Zulip server release checklist
This document has reminders of things one might forget to do when preparing a new release.
A week before the release
Major releases only (e.g., 4.0):
Upgrade all Python dependencies in
requirements
to latest upstream versions so they can burn in (usepip list --outdated
).Upgrade all puppet dependencies in
puppet/deps.yaml
Upgrade all puppet-installed dependencies (e.g., Smokescreen, go, etc) in
puppet/zulip/manifests/common.pp
Upload strings to Transifex using
push-translations
. Post a Transifex announcement notifying translators that we’re approaching a release.Merge draft updates to the changelog with changes since the last release. While doing so, take notes on things that might need follow-up work or documentation before we can happily advertise them in a release blog post.
Inspect all
TODO/compatibility
comments for whether we can remove any backwards-compatibility code in this release.
Create a burn-down list of issues that need to be fixed before we can release, and make sure all of them are being worked on.
Draft the release blog post (a.k.a. the release notes) in Paper. In it, list the important changes in the release, from most to least notable.
Final release preparation
Update the Paper blog post draft with any new commits.
Download updated translation strings from Transifex and commit them. Use the
--branch 6.x
parameter for maintenance releases.Use
build-release-tarball
to generate a pre-release tarball.Test the new tarball extensively, both new install and upgrade from last release, on Ubuntu 22.04.
Repeat until release is ready.
Send around the Paper blog post draft for review.
Move the blog post draft to Astro:
Use “··· > Export > Markdown” to get a pretty good Markdown conversion, and save it in
src/posts
with a filename appropriate for a URL slug.Add the needed YAML frontmatter.
Move any images into
public
and update their references.Proofread, especially for formatting.
If the draft post should remain secret until release, avoid using a guessable Git branch name for the pull request (the deployment preview URL is based on the branch name).
Major releases only (e.g., 4.0): Schedule team members to provide extra responsive #production help support following the release.
Executing the release
Create the release commit, on
main
(for major releases) or on the release branch (for minor releases):Copy the Markdown release notes for the release into
docs/overview/changelog.md
.Verify the changelog passes lint, and has the right release date.
Major releases only: Adjust the
changelog.md
heading to have the stable release series boilerplate.Update
ZULIP_VERSION
andLATEST_RELEASE_VERSION
inversion.py
.Major releases only: Update
API_FEATURE_LEVEL
to a feature level for the final release, and document a reserved range.
Run
tools/release
with the release version.Update the Docker image:
Commit the Docker updates:
Update
ZULIP_GIT_REF
inDockerfile
Update
README.md
Update the image in
docker-compose.yml
, as well as theZULIP_GIT_REF
Commit the Helm updates:
Add a new entry to
kubernetes/chart/zulip/CHANGELOG.md
Update the
appVersion
inkubernetes/chart/zulip/Chart.yaml
Update the
tag
inkubernetes/chart/zulip/values.yaml
Update the docs by running
helm-docs
Update the
image
inkubernetes/manual/zulip-rc.yml
Build the image:
docker build . -t zulip/docker-zulip:4.11-0 --no-cache
Also tag it with
latest
:docker build . -t zulip/docker-zulip:latest
Push those tags:
docker push zulip/docker-zulip:4.11-0; docker push zulip/docker-zulip:latest
Push the commits to
main
.
Merge the blog post PR.
Announce the release, pointing to the blog post, via:
Email to zulip-announce
Email to zulip-blog-announce
Message in #announce
Tweet from @zulip.
Toot from fosstodon.org/@zulip
Post-release
The DigitalOcean one-click image will report in an internal channel once it is built, and how to test it. Verify it, then publish it to DigitalOcean marketplace.
Major releases only:
Create a release branch (e.g.,
4.x
).On the release branch, update
ZULIP_VERSION
inversion.py
to the present release with a+git
suffix, e.g.,4.0+git
.On
main
, updateZULIP_VERSION
to the future major release with a-dev+git
suffix, e.g.,5.0-dev+git
. Make a Git tag for this update commit with a-dev
suffix, e.g.,5.0-dev
. Push the tag to both zulip.git and zulip-internal.git to get a correct version number for future Cloud deployments.Add the new release to
.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/2_bug_report.md
.Consider removing a few old releases from ReadTheDocs; we keep about two years of back-versions.
Update Transifex to add the new
4.x
style release branch resources and archive the previous release branch’s resources with the “Translations can’t translate this resource” setting.Add a new CI production upgrade target:
Build a docker image:
cd tools/ci && docker build . -f Dockerfile.prod --build-arg=BASE_IMAGE=zulip/ci:bookworm --build-arg=VERSION=7.0 --tag=zulip/ci:bookworm-7.0 && docker push zulip/ci:bookworm-7.0
Add a new line to the
production_upgrade
matrix in.github/workflows/production-suite.yml
.
Update /history page in
templates/corporate/history.md
.
Minor releases only (e.g., 3.2):
On the release branch, update
ZULIP_VERSION
to the present release with a+git
suffix, e.g.,3.2+git
.On main, update
LATEST_RELEASE_VERSION
with the released version, as well as the changelog changes from the release branch.
Prereleases only (e.g., 7.0-beta3):
Atop the prerelease commit (e.g.,
7.0-beta3
), make a commit updatingZULIP_VERSION
to the prerelease version with a+git
suffix, e.g.,7.0-beta3+git
. Push this tomain
. (Ifmain
has already diverged from the prerelease, a merge commit will be needed here.)Delete the prerelease branch (e.g.,
7.0-beta3-branch
); it’s now an ancestor ofmain
and thus unnecessary.