2 ## A maintainer's guide to releasing Docker
4 So you're in charge of a Docker release? Cool. Here's what to do.
6 If your experience deviates from this document, please document the changes
9 It is important to note that this document assumes that the git remote in your
10 repository that corresponds to "https://github.com/docker/docker" is named
11 "origin". If yours is not (for example, if you've chosen to name it "upstream"
12 or something similar instead), be sure to adjust the listed snippets for your
13 local environment accordingly. If you are not sure what your upstream remote is
14 named, use a command like `git remote -v` to find out.
16 If you don't have an upstream remote, you can add one easily using something
20 export GITHUBUSER="YOUR_GITHUB_USER"
21 git remote add origin https://github.com/docker/docker.git
22 git remote add $GITHUBUSER git@github.com:$GITHUBUSER/docker.git
25 ### 1. Pull from master and create a release branch
27 All releases version numbers will be of the form: vX.Y.Z where X is the major
28 version number, Y is the minor version number and Z is the patch release version number.
32 The release branch name is just vX.Y because it's going to be the basis for all .Z releases.
38 git checkout --track origin/master
39 git checkout -b release/$BASE
42 This new branch is going to be the base for the release. We need to push it to origin so we
43 can track the cherry-picked changes and the version bump:
46 git push origin release/$BASE
49 When you have the major release branch in origin, we need to create the bump fork branch
50 that we'll push to our fork:
53 git checkout -b bump_$VERSION
58 If we have the release branch in origin, we can create the forked bump branch from it directly:
64 git checkout --track origin/release/$BASE
65 git checkout -b bump_$PATCH
68 We cherry-pick only the commits we want into the bump branch:
71 # get the commits ids we want to cherry-pick
73 # cherry-pick the commits starting from the oldest one, without including merge commits
74 git cherry-pick -s -x <commit-id>
75 git cherry-pick -s -x <commit-id>
79 ### 2. Update the VERSION files and API version on master
81 We don't want to stop contributions to master just because we are releasing.
82 So, after the release branch is up, we bump the VERSION and API version to mark
83 the start of the "next" release.
85 #### 2.1 Update the VERSION files
87 Update the content of the `VERSION` file to be the next minor (incrementing Y)
88 and add the `-dev` suffix. For example, after the release branch for 1.5.0 is
89 created, the `VERSION` file gets updated to `1.6.0-dev` (as in "1.6.0 in the
92 #### 2.2 Update API version on master
94 We don't want API changes to go to the now frozen API version. Create a new
95 entry in `docs/reference/api/` by copying the latest and bumping the version
96 number (in both the file's name and content), and submit this in a PR against
99 ### 3. Update CHANGELOG.md
101 You can run this command for reference with git 2.0:
105 LAST_VERSION=$(git tag -l --sort=-version:refname "v*" | grep -E 'v[0-9\.]+$' | head -1)
106 git log --stat $LAST_VERSION..bump_$VERSION
109 If you don't have git 2.0 but have a sort command that supports `-V`:
112 LAST_VERSION=$(git tag -l | grep -E 'v[0-9\.]+$' | sort -rV | head -1)
113 git log --stat $LAST_VERSION..bump_$VERSION
116 If releasing a major version (X or Y increased in vX.Y.Z), simply listing notable user-facing features is sufficient.
118 #### Notable features since <last major version>
119 * New docker command to do something useful
120 * Engine API change (deprecating old version)
121 * Performance improvements in some usecases
125 For minor releases (only Z increases in vX.Y.Z), provide a list of user-facing changes.
126 Each change should be listed under a category heading formatted as `#### CATEGORY`.
128 `CATEGORY` should describe which part of the project is affected.
129 Valid categories are:
136 * Other (please use this category sparingly)
138 Each change should be formatted as `BULLET DESCRIPTION`, given:
140 * BULLET: either `-`, `+` or `*`, to indicate a bugfix, new feature or
141 upgrade, respectively.
