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Release Checklist

IMPORTANT: If your experience deviates from this document, please document the changes to keep it up-to-date.

Release Meetings

As part of the release process, two of the weekly developer calls will be co-opted as "release meetings."

Start of the Release Cycle

The first developer call after a release will be used as the release meeting to start the next release cycle. During this meeting, the following items must be identified:

  • Release date
  • Goals/Objectives for this release
  • The release manager (basically whoever is going to cut the release)
  • Any other important details for the community

All of this information should be added to the GitHub milestone for the given release. This should give the community and maintainers a clear set of guidelines to follow when choosing whether or not to add issues and PRs to a given release.

End (almost) of the Release Cycle

The developer call closest to two weeks before the scheduled release date will be used to review any remaining PRs that should be pulled into the release. This is the place to debate whether or not we should wait before cutting a release and any other concerns. At the end of this meeting, if the release date has not been pushed out, the first RC should be cut. Subsequent developer calls in between this meeting and the release date should have some time set aside to see if any bugs were found. Once the release date is reached, the final release can be cut

A Maintainer's Guide to Releasing Helm

So you're in charge of a new release for Helm? Cool. Here's what to do...

TODO: Nothing

Just kidding! :trollface:

All releases will be of the form vX.Y.Z where X is the major version number, Y is the minor version number and Z is the patch release number. This project strictly follows semantic versioning so following this step is critical.

It is important to note that this document assumes that the git remote in your repository that corresponds to "https://github.com/helm/helm" is named "upstream". If yours is not (for example, if you've chosen to name it "origin" or something similar instead), be sure to adjust the listed snippets for your local environment accordingly. If you are not sure what your upstream remote is named, use a command like git remote -v to find out.

If you don't have an upstream remote, you can add one easily using something like:

git remote add upstream git@github.com:helm/helm.git

In this doc, we are going to reference a few environment variables as well, which you may want to set for convenience. For major/minor releases, use the following:

export RELEASE_NAME=vX.Y.0
export RELEASE_BRANCH_NAME="release-X.Y"
export RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME="$RELEASE_NAME-rc.1"

If you are creating a patch release, you may want to use the following instead:

export PREVIOUS_PATCH_RELEASE=vX.Y.Z
export RELEASE_NAME=vX.Y.Z+1
export RELEASE_BRANCH_NAME="release-X.Y"
export RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME="$RELEASE_NAME-rc.1"

1. Create the Release Branch

Major/Minor Releases

Major releases are for new feature additions and behavioral changes that break backwards compatibility. Minor releases are for new feature additions that do not break backwards compatibility. To create a major or minor release, start by creating a release-vX.Y.0 branch from master.

git fetch upstream
git checkout upstream/master
git checkout -b $RELEASE_BRANCH_NAME

This new branch is going to be the base for the release, which we are going to iterate upon later.

Patch releases

Patch releases are a few critical cherry-picked fixes to existing releases. Start by creating a release-vX.Y.Z branch from the latest patch release.

git fetch upstream --tags
git checkout $PREVIOUS_PATCH_RELEASE
git checkout -b $RELEASE_BRANCH_NAME

From here, we can cherry-pick the commits we want to bring into the patch release:

# get the commits ids we want to cherry-pick
git log --oneline
# cherry-pick the commits starting from the oldest one, without including merge commits
git cherry-pick -x <commit-id>
git cherry-pick -x <commit-id>

This new branch is going to be the base for the release, which we are going to iterate upon later.

2. Change the Version Number in Git

When doing a minor release, make sure to update pkg/version/version.go with the new release version.

$ git diff pkg/version/version.go
diff --git a/pkg/version/version.go b/pkg/version/version.go
index 2109a0a..6f5a1a4 100644
--- a/pkg/version/version.go
+++ b/pkg/version/version.go
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ var (
        // Increment major number for new feature additions and behavioral changes.
        // Increment minor number for bug fixes and performance enhancements.
        // Increment patch number for critical fixes to existing releases.
-       Version = "v2.6"
+       Version = "v2.7"

        // BuildMetadata is extra build time data
        BuildMetadata = "unreleased"

git add .
git commit -m "bump version to $RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME"

3. Commit and Push the Release Branch

In order for others to start testing, we can now push the release branch upstream and start the test process.

git push upstream $RELEASE_BRANCH_NAME

Make sure to check helm on CircleCI and make sure the release passed CI before proceeding.

