Release Process¶

Managing a release is easiest in an environment that is as clean as possible. For this reason, cloning the code base in to a new directory for the release process is recommended.

Requirements¶

A system for git and building.
A cryptographic key that has been signed by at least two other PMC members. This should be preferentially associated with your apache.org email address but that is not required.

Release Candidate¶

The first step in a release is making a release candidate. This is distributed to the community for validation before the actual release.

Document¶

Create or update a page on the Wiki for the release. If it is a major or minor release it should have its own page. Use the previous release page as a template. Point releases should get a section at the end of the corresponding release page.

Write an announcement for the release. This will contain much of the same information that is on the Wiki page but more concisely. Check the mailing list archives for examples to use as a base.

Build¶

Go to the top level source directory.
Check the version in CMakeLists.txt. There is a project line near the top with the version number. Make sure that is correct for the release.

Generate or update the CHANGELOG for the next release.

./tools/git/changelog.pl -o apache -r trafficserver -m X.Y.Z >
CHANGELOG-X.Y.Z

Commit this file to the repository and push it to the release branch.
Execute the following commands to make the distribution files where A is the next release candidate number (start with 0).
```
RC=A cmake --preset release
cmake --build build-release -t rel-candidate
```
Push the release tag to the repository.
```
git push <upstream repo> tag X.Y.Z-rcA
```

These steps will create the distribution files and sign them using your key. Expect to be prompted twice for your passphrase unless you use an ssh key agent. If you have multiple keys you will need to set the default appropriately beforehand, as no option will be provided to select the signing key. The files should have names that start with trafficserver-X.Y.Z-rcA.tar.bz2 where X.Y.Z is the version and A is the release candidate counter. There should be three such files, one with no extension and two others with the extensions asc, and sha512. This will also create a signed git tag of the form X.Y.Z-rcA.

Distribute¶

The release candidate files should be uploaded to apache dists.

svn co https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/trafficserver <local-directory>

Create a directory for the next release version if necessary and then add and commit the release files produced above.

Send the release candidate announcement to the users and dev mailing lists, noting that it is a release candidate and providing a link to the distribution files you uploaded. This announcement should also call for a vote on the candidate, generally with a 72 hours time limit.

The distribution files for the release candidate will be available at:

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

If the voting was successful (at least three “+1” votes and no “-1” votes), proceed to Official Release. Otherwise, repeat the Release Candidate process.

Official Release¶

Build the distribution files with the command

cmake --build build-release -t release

Be sure to not have changed anything since the release candidate was built so the checksums are identical. This will create a signed git tag of the form X.Y.Z and produce the distribution files.

The distribution files must be added to an SVN repository. This can be accessed with the command:

svn co https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/trafficserver <local-directory>

All three (.tar.bz2, .asc and .sha512) of the distribution files go here. If you are making a point release then you should also remove the distribution files for the previous release. Allow 24 hours for the files to be distributed through the ASF infrastructure.

The distribution files for the release will be available at:

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

The Traffic Server website must be updated. There is a git repository which you can access at

https://github.com/apache/trafficserver-site

The files of interest are in the content directory.

index.html: This is the front page. The places to edit here are any security announcements at the top and the “News” section.
downloads.html: Update the downloads page to adjust the links, version numbers and dates.

Commiting to the asf-site branch will deploy to the trafficserver website here:

https://trafficserver.apache.org/

Update the announcement, if needed, to refer to the release distribution files and remove the comments concerning the release candidate. This announcement should be sent to the users and dev mailing lists. It should also be sent to the ASF announcement list, which must be done using an apache.org email address.

Prepare for the next minor release¶

Update the version in CMakeLists.txt by incrementing the minor version number. This should be the first commit of the point release after the release tag.