143 * DESCRIPTION: a concise description of the change that is relevant to the
144 end-user, using the present tense. Changes should be described in terms
145 of how they affect the user, for example "Add new feature X which allows Y",
146 "Fix bug which caused X", "Increase performance of Y".
151 ## 0.3.6 (1995-12-25)
155 + 'docker build -t FOO .' applies the tag FOO to the newly built image
159 - Fix a bug in the optional unix socket transport
163 * Improve detection of kernel version
166 If you need a list of contributors between the last major release and the
167 current bump branch, use something like:
169 git log --format='%aN <%aE>' v0.7.0...bump_v0.8.0 | sort -uf
171 Obviously, you'll need to adjust version numbers as necessary. If you just need
172 a count, add a simple `| wc -l`.
174 ### 4. Change the contents of the VERSION file
176 Before the big thing, you'll want to make successive release candidates and get
177 people to test. The release candidate number `N` should be part of the version:
180 export RC_VERSION=${VERSION}-rcN
181 echo ${RC_VERSION#v} > VERSION
186 Make sure that your tree includes documentation for any modified or
187 new features, syntax or semantic changes.
195 To make a shared test at https://beta-docs.docker.io:
197 (You will need the `awsconfig` file added to the `docs/` dir)
200 make AWS_S3_BUCKET=beta-docs.docker.io BUILD_ROOT=yes docs-release
203 ### 6. Commit and create a pull request to the "release" branch
206 git add VERSION CHANGELOG.md
207 git commit -m "Bump version to $VERSION"
208 git push $GITHUBUSER bump_$VERSION
209 echo "https://github.com/$GITHUBUSER/docker/compare/docker:release/$BASE...$GITHUBUSER:bump_$VERSION?expand=1"
212 That last command will give you the proper link to visit to ensure that you
213 open the PR against the "release" branch instead of accidentally against
214 "master" (like so many brave souls before you already have).
216 ### 7. Create a PR to update the AUTHORS file for the release
218 Update the AUTHORS file, by running the `hack/generate-authors.sh` on the
219 release branch. To prevent duplicate entries, you may need to update the
220 `.mailmap` file accordingly.
222 ### 8. Build release candidate rpms and debs
224 **NOTE**: It will be a lot faster if you pass a different graphdriver with
225 `DOCKER_GRAPHDRIVER` than `vfs`.
228 docker build -t docker .
230 --rm -t --privileged \
231 -e DOCKER_GRAPHDRIVER=aufs \
232 -v $(pwd)/bundles:/go/src/github.com/docker/docker/bundles \
234 hack/make.sh binary build-deb build-rpm
237 ### 9. Publish release candidate rpms and debs
239 With the rpms and debs you built from the last step you can release them on the
240 same server, or ideally, move them to a dedicated release box via scp into
241 another docker/docker directory in bundles. This next step assumes you have
242 a checkout of the docker source code at the same commit you used to build, with
243 the artifacts from the last step in `bundles`.
245 **NOTE:** If you put a space before the command your `.bash_history` will not
246 save it. (for the `GPG_PASSPHRASE`).
249 docker build -t docker .
250 docker run --rm -it --privileged \
251 -v /volumes/repos:/volumes/repos \
252 -v $(pwd)/bundles:/go/src/github.com/docker/docker/bundles \
253 -v $HOME/.gnupg:/root/.gnupg \
254 -e DOCKER_RELEASE_DIR=/volumes/repos \
258 hack/make.sh release-deb release-rpm sign-repos generate-index-listing
261 ### 10. Upload the changed repos to wherever you host
263 For example, above we bind mounted `/volumes/repos` as the storage for
264 `DOCKER_RELEASE_DIR`. In this case `/volumes/repos/apt` can be synced with
265 a specific s3 bucket for the apt repo and `/volumes/repos/yum` can be synced with
266 a s3 bucket for the yum repo.
268 ### 11. Publish release candidate binaries
270 To run this you will need access to the release credentials. Get them from the
274 docker build -t docker .
