Preconditions

1. Download the pqm plugin and install it into your ~/.bazaar/plugins:

   bzr branch lp:bzr-pqm ~/.bazaar/plugins/pqm

Starting a cycle

To start a new release cycle:

1. Create a new series at <https://launchpad.net/bzr/+addseries>. There is one series for every x.y release.

2. Go to the series web page at <https://launchpad.net/bzr/x.y>

3. Create a new release at <https://launchpad.net/bzr/x.y/+addrelease> and add information about this release. We will not use it yet, but it will be available for targeting or nominating bugs.

4. We create a new pqm-controlled branch for this release series, by asking a Canonical sysadmin. This branch means that from the first release beta or candidate onwards, general development continues on the trunk, and only specifically-targeted fixes go into the release branch.

5. Add milestones at <https://edge.launchpad.net/bzr/x.y/+addmilestone> to that series for the beta release, release candidate and the final release, and their expected dates.

6. Update the version number in the bzr script, and the bzrlib/__init__.py file. Make sure there is always a corresponding milestone when you change that version number.

7. Add a new section at the top of NEWS about the new release, including its version number and the headings from NEWS-template.txt.

8. Send mail to the list with the key dates, who will be the release manager, and the main themes or targeted bugs. Ask people to nominate objectives, or point out any high-risk things that are best done early, or that interact with other changes. This is called the metronome mail and is described in Development cycles.

9. Make a local branch for preparing this release. (Only for the first release in a series, otherwise you should already have a branch.)

   bzr branch trunk prepare-1.14

10. Configure pqm-submit for this branch, with a section like this (where x.y is the version to release). ~/.bazaar/locations.conf:

        [/home/mbp/bzr/prepare-x.y]
        pqm_email = Canonical PQM <[email protected]>
        submit_branch = http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~bzr-pqm/bzr/x.y
        parent_branch = http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~bzr-pqm/bzr/x.y
        public_branch = http://bazaar.example.com/prepare-x.y
        submit_to = [email protected]
        smtp_server = mail.example.com:25
    
    Please see <http://doc.bazaar-vcs.org/developers/HACKING.html#an-overview-of-pqm>
    for more details on PQM

11. In the release branch, update version_info in ./bzrlib/__init__.py. Make sure the corresponding milestone exists. Double check that ./bzr _script_version matches version_info. Check the output of bzr --version.

    For beta releases use:

    version_info = (2, 1, 0, 'beta', 1)
    

    For release candidates use:

    version_info = (2, 0, 1, 'candidate', 1)
    

Starting the release phase

1. Create a new milestone at <https://launchpad.net/bzr/x.y/+addmilestone> for the beta release or release candidate if you haven’t already.

2. Add the date and release number to ./NEWS

   Depending on whether you’re doing a beta or a bugfix release, you’ll have to create a NEWS section for your release in the right place. Most of the time, the new section is at the top of the file (look what have been done for the various 2.0x and 2.1.0bx releases). The rule is to keep the sections sorted by date. You’ll need to be cautious when merging back to trunk to respect that.

3. To check that all bugs mentioned in ./NEWS are actually marked as closed in Launchpad, you can run tools/check-newsbugs.py:

   ./tools/check-newsbugs.py NEWS

   (But note there can be some false positives, and this script may be flaky <https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/bzr/+bug/354985>. Don’t let this slow you down too much.)

4. Summarize into one or two paragraphs what’s new in this release.

5. Commit these changes to the release branch, using a command like:

   bzr commit -m "Release 1.14."

   The diff before you commit will be something like:

   === modified file 'NEWS'
   --- NEWS        2008-09-17 23:09:18 +0000
   +++ NEWS        2008-09-23 16:14:54 +0000
   @@ -4,6 +4,23 @@
   
    .. contents::
   
   +bzr 1.7 2008-09-23
   +------------------
   +
   +This release includes many bug fixes and a few performance and feature
   +improvements.  ``bzr rm`` will now scan for missing files and remove them,
   +like how ``bzr add`` scans for unknown files and adds them. A bit more
   +polish has been applied to the stacking code. The b-tree indexing code has
   +been brought in, with an eye on using it in a future repository format.
   +There are only minor installer changes since bzr-1.7rc2.
   +
    bzr 1.7rc2 2008-09-17
    ---------------------
   
   
   === modified file 'bzrlib/__init__.py'
   --- bzrlib/__init__.py  2008-09-16 21:39:28 +0000
   +++ bzrlib/__init__.py  2008-09-23 16:14:54 +0000
   @@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
    # Python version 2.0 is (2, 0, 0, 'final', 0)."  Additionally we use a
    # releaselevel of 'dev' for unreleased under-development code.
   
