1. Create the new branch and push this branch to the `solana` repository:
```
git checkout -b <branchname>
git push -u origin <branchname>
```
### Update master branch with the next version
1. After the new branch has been created and pushed, update the Cargo.toml files on **master** to the next semantic version (e.g. 0.9.0 -> 0.10.0) with:
```
scripts/increment-cargo-version.sh minor
```
1. Rebuild to get an updated version of `Cargo.lock`:
```
cargo build
```
1. Push all the changed Cargo.toml and Cargo.lock files to the `master` branch with something like:
```
git co -b version_update
git ls-files -m | xargs git add
git commit -m 'Update Cargo.toml versions from X.Y to X.Y+1'
git push -u origin version_update
```
1. Confirm that your freshly cut release branch is shown as `BETA_CHANNEL` and the previous release branch as `STABLE_CHANNEL`:
template](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solana-labs/solana/master/.github/RELEASE_TEMPLATE.md). Engineering Lead can provide summary contents for release notes if needed. If this is a patch release, review all the commits since the previous release on this branch and add details as needed.
1. Click "Save Draft", then confirm the release notes look good and the tag name and branch are correct.
1. Ensure the release is marked **"This is a pre-release"**. This flag will then need to be be removed once the the Linux binary artifacts appear later.
1. Go back into edit the release and click "Publish release" when ready.
1. Go to [GitHub Releases](https://github.com/solana-labs/solana/releases) and create a new draft release for `X.Y.Z+1` with empty release nodes. This allows people to incrementally add new release notes until it's time for the next release
1. Go to the [Github Milestones](https://github.com/solana-labs/solana/milestones). Create a new milestone for the `X.Y.Z+1`, move over
unresolved issues still in the `X.Y.Z` milestone, then close the `X.Y.Z` milestone.
Go to [Solana Releases](https://github.com/solana-labs/solana/releases) and click on the latest release that you just published.
Verify that all of the build artifacts are present, then the uncheck **"This is a pre-release"** for the release.
Build artifacts can take up to 60 minutes after creating the tag before
appearing. To check for progress:
* The `solana-secondary` Buildkite pipeline handles creating the Linux release artifacts and updated crates. Look for a job under the tag name of the release: https://buildkite.com/solana-labs/solana-secondary.
* The macOS and Windows release artifacts are produced by Travis CI: https://travis-ci.com/github/solana-labs/solana/branches
[Crates.io](https://crates.io/crates/solana) should have an updated Solana version. This can take 2-3 hours, and sometimes fails in the `solana-secondary` job.
If this happens and the error is non-fatal, click "Retry" on the "publish crate" job
After the release automation completes, to add the new release to the list of releases on docs.solana.com:
1. Go to https://www.gitbook.com/ and click on "Go To Dashboard"
1. Find the "Solana Docs" project
1. Under "Integrations" -> "Github", "Edit configuration". Add the new release to the "Select branches to sync" input box, tclick "Next ->" and then "Go live"
1. Now find the new version in the drop down of imported releases and
toggle "Set as main variant" if `X.Y.Z` is now the latest release on the beta
channel.
1. Consider deleting older `X.Y.Z-1` patch releases since they are no longer relevant