276 # static binaries are still pushed to s3
278 -e AWS_S3_BUCKET=test.docker.com \
279 -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID \
280 -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY \
281 -e AWS_DEFAULT_REGION \
287 It will run the test suite, build the binaries and upload to the specified bucket,
288 so this is a good time to verify that you're running against **test**.docker.com.
290 ### 12. Purge the cache!
292 After the binaries are uploaded to test.docker.com and the packages are on
293 apt.dockerproject.org and yum.dockerproject.org, make sure
294 they get tested in both Ubuntu and Debian for any obvious installation
295 issues or runtime issues.
297 If everything looks good, it's time to create a git tag for this candidate:
300 git tag -a $RC_VERSION -m $RC_VERSION bump_$VERSION
301 git push origin $RC_VERSION
304 Announcing on multiple medias is the best way to get some help testing! An easy
305 way to get some useful links for sharing:
308 echo "Ubuntu/Debian: curl -sSL https://test.docker.com/ | sh"
309 echo "Linux 64bit binary: https://test.docker.com/builds/Linux/x86_64/docker-${VERSION#v}"
310 echo "Darwin/OSX 64bit client binary: https://test.docker.com/builds/Darwin/x86_64/docker-${VERSION#v}"
311 echo "Linux 64bit tgz: https://test.docker.com/builds/Linux/x86_64/docker-${VERSION#v}.tgz"
312 echo "Windows 64bit client binary: https://test.docker.com/builds/Windows/x86_64/docker-${VERSION#v}.exe"
313 echo "Windows 32bit client binary: https://test.docker.com/builds/Windows/i386/docker-${VERSION#v}.exe"
315 ### 13. Announce the release candidate
317 The release candidate should be announced on:
319 - IRC on #docker, #docker-dev, #docker-maintainers
320 - In a comment on the pull request to notify subscribed people on GitHub
321 - The [docker-dev](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/docker-dev) group
322 - The [docker-maintainers](https://groups.google.com/a/dockerproject.org/forum/#!forum/maintainers) group
323 - (Optional) Any social media that can bring some attention to the release candidate
325 ### 14. Iterate on successive release candidates
327 Spend several days along with the community explicitly investing time and
328 resources to try and break Docker in every possible way, documenting any
329 findings pertinent to the release. This time should be spent testing and
330 finding ways in which the release might have caused various features or upgrade
331 environments to have issues, not coding. During this time, the release is in
332 code freeze, and any additional code changes will be pushed out to the next
335 It should include various levels of breaking Docker, beyond just using Docker
338 Any issues found may still remain issues for this release, but they should be
339 documented and give appropriate warnings.
341 During this phase, the `bump_$VERSION` branch will keep evolving as you will
342 produce new release candidates. The frequency of new candidates is up to the
343 release manager: use your best judgement taking into account the severity of
344 reported issues, testers availability, and time to scheduled release date.
346 Each time you'll want to produce a new release candidate, you will start by
347 adding commits to the branch, usually by cherry-picking from master:
350 git cherry-pick -s -x -m0 <commit_id>
353 You want your "bump commit" (the one that updates the CHANGELOG and VERSION
354 files) to remain on top, so you'll have to `git rebase -i` to bring it back up.
356 Now that your bump commit is back on top, you will need to update the CHANGELOG
357 file (if appropriate for this particular release candidate), and update the
358 VERSION file to increment the RC number:
361 export RC_VERSION=$VERSION-rcN
362 echo $RC_VERSION > VERSION
365 You can now amend your last commit and update the bump branch:
369 git push -f $GITHUBUSER bump_$VERSION
372 Repeat steps 6 to 14 to tag the code, publish new binaries, announce availability, and
375 ### 15. Finalize the bump branch
377 When you're happy with the quality of a release candidate, you can move on and
378 create the real thing.
380 You will first have to amend the "bump commit" to drop the release candidate
381 suffix in the VERSION file:
384 echo $VERSION > VERSION
389 You will then repeat step 6 to publish the binaries to test
391 ### 16. Get 2 other maintainers to validate the pull request
393 ### 17. Build final rpms and debs
396 docker build -t docker .
