solana/RELEASE.md

Solana Release process

Introduction

Solana uses a channel-oriented, date-based branching process described here.

Release Steps

Changing channels

When cutting a new channel branch these pre-steps are required:

1. Pick your branch point for release on master.
2. Create the branch. The name should be "v" + the first 2 "version" semantic versionig fields from Cargo.toml. For example, a Cargo.toml with version = "0.9.0" implies the next branch name is "v0.9".
3. Update Cargo.toml to the next semantic version (e.g. 0.9.0 -> 0.10.0).
4. Push your new branch to solana.git
5. Land your Carto.toml change as a master PR.

At this point, ci/channel-info.sh should show your freshly cut release branch as "BETA_CHANNEL" and the previous release branch as "STABLE_CHANNEL".

Updating channels (i.e. "making a release")

We use github's Releases UI for tagging a release.

1. Go there ;).
2. Click "Draft new release".
3. Paste in this template and fill it in.
4. Test the release by generating a tag using semver's rules. First try at a release should be .X-rc.0.
5. Verify release automation:
   1. Crates.io should have an updated Solana version.
   2. ...
6. After testnet deployment, verify that testnets are running correct software. http://metrics.solana.com should show testnet running on a hash from your newly created branch.