Cirrus-CI status check entries (doesn't matter which one).
+ 1. On the following page, in the lower-right pane, will be a "View more details
+ on Cirrus CI" link, click this.
+ 1. A Cirrus-CI task details page will open, click the button labeled
+ "View All Tasks".
+ 1. Keep this page open to monitor its progress and for use in future steps.
+
+1. Bump master `-dev` version
+
+ 1. If you made a release branch and bumped **major** or **minor** version
+ Complete the "Update version numbers and push tag" steps above on the
+ *master* branch. Bump the **minor** version and set the **patch**
+ version to 0. For example, after pushing the v2.2.0 release, *master*
+ should be set to v2.3.0-dev.
+ 1. Create a "Bump to vX.Y.Z-dev" commit with these changes.
+ 1. Bump the version number in `README.md` (still on on *master*)
+ to reflect the new release. Commit these changes.
+ 1. Create a PR with the above commits, and oversee it's merging.
+
+1. Create Github Release entry and upload assets
+
+ 1. Return to the Cirrus-CI Build page for the new release tag, confirm
+ (or wait for) it to complete, re-running any failed tasks as appropriate.
+ 1. For anything other than an RC, download the new release artifacts
+ (the binaries which were actually tested). Visit each of the
+ "Build for ...", "Static Build", and "... Cross" tasks.
+ 1. Under the "Artifacts" section of each task, click the "gosrc" item,
+ find and download the release archive (`zip`, `tar.gz` or `.msi`).
+ Save the the archive with a meaningful name, for example
+ `podman-v3.0.0.msi`.
+ 1. For the "Static Build" task, find the compiled `podman` and `podman-remote`
+ binaries under the "binary", "bin" links. Tar these files as
+ `podman-static.tar.gz`.
+ 1. In the directory where you downloaded the archives, run
+ `sha256sum *.tar.gz *.zip *.msi > shasums` to generate SHA sums.
+ 1. Go to `https://github.com/containers/podman/releases/tag/vX.Y.Z` and
+ press the "Edit Release" button. Change the name to the form `vX.Y.Z`
+ 1. If this is a release candidate be certain to click the pre-release
+ checkbox at the bottom of the page.
+ 1. Copy and paste the release notes for the release into the body of
+ the release.
+ 1. Near the bottom of the page there is a box with the message
+ “Add binaries by dropping them here or selecting them”. Use
+ that to upload the artifacts you previously downloaded, including
+ the `shasums` file.
+
+ * podman-remote-release-darwin.zip
+ * podman-remote-release-windows.zip
+ * podman-remote-static.tar.gz
+ * podman-vX.Y.Z.msi
+ * shasums
+ 1. Save the release.