398 --rm -t --privileged \
399 -v $(pwd)/bundles:/go/src/github.com/docker/docker/bundles \
401 hack/make.sh binary build-deb build-rpm
404 ### 18. Publish final rpms and debs
406 With the rpms and debs you built from the last step you can release them on the
407 same server, or ideally, move them to a dedicated release box via scp into
408 another docker/docker directory in bundles. This next step assumes you have
409 a checkout of the docker source code at the same commit you used to build, with
410 the artifacts from the last step in `bundles`.
412 **NOTE:** If you put a space before the command your `.bash_history` will not
413 save it. (for the `GPG_PASSPHRASE`).
416 docker build -t docker .
417 docker run --rm -it --privileged \
418 -v /volumes/repos:/volumes/repos \
419 -v $(pwd)/bundles:/go/src/github.com/docker/docker/bundles \
420 -v $HOME/.gnupg:/root/.gnupg \
421 -e DOCKER_RELEASE_DIR=/volumes/repos \
425 hack/make.sh release-deb release-rpm sign-repos generate-index-listing
428 ### 19. Upload the changed repos to wherever you host
430 For example, above we bind mounted `/volumes/repos` as the storage for
431 `DOCKER_RELEASE_DIR`. In this case `/volumes/repos/apt` can be synced with
432 a specific s3 bucket for the apt repo and `/volumes/repos/yum` can be synced with
433 a s3 bucket for the yum repo.
435 ### 20. Publish final binaries
437 Once they're tested and reasonably believed to be working, run against
441 docker build -t docker .
442 # static binaries are still pushed to s3
444 -e AWS_S3_BUCKET=get.docker.com \
445 -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID \
446 -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY \
447 -e AWS_DEFAULT_REGION \
453 ### 21. Purge the cache!
455 ### 22. Apply tag and create release
457 It's very important that we don't make the tag until after the official
458 release is uploaded to get.docker.com!
461 git tag -a $VERSION -m $VERSION bump_$VERSION
462 git push origin $VERSION
465 Once the tag is pushed, go to GitHub and create a [new release](https://github.com/docker/docker/releases/new).
466 If the tag is for an RC make sure you check `This is a pre-release` at the bottom of the form.
468 Select the tag that you just pushed as the version and paste the changelog in the description of the release.
469 You can see examples in this two links:
471 https://github.com/docker/docker/releases/tag/v1.8.0
472 https://github.com/docker/docker/releases/tag/v1.8.0-rc3
474 ### 23. Go to github to merge the `bump_$VERSION` branch into release
476 Don't forget to push that pretty blue button to delete the leftover
479 ### 24. Update the docs branch
481 You will need to point the docs branch to the newly created release tag:
484 git checkout origin/docs
485 git reset --hard origin/$VERSION
486 git push -f origin docs
489 The docs will appear on https://docs.docker.com/ (though there may be cached
490 versions, so its worth checking http://docs.docker.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/).
491 For more information about documentation releases, see `docs/README.md`.
493 Note that the new docs will not appear live on the site until the cache (a complex,
494 distributed CDN system) is flushed. The `make docs-release` command will do this
495 _if_ the `DISTRIBUTION_ID` is set correctly - this will take at least 15 minutes to run
496 and you can check its progress with the CDN Cloudfront Chrome addon.
498 ### 25. Create a new pull request to merge your bump commit back into master
503 git reset --hard origin/master
504 git cherry-pick -s -x $VERSION
505 git push $GITHUBUSER merge_release_$VERSION
506 echo "https://github.com/$GITHUBUSER/docker/compare/docker:master...$GITHUBUSER:merge_release_$VERSION?expand=1"
509 Again, get two maintainers to validate, then merge, then push that pretty
510 blue button to delete your branch.
512 ### 26. Rejoice and Evangelize!
514 Congratulations! You're done.
516 Go forth and announce the glad tidings of the new release in `#docker`,
517 `#docker-dev`, on the [dev mailing list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/docker-dev),
518 the [announce mailing list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/docker-announce),