If anyone is available, let others peer-review the branch before continuing to ensure that all the proper changes have been made and all of the commits for the release are there.

4. Create a Release Candidate

Now that the release branch is out and ready, it is time to start creating and iterating on release candidates.

git tag --sign --annotate "${RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME}" --message "Helm release ${RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME}"
git push upstream $RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME

CircleCI will automatically create a tagged release image and client binary to test with.

For testers, the process to start testing after CircleCI finishes building the artifacts involves the following steps to grab the client from Google Cloud Storage:

linux/amd64, using /bin/bash:

wget https://kubernetes-helm.storage.googleapis.com/helm-$RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME-linux-amd64.tar.gz

darwin/amd64, using Terminal.app:

wget https://kubernetes-helm.storage.googleapis.com/helm-$RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME-darwin-amd64.tar.gz

windows/amd64, using PowerShell:

PS C:\> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://kubernetes-helm.storage.googleapis.com/helm-$RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME-windows-amd64.zip" -OutFile "helm-$ReleaseCandidateName-windows-amd64.zip"

Then, unpack and move the binary to somewhere on your $PATH, or move it somewhere and add it to your $PATH (e.g. /usr/local/bin/helm for linux/macOS, C:\Program Files\helm\helm.exe for Windows).

5. Iterate on Successive Release Candidates

Spend several days explicitly investing time and resources to try and break helm in every possible way, documenting any findings pertinent to the release. This time should be spent testing and finding ways in which the release might have caused various features or upgrade environments to have issues, not coding. During this time, the release is in code freeze, and any additional code changes will be pushed out to the next release.

During this phase, the $RELEASE_BRANCH_NAME branch will keep evolving as you will produce new release candidates. The frequency of new candidates is up to the release manager: use your best judgement taking into account the severity of reported issues, testers' availability, and the release deadline date. Generally speaking, it is better to let a release roll over the deadline than to ship a broken release.

Each time you'll want to produce a new release candidate, you will start by adding commits to the branch by cherry-picking from master:

git cherry-pick -x <commit_id>

You will also want to update the release version number and the CHANGELOG as we did in steps 2 and 3 as separate commits.

After that, tag it and notify users of the new release candidate:

export RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME="$RELEASE_NAME-rc.2"
git tag --sign --annotate "${RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME}" --message "Helm release ${RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME}"
git push upstream $RELEASE_CANDIDATE_NAME

From here on just repeat this process, continuously testing until you're happy with the release candidate.

6. Finalize the Release

When you're finally happy with the quality of a release candidate, you can move on and create the real thing. Double-check one last time to make sure everything is in order, then finally push the release tag.

git checkout $RELEASE_BRANCH_NAME
git tag --sign --annotate "${RELEASE_NAME}" --message "Helm release ${RELEASE_NAME}"
git push upstream $RELEASE_NAME

7. PGP Sign the downloads

While hashes provide a signature that the content of the downloads is what it was generated, signed packages provide traceability of where the package came from.

To do this, run the following make commands:

make clean
make fetch-dist
make sign

This will generate ascii armored signature files for each of the files pushed by CI.

All of the signature files need to be uploaded to the release on GitHub.

8. Write the Release Notes

We will auto-generate a changelog based on the commits that occurred during a release cycle, but it is usually more beneficial to the end-user if the release notes are hand-written by a human being/marketing team/dog.

If you're releasing a major/minor release, listing notable user-facing features is usually sufficient. For patch releases, do the same, but make note of the symptoms and who is affected.

An example release note for a minor release would look like this:

## vX.Y.Z

Helm vX.Y.Z is a feature release. This release, we focused on <insert focal point>. Users are encouraged to upgrade for the best experience.

The community keeps growing, and we'd love to see you there!

