Instructions for Release Managers

Release Manager Initial Setup

If you have never served as a Release Manager (or it has been a while since you have done it), first read the Release Manager Setup instructions.

This repository includes scripts that automate many of the tasks a Release Manager must perform, but these scripts assume you have followed the instructions in the Release Manager Setup before you start executing them.

Non-PMC Release Managers

Publishing a release is an official act of the OpenWhisk Project Management Committee (PMC). If you are an OpenWhisk Committer, but not an OpenWhisk PMC member, you will need to pair-up with a PMC member to accomplish some of the steps.

In brief, any step that adds or removes an artifact from a public distribution channel must be executed by an OpenWhisk PMC member.

Background Information

If you are acting as a Release Manager, you should be familiar with the Apache Software Foundation's (ASF) Release Creation Process and Release Policy.

The detailed instructions and scripts we provide for Release Managers are designed to implement the ASF's policies and procedures in the specific context of the OpenWhisk project. However, it is still essential that each Release Manager understands the rationale underlying the steps they are executing.

Licensing requirements

All released source code has to be compliant with Apache Licensing Policy. In part this is done by adding the LICENSE file and NOTICE file to each git repository and by adding Licensing headers to each source code file. Please see [License Compliance] (license_compliance.md) for detailed information on Apache OpenWhisk project policies, rules and guidelines.

Artifact requirements

Artifacts for project repository source code and any compiled binaries are packaged separately with each artifact being signed cryptographically.

Release Approval

All Releases must be formally approved via a PMC vote on the dev list. A successful release vote must have a minimum of three positive binding votes and more positive than negative binding votes MUST be cast.

Release distribution requirements

All release artifacts must be uploaded to project’s designated subdirectory in the Apache distribution channel (https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/).

Specifically, the Apache OpenWhisk project has a subdirectory to publish both candidate (staged) releases:

https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/openwhisk/

and approved releases:

https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/openwhisk/.

Release announcements should not directly refer to the main Apache dist server for mirrored artifacts (the sources.tar.gz files). Instead they should refer to the OpenWhisk project download page:

https://apache.openwhisk.org/downloads

which is configured to redirect download requests to Apache dist mirrors or otherwise incorporate a mirroring enabled URL.

Step-by-Step Instructions for the Release Process

Preparing to Make a Release

Before creating release artifacts, the Release Manager should initiate a community discussion to confirm that we are ready to release the component(s). It is also good practice to do a quick check of the repositories to confirm they are release-ready to reduce the odds of needing multiple release candidates.

Start a [DISCUSS] thread on the dev list proposing the release. Allow at least 24 hours for feedback.
Make sure all unit and integration tests are passing in the repositories that are being released. Check the project status list.
If a component being released includes a changelog or release notes file, make sure they are up-to-date.
If you are releasing either the openwhisk or openwhisk-deploy-kube repositories create a release branch in the Apache git repo. Then submit a PR to that release branch to change all uses of the nightly tag to fixed tags (eg 1.14.0 or 8eb922f).

(Optional) Make a branch to create a Release

This step is only required when making a release for the openwhisk or openwhisk-deploy-kube repositories.

Create a Release branch with the version name in the upstream repository.

Important Note: the release branch should be created in the upstream repository, not a forked repository.

This branch would not be merged into the master branch and stay as a standalone branch.
```
$ git checkout -b 1.0.0
$ git push upstream 1.0.0
```
Add commits to this branch to make a Release.

Sometimes, it is required to add a release specific commit. For example, the Docker image tag for runtimes should be updated to other than nightly.

The Release Manager is supposed to open relevant PRs directly against the release branch and merge them.
Open a PR with the release branch.

You can make sure the branch passes all CI tests whenever the branch changes.
Trigger the Jenkins job to build Docker images.

Docker images built with the release version is required to run the standalone OpenWhisk without any local build.

The following job is intended to build a release branch and publish images to the Docker hub.

