User:Tracy Graydon/Release Process

Yocto Release Procedures

This document explains the steps in publishing an official Yocto Project release. This is intended to be a HOWTO Release Guide.

Yocto Project Naming Conventions

Yocto Project releases fall into four main types:

• Major Ex. yocto-2.0
• Minor Ex. yocto-2.1
• Point (aka "patch" release) Ex. yocto-2.1.1
• Milestone Ex. yocto-2.3_M3

A full explanation of release naming conventions, release types, and background can be found here: https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Yocto_Project_Release_Process

General Steps for a Release:

• Stage the release candidate.
• Generate or obtain release notes, if applicable.
• Stage/create the Release documentation on YoctoProject.org (unpublished but ready to go).
• Sync the release to the downloads area in preparation for sync to external mirrors.
• Sign the release notes.
• Sync to external mirrors.
• Tag the git repos.
• Publish the yoctoproject.org pages.
• Test the links to make sure everything works.
• Announce the release.

Release Matrix

For Major, Minor, and Point releases, the release artifacts and collateral are the same. For Milestone releases, we publishing is minimal. The table below shows what is published for each release type.

	Major/Minor	Point	Milestone
Yoctoproject.org Docs	Yes	Yes	No
YoctoProject.org Release Page	Yes	Yes	No
BSP Pages	Yes	Yes	No
Eclipse Plugin Pages	Yes	Yes	No
BuildAppliance Page	Yes	Yes	No
Buildtools Page	Yes	Yes	No
Release Notes (signed)	Yes	Yes	No
Tag Release	Yes	Yes	Yes
Email Announcement	Yes	Yes	Yes

Staging the Release

Most of the release process, aside from the creation of the YoctoProject.org pages, is done via scripts. These scripts live here: http://git.yoctoproject.org/cgit/cgit.cgi/release-tools/

The release.py script does the bulk of the staging work based on release type. You will need to know whether you are releasing a Major, Minor, Point, or Milestone release. You will also need to know the release codename (i.e. Krogoth, Morty, Pyro, Foo) and the poky release number. i.e. Pyro is 17.0.0.

The release codename, YP version (i.e. 2.3), and Poky version (16.0, 17.0, etc) can be found here: https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Releases

To be able to perform a release, you will need the appropriate access to various hosts, and the requisite permissions to execute a release. You will need ssh access to a suitable host system that has access to the NAS. For example, one of the autobuilder buildslaves would be appropriate. Michael Halstead is the contact person for such access. Michael Halstead <mhalstead@linuxfoundation.org> #halstead on freenode.

To begin the staging, you will need to be logged in as the pokybuild user. You will need the aforementioned scripts. Namely, you will need release.py and, if doing a minor or point release, you will also need the relnotes.py script. We do not generate release notes for Milestones. Paul Eggleton generates the most glorious release notes you have ever seen for Major releases. Not kidding. They are a work of art.

Release candidates land in https://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/pub/releases/

I will use yocto-2.3.rc4 as an example in the steps that follow. Note that all release candidates will end with ".rc<#>". This is a Minor release, whose codename is Pyro and Poky version is 17.0.0.

Stage the All the Things

• ssh into your chosen system
• sudo -iu pokybuild
• Snag a copy of the release tools: https://git.yoctoproject.org/git/release-tools
• Identify your release candidate. As noted above, you need the following info:

 - Release version (2.3)
 - Poky version (17.0.0)
 - Codename (pyro)

• Run the release.py script. In this example: python release.py -i yocto-2.3.rc4 -p 17.0.0 -b pyro

 - For a milestone release: python release.py -i yocto-2.3_M3.rc2  You do not need poky version nor the codename for a milestone.
 - python release.py --help  will display your options.