- Join the discussion in [Kubernetes Slack](https://kubernetes.slack.com):
  - `#helm-users` for questions and just to hang out
  - `#helm-dev` for discussing PRs, code, and bugs
- Hang out at the Public Developer Call: Thursday, 9:30 Pacific via [Zoom](https://zoom.us/j/696660622)
- Test, debug, and contribute charts: [GitHub/helm/charts](https://github.com/helm/charts)

## Features and Changes

- Major
- features
- list
- here

## Installation and Upgrading

Download Helm X.Y. The common platform binaries are here:

- [MacOS amd64](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-darwin-amd64.tar.gz) ([checksum](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-darwin-amd64.tar.gz.sha256) / CHECKSUM_VAL)
- [Linux amd64](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-amd64.tar.gz) ([checksum](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-amd64.tar.gz.sha256) / CHECKSUM_VAL)
- [Linux arm](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-arm.tar.gz) ([checksum](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-arm.tar.gz.sha256) / CHECKSUM_VAL)
- [Linux arm64](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-arm64.tar.gz) ([checksum](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-arm64.tar.gz.sha256) / CHECKSUM_VAL)
- [Linux i386](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-386.tar.gz) ([checksum](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-386.tar.gz.sha256) / CHECKSUM_VAL)
- [Linux ppc64le](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-ppc64le.tar.gz) ([checksum](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-ppc64le.tar.gz.sha256) / CHECKSUM_VAL)
- [Linux s390x](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-s390x.tar.gz) ([checksum](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-linux-s390x.tar.gz.sha256) / CHECKSUM_VAL)
- [Windows amd64](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-windows-amd64.zip) ([checksum](https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-helm/helm-vX.Y.Z-windows-amd64.zip.sha256) / CHECKSUM_VAL)

Once you have the client installed, upgrade Tiller with `helm init --upgrade`.

The [Quickstart Guide](https://docs.helm.sh/using_helm/#quickstart-guide) will get you going from there. For **upgrade instructions** or detailed installation notes, check the [install guide](https://docs.helm.sh/using_helm/#installing-helm). You can also use a [script to install](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/master/scripts/get) on any system with `bash`.

## What's Next

- vX.Y.Z+1 will contain only bug fixes.
- vX.Y+1.Z is the next feature release. This release will focus on ...

## Changelog

### Features
- ref(*): kubernetes v1.11 support efadbd88035654b2951f3958167afed014c46bc6 (Adam Reese)
- feat(helm): add $HELM_KEY_PASSPHRASE environment variable for signing helm charts (#4778) 1e26b5300b5166fabb90002535aacd2f9cc7d787

### Bug fixes
- fix circle not building tags f4f932fabd197f7e6d608c8672b33a483b4b76fa (Matthew Fisher)

### Code cleanup
- ref(kube): Gets rid of superfluous Sprintf call 3071a16f5eb3a2b646d9795617287cc26e53dba4  (Taylor Thomas)
- chore(*): bump version to v2.7.0 08c1144f5eb3e3b636d9775617287cc26e53dba4 (Adam Reese)

### Documentation Changes
- docs(release_checklist): fix changelog generation command (#4694) 8442851a5c566a01d9b4c69b368d64daa04f6a7f (Matthew Fisher)

The changelog at the bottom of the release notes can be generated with this command:

PREVIOUS_RELEASE=vX.Y.Z
git log --no-merges --pretty=format:'- %s %H (%aN)' $PREVIOUS_RELEASE..$RELEASE_NAME

After generating the changelog, you will need to categorize the changes as shown in the example above.

Once finished, go into GitHub and edit the release notes for the tagged release with the notes written here.

Remember to attach the ascii armored signatures generated in the previous step to the release notes.

9. Evangelize

Congratulations! You're done. Go grab yourself a $DRINK_OF_CHOICE. You've earned it.

After enjoying a nice $DRINK_OF_CHOICE, go forth and announce the glad tidings of the new release in Slack and on Twitter. You should also notify any key partners in the helm community such as the homebrew formula maintainers, the owners of incubator projects (e.g. ChartMuseum) and any other interested parties.

Optionally, write a blog post about the new release and showcase some of the new features on there!