zebra/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE/release-checklist.md

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Release Checklist Template	Checklist of versioning to create a taggable commit for Zebra

Versioning

Which Crates to Increment

To check if any of the top-level crates need version increments, go to the zebra GitHub code page: https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra. git diff --stat <previous-release-tag> origin/main is also useful to see what's changed.

• Increment the crates that have new commits since the last version update
• Increment any crates that depend on crates that have changed
• Use the zebrad crate version in the zebra-network user agent string
• Use the latest git tag in README.md

How to Increment Versions

Zebra follows semantic versioning.

Semantic versions look like: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH[-TAG.PRE-RELEASE]

Pre-Release Crates

Pre-Release versions have a TAG like "alpha" or "beta". For example: 1.0.0-alpha.0

1. Increment the PRE-RELEASE version for the crate.

Optionally, if a MINOR feature pre-release breaks MAJOR API compatibility:

2. Increment the MAJOR version, and reset all the other versions to zero

Unstable Crates

Unstable versions have a MAJOR version of zero. For example: 0.1.0

1. Follow stable crate versioning, but increment the MINOR version for breaking changes

Stable Crates

For example: 1.0.0

Increment the first version component in this list, and reset the other components to zero:

1. MAJOR versions for breaking public API changes and removals
   • check for types from dependencies that appear in the public API
2. MINOR versions for new features
3. PATCH versions for bug fixes
   • includes dependency updates that don't impact the public API

Version Locations

Once you know which versions you want to increment, you can find them in the:

• zebra* Cargo.tomls
• tower-* Cargo.tomls
• zebra-network protocol user agent: https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/blob/main/zebra-network/src/constants.rs
• README.md
• Cargo.lock: automatically generated by cargo build

Merge all these version increments as one commit, by squashing and rebasing the PR onto the main branch.

Version Tooling

You can use fastmod to interactively find and replace versions.

For example, for zebra-1.0.0-alpha-12, we did:

fastmod --extensions rs,toml,md --fixed-strings '1.0.0-alpha.12' '1.0.0-alpha.13'
fastmod --extensions rs,toml,md --fixed-strings '1.0.0-alpha.11' '1.0.0-alpha.12'
fastmod --extensions rs,toml,md --fixed-strings '1.0.0-alpha.10' '1.0.0-alpha.11'
fastmod --extensions rs,toml,md --fixed-strings '0.2.9' '0.2.10' tower-batch
fastmod --extensions rs,toml,md --fixed-strings '0.2.8' '0.2.9' tower-fallback

Reviewing Version Bump Pull Requests

Check for missed changes by going to: https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/tree/<commit-hash>/ Where <commit-hash> is the hash of the last commit in the version bump PR.

If any Zebra or Tower crates have commit messages that are not a version bump, we have missed an update.

Also check for crates that depend on crates that have changed. They should get a version bump as well.

Initial Testing

• After any changes, test that the cargo install command in README.md works (use --path instead of --git locally)

Change Log

Important: Any merge into main deletes any edits to the draft changelog. Once you are ready to tag a release, copy the draft changelog into CHANGELOG.md.

We follow the Keep a Changelog format.

We use the Release Drafter workflow to automatically create a draft changelog.

To create the final change log:

• Copy the draft changelog into CHANGELOG.md
• Delete any trivial changes
• Combine duplicate changes
• Edit change descriptions so they are consistent, and make sense to non-developers
• Check the category for each change
  • prefer the "Fix" category if you're not sure
• Create a draft PR to update CHANGELOG.md

Change Categories

From "Keep a Changelog":

• Added for new features.
• Changed for changes in existing functionality.
• Deprecated for soon-to-be removed features.
• Removed for now removed features.
• Fixed for any bug fixes.
• Security in case of vulnerabilities.

After merging the version update PR

• Check for any PRs that have been merged since you created the draft PR to update CHANGELOG.md and push any updates if necessary
• Mark the PR to update CHANGELOG.md as "Ready for Review"
• Once the changelog PR has been approved and merged, update the draft release with the final changelog
• Set the release title to Zebra followed by the version tag, for example: Zebra 1.0.0-alpha.0
• Set the tag name to the version tag, for example: 1.0.0-alpha.0
• Set the release to target the main branch
• Mark the release as 'pre-release' (until we are no longer alpha/beta)

Final Testing

• After tagging the release, test that the exact cargo install command works (--git behaves a bit differently to --path)

If the build fails after tagging:

1. fix the build
2. check if the fixes changed any extra crates, and do the required version increments
3. update README.md with a new git tag
4. update CHANGELOG.md with details about the fix
5. tag a new release