   -version_info = (1, 7, 0, 'candidate', 2)
   +version_info = (1, 7, 0, 'final', 0)
   
   
    # API compatibility version: bzrlib is currently API compatible with 1.7.

6. Tag the new release:

   bzr tag bzr-1.14

7. Push those changes to a bzr reposistory that is public and accessible on the Internet. PQM will pull from this repository when it attempts to merge your changes. Then submit those changes to PQM for merge into the appropriate release branch:

   bzr push
   bzr pqm-submit -m "(mbp) prepare 1.14"

8. When PQM succeeds, pull down the master release branch.

Making the source tarball

1. Change into the source directory and run

   make dist

2. Now we’ll try expanding this tarball and running the test suite to check for packaging problems:

   make check-dist-tarball

   You may encounter failures while running the test suite caused by your locally installed plugins. Use your own judgment to decide if you can release with these failures. When in doubt, disable the faulty plugins one by one until you get no more failures.

Publishing the source tarball

1. Go to the relevant milestone page in Launchpad.
2. Within that release, upload the source tarball and the GPG signature. Or, if you prefer, use the tools/packaging/lp-upload-release script to do this.

Announcing the source freeze

1. Post to the bazaar list, saying that the source has been frozen. This is the cue for platform maintainers and plugin authors to update their code. This is done before the general public announcement of the release.

Publishing the release

There is normally a delay of a few days after the source freeze to allow for binaries to be built on various platforms. Once they have been built, we have a releasable product. The next step is to make it generally available to the world.

go to the release

1. Within that release, upload the source tarball and zipfile and the GPG signature. Or, if you prefer, use the tools/packaging/lp-upload-release script to do this.
2. Link from http://bazaar-vcs.org/SourceDownloads to the tarball and signature.
3. Announce on the Bazaar website. This page is edited via the lp:bzr-website branch. (Changes pushed to this branch are refreshed by a cron job on escudero.)
4. Announce on the Bazaar wiki.
5. Check that the documentation for this release is available in <http://doc.bazaar-vcs.org>. It should be automatically build when the branch is created, by a cron script update-bzr-docs on escudero. As of today (2009-08-27) igc manually updates the pretty version of it.

Announcing the release

Now that the release is publicly available, tell people about it.

1. Make an announcement mail.

   For release candidates or beta releases, this is sent to the bazaar list only to inform plugin authors and package or installer managers.

   Once the installers are available, the mail can be sent to the bazaar-announce list too.

   For final releases, it should also be cc’d to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].

   In all cases, it is good to set Reply-To: [email protected], so that people who reply to the announcement don’t spam other lists.

   The announce mail will look something like this:

   Subject: bzr x.yy released!
   
   <<Summary paragraph from news>>
   
   The Bazaar team is happy to announce availability of a new
   release of the bzr adaptive version control system.
   Bazaar is part of the GNU system <http://gnu.org/>.
   
   Thanks to everyone who contributed patches, suggestions, and
   feedback.
   
   Bazaar is now available for download from
   http://bazaar-vcs.org/Download as a source tarball; packages
   for various systems will be available soon.
   
   <<NEWS section from this release back to the last major release>>

   Feel free to tweak this to your taste.

2. Make an announcement through <https://launchpad.net/bzr/+announce>

3. Update the IRC channel topic. Use the /topic command to do this, ensuring the new topic text keeps the project name, web site link, etc.

4. Announce on http://freshmeat.net/projects/bzr/

   This should be done for beta releases, release candidates and final releases. If you do not have a Freshmeat account yet, ask one of the existing admins.

5. Update http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazaar_(software) – this should be done for final releases but not for beta releases or Release Candidates.

6. Update the python package index: <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/bzr> - best done by running

   python setup.py register

   Remember to check the results afterwards.

   To be able to register the release you must create an account on <http://pypi.python.org/pypi> and have one of the existing owners of the project add you to the group.

Merging the released code back to trunk

Merge the release branch back into the trunk. Check that changes in NEWS were merged into the right sections. If it’s not already done, advance the version number in bzr and bzrlib/__init__.py. Submit this back into pqm for bzr.dev.

As soon as you change the version number in trunk, make sure you have created the corresponding milestone to ensure the continuity in bug targeting or nominating. Depending on the change, you may even have to create a new series (if your change the major or minor release number), in that case go to Starting a cycle and follow the instructions from there.

You should also merge (not pull) the release branch into lp:~bzr/bzr/current, so that branch contains the current released code at any time.

Releases until the final one

Congratulations - you have made your first release. Have a beer or fruit juice - it’s on the house! If it was a beta, or candidate, you’re not finished yet. Another beta or candidate or hopefully a final release is still to come.

The process is the same as for the first release. Goto Starting the release phase and follow the instructions again. Some details change between beta, candidate and final releases, but they should be documented. If the instructions aren’t clear enough, please fix them.

See also

• Packaging into the bzr PPA to make and publish Ubuntu packages.
• Bazaar Developer Document Catalog
• Development cycles: things that happen during the cycle before the actual release.