Alexander von Gluck IV b5e4f1faa3 docs/release: Extend release engineering documentation
Change-Id: Iade40740e6dfbc7ea5f3f74f572d70443f94841a
2022-11-04 14:38:14 -05:00

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Release engineering
===================
To forge a successful stable release of the Haiku operating system, several important tasks must be
accomplished. These steps are time tested as a best roadmap to draft a successful release of Haiku.
.. toctree::
milestones
Important first steps
---------------------
* Review blockers for the next release in `Trac <https://dev.haiku-os.org>`_
* Active members of the `contributors group <https://review.haiku-os.org/admin/groups/23fa29f291e2dd5d41452202147d038f020fc8db,members>`_ should reach concensus on the need for a stable release
* We try to have a release every year, but blocker tickets can prevent this from happening
* It's difficult to commit to strictly time-based releases because the available time of unpaid developers is unpredictable
* Community nomination of a Release Coordinator
* Should be someone from the contributors group
* Should have visibility of most aspects of Haiku
* Should have good coordination and communication skills
* Generally occurs via the haiku-development mailing list
* Timeline proposals are proposed via the haiku-development mailing list
General Rules
-------------
* Don't rush the release. Better delay it a bit and take the time to make sure everything is ok.
* Make sure the final image is really well tested.
* Start planning early. Getting the release ready takes time. Waiting until a new release is urgent is a bad idea.
* There will be another release. Maybe some big changes are too risky to integrate now, and should wait until the next release.
Forming a timeline
------------------
An important aspect of drafting a release is forming a timeline. The Release Coordinator's role is
to drive Haiku towards this release date.
* Final date for enhancements in (RELEASE)
* Branch buildtools for (RELEASE)
* Branch haiku for (RELEASE)
* Setup CI/CD pipelines for (RELEASE)
* Generate first test candidates (TC0, TC1, etc), encourage extreme testing.
* Begin accepting bugfixes in branches via code review
* Final translations synchronization
* Generate first release candidates (RC0, RC1, etc), encourage testing.
* Profit
* R1/Beta 2's timeline from branch to release was roughly 35 days
* R1/Beta 3's timeline from branch to release was roughly 50 days.
Release dates can slide, it's ok.
We just try to slide pragmatically (+1 week because of X,Y,Z)
Branch
------
Once a branch date is selected, branch haiku and buildtools into a "releasename" branch. (examples: r1beta3,r1beta4,r1.0,r1.1,etc)
Immeadiately after branching, do a ```pkgman full-sync``` of each haikuports builder to the latest nightly image.
Before haiku branch:
* B_HAIKU_VERSION changes to PRE_NEXTRELEASE via headers/os/BeBuild.h
* Stable version and pre-XXX version added to headers/os/BeBuild.h
* changes to next version via build/jam/BuildSetup
see f56175 for an example
*branch*
After haiku branch:
* Change B_HAIKU_VERSION to release name
* Update libbe_version from Walter to release name
* Set KDEBUG_LEVEL 1 in kernel_debug_config.h
see 49073e , 5bf3dd for examples
Configure CI/CD Pipelines
-------------------------
Once your code is branched, you can begin setting up CI/CD pipelines in concourse
* Bump the "last vs current" releases in CI/CD and deploy:
https://github.com/haiku/infrastructure/blob/master/concourse/deploy.sh#L29
* Run a build of releasename/toolchain-releasename to generate the intial toolchain containers
* Build each architecture first repo + image from the branch
Do Release Builds
---------
* Begin testing "Test Candidate" (TC0, TC1, TC2, etc) images
* Test like crazy, hand out test candidate images.
* Nominate a "Release Candidate" (RC0, RC1, etc) image
* Test like crazy, hand out release candidate images.
* Decide which Release Candidate will be the release. Rename it as the final release