The Release Manager should update the branch specifier in the Jenkins job.
- https://ci-builds.apache.org/job/OpenWhisk/job/OpenWhisk-DockerHub-ReleaseBranch/
This job is supposed to be disabled after the release process is over.

Defining the Release Contents

The contents of a release are defined by a JSON configuration file.

To create one for your release, make a copy of config_template.json and edit to provide the version information, list of repositories, and details for each repository.

After creating your config, commit it to ../release-configs to provide historical documentation of project releases.

{
  "versioning": {
    "version": "X.Y.Z",
    "pre_release_version": "rc1"
  },
  "RepoList": [
    "openwhisk-repo-name-one",
    "openwhisk-repo-name-two"
  ],
  "openwhisk_repo_name_one": {
    "name": "OpenWhisk Repo Name",
    "hash": "<GIT COMMIT HASH>",
    "repository": "https://github.com/apache/openwhisk-<REPO-NAME-ONE>.git",
    "branch": "master"
  },
  "openwhisk_repo_name_two": {
    "name": "OpenWhisk Repo Two",
    "hash": "<GIT COMMIT HASH>",
    "repository": "https://github.com/apache/openwhisk-<REPO-NAME-TWO>.git",
    "branch": "master"
  }
}

versioning: Defines the release version and the release candidate number.
RepoList: Defines the list of OpenWhisk repositories being released.
For every repository in RepoList, we name-mangle it to convert - into _ and use the mangled name as a key whose value is an object that defines:
- name: User level name of the component
- hash: git commit hash being released
- repository: URL of the repository
- branch: git branch being released (master or a release branch name)

Important Note 1: If you are releasing a Node.js package which contains a package.json, you should make sure the version specified in package.json matches your release version. If you also have a package-lock.json file, it too must have a matching version property. See additional tips for releasing npm packages.

Important Note 2: If you are releasing the openwhisk or openwhisk-deploy-kube repositories, the branch and commit hash in the release contents should be the release branch and the latest commit hash in the release branch. Please be careful not to use the master branch.

Create Release Candidates

From the tools directory, execute the script build_release.sh providing the config.json file as an argument.

Using ../stagingArea as scratch space, this script will clone the source repositories, package them into compressed tarballs, and create the checksum and detached PGP signature files.

$ cd tools
$ ./build_release.sh ../release-configs/<MY_RELEASE_CONFIG>.json [<MY_APACHE_GPG_KEY_ID>]

Important Note: the build_release.sh script uses your system default GPG key to sign the release. To use an alternate key, specify the MY_APACHE_GPG_KEY_ID as a second argument. Omit this value to use the default key.

If successful, your release artifacts (i.e., .tar.gz,tar.gz.asc, and .tar.gz.sha512) should be in the ../stagingArea/artifacts folder.

Verify the release artifacts

Next, verify the release artifacts by running local_verify.sh. This script will run rcverify.sh against your local artifacts.

./local_verify.sh ../release-configs/<MY_RELEASE_CONFIG>.json

TODO: In the future we would like to run the Apache Rat scanning tool (https://creadur.apache.org/rat/) as part of local_verify.sh.

For now, It is a recommended best practice to run the Apache Rat tool manually on each of your .tar.gz files.

Download RAT and invoke it on the .tar.gz file like:

java -jar apache-rat-0.13.jar stagingArea/artifacts/<release-name>.tar.gz

Commit release artifacts to staging

If the release candidates pass all checks, commit them to the staging svn:

./upload_to_staging.sh ../release-configs/<MY_RELEASE_CONFIG>.json

You can verify the files were committed under the directory specified in your <MY_RELEASE_CONFIG>.json file's pre_release_version key's value (e.g., rc1) here:

https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/openwhisk/

Initiate a Release Vote

Initiate a release vote on the dev list. Use the gen-release-vote.py script to create the body of the voting email.

./gen-release-vote.py ../release-configs/<MY_RELEASE_CONFIG>.json

This script accepts a mailer configuration file which you can use to also send the vote email directly to the mailing list. You should dry run this command with -n to sanity check the vote notice before it is sent.

