nwaku/docs/contributors/release-process.md

Release Process

How to do releases.

For more context, see https://trunkbaseddevelopment.com/branch-for-release/

How to do releases

Before release

Ensure all items in this list are ticked:

• All issues under the corresponding release milestone has been closed or, after consultation, deferred to a next release.
• All submodules are up to date.

  IMPORTANT: Updating submodules requires a PR (and very often several "fixes" to maintain compatibility with the changes in submodules). That PR process must be done and merged a couple of days before the release. In case the submodules update has a low effort and/or risk for the release, follow the "Update submodules" instructions. If the effort or risk is too high, consider postponing the submodules upgrade for the subsequent release or delaying the current release until the submodules updates are included in the release candidate.

• The js-waku CI tests pass against the release candidate (i.e. nwaku latest master).

  NOTE: This serves as a basic regression test against typical clients of nwaku. The specific job that needs to pass is named node_with_nwaku_master.

Performing the release

1. Checkout a release branch from master

   git checkout -b release/v0.1.0
   

2. Update CHANGELOG.md and ensure it is up to date. Use the helper Make target to get PR based release-notes/changelog update.

   make release-notes
   

3. Create a release-candidate tag with the same name as release and -rc.N suffix a few days before the official release and push it

   git tag -as v0.1.0-rc.0 -m "Initial release."
   git push origin v0.1.0-rc.0
   

   This will trigger a workflow which will build RC artifacts and create and publish a Github release

4. Open a PR from the release branch for others to review the included changes and the release-notes

5. In case additional changes are needed, create a new RC tag

   Make sure the new tag is associated with CHANGELOG update.

   # Make changes, rebase and create new tag
   # Squash to one commit and make a nice commit message
   git rebase -i origin/master
   git tag -as v0.1.0-rc.1 -m "Initial release."
   git push origin v0.1.0-rc.1
   

6. Once the release-candidate has been validated, create a final release tag and push it.

   git checkout release/v0.1.0
   git tag -as v0.1.0 -m "Initial release."
   git push origin v0.1.0
   

7. Create a Github release from the release tag.

   • Add binaries produced by the "Upload Release Asset" workflow. Where possible, test the binaries before uploading to the release.

After the release

1. Announce the release on Twitter, Discord and other channels.
2. Deploy the release image to Dockerhub by triggering the manual Jenkins deployment job.

Ensure the following build parameters are set:

• MAKE_TARGET: wakunode2
• IMAGE_TAG: the release tag (e.g. v0.16.0)
• IMAGE_NAME: wakuorg/nwaku
• NIMFLAGS: --colors:off -d:disableMarchNative -d:chronicles_colors:none -d:postgres
• GIT_REF the release tag (e.g. v0.16.0)

3. Deploy the release to appropriate fleets:
   • Inform clients

   NOTE: known clients are currently using some version of js-waku, go-waku, nwaku or waku-rs. Clients are reachable via the corresponding channels on the Vac Discord server. It should be enough to inform clients on the #nwaku and #announce channels on Discord. Informal conversations with specific repo maintainers are often part of this process.

   • Check if nwaku configuration parameters changed. If so update fleet configuration in infra-nim-waku
   • Deploy release to the wakuv2.prod fleet from Jenkins.
   • Ensure that nodes successfully start up and monitor health using Grafana and Kibana.
   • If necessary, revert by deploying the previous release. Download logs and open a bug report issue.

Performing a patch release

1. Cherry-pick the relevant commits from master to the release branch

   git cherry-pick <commit-hash>
   

2. Create a release-candidate tag with the same name as release and -rc.N suffix

3. Update CHANGELOG.md. From the release branch, use the helper Make target after having cherry-picked the commits.

   make release-notes
   

   Create a new branch and raise a PR with the changelog updates to master.

4. Once the release-candidate has been validated and changelog PR got merged, cherry-pick the changelog update from master to the release branch. Create a final release tag and push it.

5. Create a Github release from the release tag and follow the same post-release process as usual.