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`:
```
ci/channel_info.sh
```
## Steps to Create a Release
### Create the Release Tag on GitHub
1. Go to [GitHub's Releases UI](https://github.com/solana-labs/solana/releases) for tagging a release.
1. Click "Draft new release". The release tag must exactly match the `version`
field in `/Cargo.toml` prefixed by `v`.
1. If the Cargo.toml verion field is **0.12.3**, then the release tag must be **v0.12.3**
1. Make sure the Target Branch field matches the branch you want to make a release on.
1. If you want to release v0.12.0, the target branch must be v0.12
1. If this is the first release on the branch (e.g. v0.13.**0**), paste in [this
template](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solana-labs/solana/master/.github/RELEASE_TEMPLATE.md). Engineering Lead can provide summary contents for release notes if needed.
1. Click "Save Draft", then confirm the release notes look good and the tag name and branch are correct. Go back into edit the release and click "Publish release" when ready.
### Update release branch with the next patch version
1. After the new release has been tagged, update the Cargo.toml files on **release branch** to the next semantic version (e.g. 0.9.0 -> 0.9.1) with:
```
scripts/increment-cargo-version.sh patch
```
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 **release 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.Z to X.Y.Z+1'
git push -u origin version_update
```
### Verify release automation success
1. 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. This can take up to 90 minutes after creating the tag.
1. The `solana-secondary` Buildkite pipeline handles creating the binary tarballs and updated crates. Look for a job under the tag name of the release: https://buildkite.com/solana-labs/solana-secondary
1. [Crates.io](https://crates.io/crates/solana) should have an updated Solana version.
Document the new recommended version by updating `book/src/running-replicator.md` and `book/src/validator-testnet.md` on the release (beta) branch to point at the `solana-install` for the upcoming release version.