./gen-release-vote.py ../release-configs/<MY_RELEASE_CONFIG>.json -mc <MY_MAILER_CONFIG>.yaml

Report Vote Result

When the vote can be closed (at least 72 hours and minimum number (3) of +1 binding votes cast), the Release Manager will respond to the voting thread modifying the subject to start with [RESULT][VOTE]... announcing the result of the vote.

If the vote has sufficient -1 votes cast, the Release Manager may declare that the vote has failed without waiting the full 72 hours.

If the vote is successful, the Release Manager proceeds with publishing the release and cleaning up as described below.

It the vote is unsuccessful, correct whatever issues were raised and restart the process with new candidate releases. Update your config.json file by incrementing the rc number and changing git hashes.

Publishing a Successful Release to Apache Dist Servers

Only a PMC member can perform this step

After a successful vote, the release manager will commit the artifacts being released to the openwhisk subdir of the Apache dist svn.

The upload_to_dist.sh script automates the copy & svn add operations.

./upload_to_dist.sh ../release-configs/<MY_RELEASE_CONFIG>.json

Assuming the expected set of files were added, commit them:

cd ../stagingArea/svn_release && svn commit -m  "Apache OpenWhisk X.Y.Z release of <Component Description>"

You can verify your commit to the Apache OpenWhisk official release folder:

https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/openwhisk/

Relatively soon after doing the svn commit, you should receive an email like the one shown below from reporter.apache.org asking you to add release data to its database information.

Hi,
This is an automated email from reporter.apache.org.
I see that you just pushed something to our release repository for the 'openwhisk' project
in the following commit:

r35971 at 2019-09-23 16:07:53 +0000 (Mon, 23 Sep 2019)
Apache OpenWhisk CLI Group v1.0.0

If you are a PMC member of this project, we ask that you log on to:
<URL OMITTED>
and add your release data (version and date) to the database.

...omitted rest of email...

Please follow the link and perform the update; this information is quite useful for drafting our periodic reports to the ASF Board.

Tag GitHub repositories

Each GitHub repository needs to be tagged.

Note Some naming conventions for tagging vary across the OpenWhisk project repositories and therefore we have not yet attempted to automate this step.

For each released repository, the Release Manager should tag each released project using the same hash values specified in the release configuration file (i.e., openwhisk-release/release-configs/<release config>.json) and approved by member email [VOTE].

Open a terminal, go the home directory of the OpenWhisk project to be released and run the following commands:

git tag -s -a <tag> -m "OpenWhisk <project name> v<tag>" <commit hash>
git push <remote_url_var> <tag>

[Optional] It is good practice to sign release tags using your GPG key by adding the -s flag which will use your system default key from your operating system keychain.
- See Signing tags using GPG keys below.
Replace <tag> with the tag name for the release of the current project (e.g., 1.1.0).
Update the commit message, -m to reflect the project name and version which should match the release tag
Replace <commit hash> with the commit hash (ID) you designated for the release of the current project. This can either be the full commit hash or the first 8 letters of the hash (to assure unique lookup).
Replace <remote_url_var> to the remote repository label of the OpenWhisk project which is typically set to upstream for a project Committer and maps to the full GitHub URL (e.g., git@github.com:apache/<project name>)

Signing tags using GPG keys

First add your public GPG key to your GitHub Settings and also verify your key's associated apache.org email. Then add it to your repository's local git configuration:

gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format LONG
git config user.signingkey <your GPG key ID>

Assure your repository's local git email is set to your apache.org email which matches your GPG key:

git config user.email <Apache username>@apache.org

You can verify your configuration by examining your local repository's .git/config file either manually or with:

git config --list

Deleting a tag

If a mistake is made, you can delete the undesired tags and start over:

git tag -d <tag>

Run the following command to remove a remote tag:

git push --delete <remote_url_var> <tag>

or try:

git push <remote_url_var> :refs/tags/<tag>

where <remote_url_var> is typically set to upstream for a project Committer.

