mirror of
https://github.com/anchore/syft
synced 2024-11-13 23:57:07 +00:00
112 lines
5.4 KiB
Markdown
112 lines
5.4 KiB
Markdown
# Release
|
|
|
|
## Creating a release
|
|
|
|
This release process itself should be as automated as possible, and has only a few steps:
|
|
|
|
1. **Trigger a new release with `make release`**. At this point you'll see a preview
|
|
changelog in the terminal. If you're happy with the changelog, press `y` to continue, otherwise
|
|
you can abort and adjust the labels on the PRs and issues to be included in the release and
|
|
re-run the release trigger command.
|
|
|
|
1. A release admin must approve the release on the GitHub Actions release pipeline run page.
|
|
Once approved, the release pipeline will generate all assets and publish a GitHub Release.
|
|
|
|
1. If there is a release Milestone, close it.
|
|
|
|
Ideally releasing should be done often with small increments when possible. Unless a
|
|
breaking change is blocking the release, or no fixes/features have been merged, a good
|
|
target release cadence is between every 1 or 2 weeks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Retracting a release
|
|
|
|
If a release is found to be problematic, it can be retracted with the following steps:
|
|
|
|
- Deleting the GitHub Release
|
|
- Untag the docker images in the `ghcr.io` and `docker.io` registries
|
|
- Revert the brew formula in [`anchore/homebrew-syft`](https://github.com/anchore/homebrew-syft) to point to the previous release
|
|
- Add a new `retract` entry in the go.mod for the versioned release
|
|
|
|
**Note**: do not delete release tags from the git repository since there may already be references to the release
|
|
in the go proxy, which will cause confusion when trying to reuse the tag later (the H1 hash will not match and there
|
|
will be a warning when users try to pull the new release).
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Background
|
|
|
|
A good release process has the following qualities:
|
|
|
|
1. There is a way to plan what should be in a release
|
|
1. There is a way to see what is actually in a release
|
|
1. Allow for different kinds of releases (major breaking vs backwards compatible enhancements vs patch updates)
|
|
1. Specify a repeatable way to build and publish software artifacts
|
|
|
|
|
|
### Planning a release
|
|
|
|
To indicate a set of features to be released together add each issue to an in-repository
|
|
Milestone named with major-minor version to be released (e.g. `v0.1`). It is OK for other
|
|
features to be in the release that were not originally planned, and these issues and PRs
|
|
do not need to be added to the Milestone in question. Only the set of features that, when
|
|
completed, would allow the release to be considered complete. A Milestone is only used to:
|
|
|
|
- Plan what is desired to be in a release
|
|
- Track progress to indicate when we may be ready to cut a new release
|
|
|
|
Not all releases need to be planned. For instance, patch releases for fixes should be
|
|
released when they are ready and when releasing would not interfere with another current
|
|
release (where some partial or breaking features have already been merged).
|
|
|
|
Unless necessary, feature releases should be small and frequent, which may obviate the
|
|
need for regular release planning under a Milestone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
### What is in a release
|
|
|
|
Milestones are specifically for planning a release, not necessarily tracking all changes
|
|
that a release may bring (and more importantly, not all releases are necessarily planned
|
|
either).
|
|
|
|
This is one of the (many) reasons for a Changelog. A good Changelog lists changes grouped
|
|
by the type of change (new, enhancement, deprecation, breaking, bug fix, security fix), in
|
|
chronological order (within groups), linking the PR where the change was made in the
|
|
Changelog line. Furthermore, there should be a place to see all released versions, the
|
|
release date for each release, the semantic version of the release, and the set of changes
|
|
for each release.
|
|
|
|
**This project auto-generates the Changelog contents for each current release and posts the
|
|
generated contents to the GitHub Release page**. Leveraging the GitHub Releases feature
|
|
allows GitHub to manage the Changelog on each release outside of the git source tree while
|
|
still being hosted with the released assets.
|
|
|
|
The Changelog is generated from the metadata from in-repository issues and PRs, using
|
|
labels to guide what kind of change each item is (e.g. breaking, new feature, bug fix,
|
|
etx). Only issues/PRs with select labels are included in the Changelog, and only if the
|
|
issue/PR was created after the last release. Additional labels are used to exclude items
|
|
from the Changelog.
|
|
|
|
The above suggestions imply that we should:
|
|
|
|
- Ensure there is a sufficient title for each PR and issue title to be included in the
|
|
Changelog
|
|
- The appropriate label is applied to PRs and/or issues to drive specific change type
|
|
sections (deprecated, breaking, security, bug, etc)
|
|
|
|
**With this approach as we cultivate good organization of PRs and issues we automatically
|
|
get an equally good Changelog.**
|
|
|
|
|
|
### Major, minor, and patch releases
|
|
|
|
The latest version of the tool is the only supported version, which implies that multiple
|
|
parallel release branches will not be a regular process (if ever). Multiple releases can
|
|
be planned in parallel, however, only one can be actively developed at a time. That is, if
|
|
PRs attached to a release Milestone have been merged into the main branch, that release is
|
|
now the "next" release. **This implies that the source of truth for release lies with the
|
|
git log and Changelog, not with the release Milestones** (which are purely for planning and
|
|
tracking).
|
|
|
|
Semantic versioning should be used to indicate breaking changes, new features, and fixes.
|
|
The exception to this is `< 1.0`, where the major version is not bumped for breaking changes,
|
|
instead the minor version indicates both new features and breaking changes.
|