.. _release-practices:

=================
Release practices
=================

.. _updating-release-notes:

Updating release notes
======================

We use `towncrier <https://towncrier.readthedocs.io/en/stable/>`__ to
maintain the :ref:`release history <release-history>`.  This is where we
keep users up to date with new features and breaking changes.

It makes the release manager's job much easier if most release notes are
written by the developers who make the corresponding changes, since they
normally know best how to describe them.  Therefore, where relevant, merge
requests should include a "news fragment" with a brief user-focused
description of the change.  This is a requirement for backward-incompatible
changes, and encouraged for features and bug-fixes.  Refactoring, test-only
changes, and other things that are not directly visible to users do not
generally need news fragments.

File names
----------

News fragments are stored in ``newsfragments/<section>/<issue>.<type>.rst``;
a link to the issue will automatically be included in the release notes.

For changes that do not have an associated issue, use
``newsfragments/<section>/+mr<merge-request>.<type>.rst``; this requires
creating the merge request first in order to get its ID.  (In fact, any
first segment starting with ``+`` is fine, but the ``+mr<merge-request>``
convention helps us to avoid collisions and makes tracking easier.)

News fragment sections
----------------------

We have the following sections for news fragments, each of which corresponds
to a section in the assembled release notes:

* Server (``newsfragments/server/``): Backend code on the Debusine
  server, especially changes to ``debusine/db/`` and ``debusine/server/``.
  This includes ``Server``, ``Internal``, and ``Wait`` tasks.

* Web UI (``newsfragments/web/``): The Debusine web user interface,
  especially changes to ``debusine/web/``.

* Client (``newsfragments/client/``): The ``debusine`` client,
  especially changes to ``debusine/client/``.

* Workflows (``newsfragments/workflows/``): :ref:`workflow-reference`,
  especially changes to ``debusine/server/workflows/``.

* Tasks (``newsfragments/tasks/``): :ref:`task-reference`, especially
  changes to ``debusine/tasks/``, ``debusine/server/tasks/``, and
  ``debusine/signing/tasks``.

* Worker (``newsfragments/worker/``): The Debusine worker,
  especially changes to ``debusine/worker/``.

* Signing (``newsfragments/signing/``): The Debusine signing
  worker, especially changes to ``debusine/signing/``.

* General (``newsfragments/``): Anything that does not fit into the above
  categories, including significant codebase-wide changes.

News fragment types
-------------------

We use the following types to categorize news fragments:

* ``incompatible``: An incompatible change.
* ``feature``: A new feature.
* ``bugfix``: A bug fix.
* ``doc``: A documentation improvement.
* ``misc``: An issue has been closed, but it is not of interest to users.
  (This also includes issues about problems with other changes that were
  introduced since the last release; it doesn't normally make sense to
  document these separately.)

Writing style
-------------

News fragments should be in the imperative mood (i.e. "Fix something", not
"Fixes something" or "Fixed something").

They should be complete sentences, ending with a full stop.

They may use reStructuredText features, such as ``:ref:`` for cross-references.

Each news fragment should generally be on a single line.  ``towncrier`` will
wrap them as necessary when assembling the release notes.  If a single issue
needs more than one entry with the same section and type, then put each one
on a separate line.

If an issue is relevant to multiple sections or types, it may have multiple
news fragments to cover them all.

Examples
--------

If you made a breaking change to a workflow in response to issue #42, then
you would put a news fragment in
``newsfragments/workflows/42.incompatible.rst``.

If you made an important bug fix to a server database model in merge request
!999 with no associated issue, then you would put a news fragment in
``newsfragments/server/+mr999.bugfix.rst``.

If you added a new feature to the web UI in response to issue #123, then you
would put a news fragment in ``newsfragments/web/123.feature.rst``.

Making a release
================

The release manager follows this procedure to make a new Debusine release.

Select a branch
---------------

For simplicity, most releases are made from the ``devel`` git branch.
However, it may occasionally make sense to release from other branches, such
as when Debian is in a freeze period and we need to make targeted fixes.
Following `DEP-14 <https://dep-team.pages.debian.net/deps/dep14/>`__, such
branches should be named ``<vendor>/<suite>`` for development releases (e.g.
``debian/unstable``) or ``<vendor>/<codename>`` for stable releases (e.g.
``debian/trixie``); they should be created by branching from an appropriate
tag.

The work needed to prepare a release will be merged into this branch, and
the release tag will end up in that branch's history.

Finalize release notes
----------------------

Look through the changes since the last release (e.g. using ``tig
--first-parent <previous-tag>..``), checking for changes that should have
been :ref:`documented <updating-release-notes>` but were not.  Add news
fragments for these.

Run ``towncrier build --version <new-version>`` to assemble a first draft of
the new release notes, then run ``make -C docs clean html`` and check the
results in a web browser.  Edit the result as needed to improve readability:
for example, it may make sense to consolidate items that relate to the same
overall topic, or to make minor formatting adjustments.

Add a ``debian/changelog`` entry for the new release, briefly highlighting
the most significant changes.

File a merge request with all these changes, targeted to the branch selected
above, and ask for review.

Release to Debian
-----------------

Once your merge request with updated release notes has been approved, merge
it into the appropriate branch.  (Be careful to check for other changes that
have been merged since you filed the merge request, since you may need to
add release notes for them; it's best to merge release notes branches as
promptly as possible to avoid this extra work.)

In most cases, you can now run ``git debpush`` (you will need the
``git-debpush`` package).  This will push a signed tag causing the
tag2upload service to make an upload to Debian.

If the upload will require going through the ``NEW`` queue (either due to a
new binary package, or because this is the first upload to the
``-backports`` suite for a new Debian release), you will instead need to
make an upload including binaries.  To do this, run ``dgit sbuild`` to build
the package, ``dgit push-built`` to upload it, and push the resulting git
branch and tag.

``git debpush`` or ``dgit push-built`` will create a signed
``debian/<version>`` tag.  For convenience (such as making it easy to browse
changes interactively, or to make it a little easier for people to install
the Debusine client directly from git), we also create a ``<version>`` tag
without the ``debian/`` prefix.  Do this manually using ``git tag`` after
making the release to Debian, and push it.

If you did not make the release from ``devel`` or from a backports branch,
then you should normally merge it into ``devel`` now so that version numbers
of automatically-built packages from ``devel`` remain higher than those in
Debian unstable.

Follow up
---------

Over the next few days, check the `tracker
<https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debusine>`__ to make sure that your release
has built and passed tests everywhere and (if relevant) that it will migrate
to testing.  If this is not the case, you may need to make follow-up
releases to fix any problems.  It is a good idea to subscribe to the
``debusine`` package via the tracker so that you are notified of build
failures, testing migration, and bug reports.

For releases to unstable, once they have migrated to testing, we normally
also prepare a stable backport.  These are maintained in the
``debian/<codename>-backports`` git branch, but they do not have independent
release notes, other than a brief "Rebuild for <codename>-backports" note in
``debian/changelog``.  To prepare these, use ``git merge`` locally to merge
the release tag into the backports branch, run ``dch --bpo`` or similar to
update the changelog, and upload the result using ``git debpush`` or
``dgit`` as above.