You can attempt to use the force -f flag if a normal push fails

Syncing release tags

If your fork's tags do not match those in the Apache project repository, you can sync them much like rebasing:

git fetch --tags upstream
git push -f --tags origin master

where upstream is the remote label for the Apache project repo. and origin is the remote label for your fork.

Automated build of tagged binary release artifacts

Many of the GitHub repositories are configured to build binary artifacts in response to new tags being committed. Monitor the build process and ensure that all expected artifacts are created for each tag you commit.

There are some slightly dated, but much more detailed comments on Verifying release binaries available if you need a reminder of the git commands to use.

Create GitHub releases

After pushing the tags, you should go to the GitHub Releases for each released project and "Draft a new release" using the tag you just pushed.

If you have not already done so prior to voting on the release, update the project's CHANGELOG or RELEASENOTES to include the release versions, description and a list of all commits since the last release.
Copy that same information information into the release description in GitHub.

Dockerhub updates

Only a PMC member can push images to the openwhisk organization on Docker Hub

If the components you released build docker images, then you should build the docker images locally, tag them with the release version (following the naming scheme for the repo).

Push the new images to the openwhisk dockerhub using the whiskbot dockerhub id, and update the latest tag to point to the new images.

Rippling changes for `openwhisk-runtime-xxx` releases

If you are releasing a new version of an openwhisk runtime (e.g., openwhisk-runtime-python), then once the updated images are available on dockerhub you should submit a PR to openwhisk-deploy-kube to update the docker imageTags in that project's helm/openwhisk/runtimes.json.

If you released a new version of openwhisk-runtime-go, then you need to update tag information in the Dockerfiles of all actionloop based action runtimes.

To support reproducible builds, we always use a fixed-tag (and almost always a release tag) when pulling code from openwhisk-runtime-go into other runtime projects to build the actionloop go proxy.

The current list of "actionloop" based Dockerfiles is:

openwhisk-runtime-java/core/java8actionloop/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-php/core/php8.1Action/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-php/core/php8.2Action/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-php/core/php8.3Action/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-python/core/python39Action/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-python/core/python310Action/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-python/core/python311Action/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-python/core/python312Action/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-ruby/core/ruby2.6ActionLoop/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-rust/core/rust1.34/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-swift/core/swift51Action/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-swift/core/swift53Action/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-swift/core/swift54Action/Dockerfile
openwhisk-runtime-swift/core/swift57Action/Dockerfile

To support reproducible builds, we always use a fixed-tag (and almost always a release tag) when pulling code from openwhisk-runtime-go into other runtime projects to build their images.

Publishing to npm

Only a PMC member can publish to npm

The openwhisk-client-js, openwhisk-composer, and openwhisk-wskdebug projects release npm packages built from each source release. The Release Manager should build and publish these packages manually using the openwhisk-bot credentials found in the npmjs.txt file in the accounts subdir of the PMC private svn.

Some tips:

Login as the openwhisk-bot using npm login.
The version specified in package.json (and package-lock.json if it exists) should match the release version. If they don't you need to fix the release.
Confirm that npm pack does not report any errors. Then delete the generated .tgz file.
Confirm the list of files that will bundled using npm publish --dry-run.
To publish the distribution, use npm publish --public.

If you are releasing a new version of the openwhisk-client-js package, then after the new version of the openwhisk package is published on npm, submit PRs to update the version number for the openwhisk package in the package.json files found in the openwhisk, openwhisk-composer, openwhisk-wskdebug, and openwhisk-runtime-nodejs git repos. The command find . -name package.json -exec grep -l \"openwhisk\": {} \; can help you find all the places to change.

Homebrew

If you released a new version of openwhisk-cli, then submit a PR to Homebrew to publish the new cli version.

Helm Repository

If you released openwhisk-deploy-kube, you need to update the Helm repository we provide at https://openwhisk.apache.org/charts.

Perform the following steps:

On the release branch of openwhisk-deploy-kube, run helm package helm/openwhisk.
Add the resulting openwhisk.tgz to the GitHub release for openwhisk-deploy-kube
In openwhisk-website, submit a PR to update charts/index.yaml to include the new chart version. This will take a little care, since helm repo index defaults to assuming that the .tgz files are in the same directory as the index.yaml, and we are hosting them elsewhere. Be sure to just add a stanza for the new release with a URL to the GitHub release download and to not remove any of the existing stanzas for previous release.

Update Downloads Page

Submit a PR to openwhisk-website to update the Downloads page to refer to the newly released versions.

Announcing the Release

You must wait until the PR to update the website has been merged and the change appears on the website (successful Jenkins job to rebuild website) before announcing the release.

Apache releases are now distributed via a content delivery network (CDN). The expected lag from committing to svn to an artifact appearing on the CDN is about 15 minutes. So, in practice, once the updated Downloads page appears on the OpenWhisk website you can announce the release.

When announcing a release, you must use the URL of the OpenWhisk Downloads page (or some other URL that supports mirroring). Do not include a direct link to the dist.apache.org svn server.

Releases should always be announced to dev@openwhisk.apache.org.
Releases can optionally be announced to announce@apache.org at the discretion of the release manager.

Post-release cleanup

Remove the release candidate files from the staging svn.

for example, from the SVN stagingArea/svn_staging/rc1 directory:

$ svn delete openwhisk-<project>-<version>-sources.tar.gz
D         openwhisk-<project>-<version>-sources.tar.gz
$ svn delete openwhisk<project>-<version>-sources.tar.gz.asc
D         openwhisk-<project>-<version>-sources.tar.gz.asc
$ svn delete openwhisk-<project>-<version>-sources.tar.gz.sha512
D         openwhisk-<project>-<version>-sources.tar.gz.sha512

$ svn commit -m "Deleted file OpenWhisk <project> <version> staged files."

If there is a prior release, remove it from the release svn (all releases are automatically archived, removing an old release from dist does not remove it from the archive).
Disable the Jenkins job to build and push Docker images to Docker hub if you released the openwhisk or openwhisk-deploy-kube repositories.
Close the PR for the release branch if you released the openwhisk or openwhisk-deploy-kube repositories.

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release_instructions.md

release_instructions.md

Instructions for Release Managers

Release Manager Initial Setup

Non-PMC Release Managers

Background Information

Licensing requirements

Artifact requirements

Release Approval

Release distribution requirements

Step-by-Step Instructions for the Release Process

Preparing to Make a Release

(Optional) Make a branch to create a Release

Defining the Release Contents

Create Release Candidates

Verify the release artifacts

Commit release artifacts to staging

Initiate a Release Vote

Report Vote Result

Publishing a Successful Release to Apache Dist Servers

Tag GitHub repositories

Signing tags using GPG keys

Deleting a tag

Syncing release tags

Automated build of tagged binary release artifacts

Create GitHub releases

Dockerhub updates

Rippling changes for `openwhisk-runtime-xxx` releases

Publishing to npm

Homebrew

Helm Repository

Update Downloads Page

Announcing the Release

Post-release cleanup

Files

release_instructions.md

Latest commit

History

release_instructions.md

File metadata and controls

Instructions for Release Managers

Release Manager Initial Setup

Non-PMC Release Managers

Background Information

Licensing requirements

Artifact requirements

Release Approval

Release distribution requirements

Step-by-Step Instructions for the Release Process

Preparing to Make a Release

(Optional) Make a branch to create a Release

Defining the Release Contents

Create Release Candidates

Verify the release artifacts

Commit release artifacts to staging

Initiate a Release Vote

Report Vote Result

Publishing a Successful Release to Apache Dist Servers

Tag GitHub repositories

Signing tags using GPG keys

Deleting a tag

Syncing release tags

Automated build of tagged binary release artifacts

Create GitHub releases

Dockerhub updates

Rippling changes for openwhisk-runtime-xxx releases

Publishing to npm

Homebrew

Helm Repository

Update Downloads Page

Announcing the Release

Post-release cleanup

Rippling changes for `openwhisk-runtime-xxx` releases