dash/doc/release-process.md

Release Process

Before every release candidate:

• Update translations (ping wumpus on IRC) see translation_process.md

Before every minor and major release:

• Update bips.md to account for changes since the last release.
• Update version in sources (see below)
• Write release notes (see below)

Before every major release:

• Update hardcoded seeds, see this pull request for an example.

First time / New builders

Check out the source code in the following directory hierarchy.

cd /path/to/your/toplevel/build
git clone https://github.com/bitcoin-core/gitian.sigs.git
git clone https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoin-detached-sigs.git
git clone https://github.com/devrandom/gitian-builder.git
git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git

Bitcoin maintainers/release engineers, update version in sources

Update the following:

• configure.ac:
  • _CLIENT_VERSION_MAJOR
  • _CLIENT_VERSION_MINOR
  • _CLIENT_VERSION_REVISION
  • Don't forget to set _CLIENT_VERSION_IS_RELEASE to true
• src/clientversion.h: (this mirrors configure.ac - see issue #3539)
  • CLIENT_VERSION_MAJOR
  • CLIENT_VERSION_MINOR
  • CLIENT_VERSION_REVISION
  • Don't forget to set CLIENT_VERSION_IS_RELEASE to true
• doc/README.md and doc/README_windows.txt
• doc/Doxyfile: PROJECT_NUMBER contains the full version
• contrib/gitian-descriptors/*.yml: usually one'd want to do this on master after branching off the release - but be sure to at least do it before a new major release

Write release notes. git shortlog helps a lot, for example:

git shortlog --no-merges v(current version, e.g. 0.7.2)..v(new version, e.g. 0.8.0)

(or ping @wumpus on IRC, he has specific tooling to generate the list of merged pulls and sort them into categories based on labels)

Generate list of authors:

git log --format='%aN' "$*" | sort -ui | sed -e 's/^/- /'

Tag version (or release candidate) in git

git tag -s v(new version, e.g. 0.8.0)

Setup and perform Gitian builds

Setup Gitian descriptors:

pushd ./bitcoin
export SIGNER=(your Gitian key, ie bluematt, sipa, etc)
export VERSION=(new version, e.g. 0.8.0)
git fetch
git checkout v${VERSION}
popd

Ensure your gitian.sigs are up-to-date if you wish to gverify your builds against other Gitian signatures.

pushd ./gitian.sigs
git pull
popd

Ensure gitian-builder is up-to-date to take advantage of new caching features (e9741525c or later is recommended).

pushd ./gitian-builder
git pull
popd

Fetch and create inputs: (first time, or when dependency versions change)

pushd ./gitian-builder
mkdir -p inputs
wget -P inputs https://bitcoincore.org/cfields/osslsigncode-Backports-to-1.7.1.patch
wget -P inputs http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/osslsigncode/osslsigncode/osslsigncode-1.7.1.tar.gz
popd

Register and download the Apple SDK: see OS X readme for details.

https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/download.action?path=/Developer_Tools/xcode_6.1.1/xcode_6.1.1.dmg

Using a Mac, create a tarball for the 10.9 SDK and copy it to the inputs directory:

tar -C /Volumes/Xcode/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/ -czf MacOSX10.9.sdk.tar.gz MacOSX10.9.sdk

Optional: Seed the Gitian sources cache and offline git repositories

By default, Gitian will fetch source files as needed. To cache them ahead of time:

pushd ./gitian-builder
make -C ../bitcoin/depends download SOURCES_PATH=`pwd`/cache/common
popd

Only missing files will be fetched, so this is safe to re-run for each build.

NOTE: Offline builds must use the --url flag to ensure Gitian fetches only from local URLs. For example:

pushd ./gitian-builder
./bin/gbuild --url bitcoin=/path/to/bitcoin,signature=/path/to/sigs {rest of arguments}
popd

The gbuild invocations below DO NOT DO THIS by default.

Build and sign Bitcoin Core for Linux, Windows, and OS X:

pushd ./gitian-builder
./bin/gbuild --commit bitcoin=v${VERSION} ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-linux.yml
./bin/gsign --signer $SIGNER --release ${VERSION}-linux --destination ../gitian.sigs/ ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-linux.yml
mv build/out/bitcoin-*.tar.gz build/out/src/bitcoin-*.tar.gz ../

./bin/gbuild --commit bitcoin=v${VERSION} ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-win.yml
./bin/gsign --signer $SIGNER --release ${VERSION}-win-unsigned --destination ../gitian.sigs/ ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-win.yml
mv build/out/bitcoin-*-win-unsigned.tar.gz inputs/bitcoin-win-unsigned.tar.gz
mv build/out/bitcoin-*.zip build/out/bitcoin-*.exe ../

./bin/gbuild --commit bitcoin=v${VERSION} ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-osx.yml
./bin/gsign --signer $SIGNER --release ${VERSION}-osx-unsigned --destination ../gitian.sigs/ ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-osx.yml
mv build/out/bitcoin-*-osx-unsigned.tar.gz inputs/bitcoin-osx-unsigned.tar.gz
mv build/out/bitcoin-*.tar.gz build/out/bitcoin-*.dmg ../
popd

Build output expected:

1. source tarball (bitcoin-${VERSION}.tar.gz)
2. linux 32-bit and 64-bit dist tarballs (bitcoin-${VERSION}-linux[32|64].tar.gz)
3. windows 32-bit and 64-bit unsigned installers and dist zips (bitcoin-${VERSION}-win[32|64]-setup-unsigned.exe, bitcoin-${VERSION}-win[32|64].zip)
4. OS X unsigned installer and dist tarball (bitcoin-${VERSION}-osx-unsigned.dmg, bitcoin-${VERSION}-osx64.tar.gz)
5. Gitian signatures (in gitian.sigs/${VERSION}-<linux|{win,osx}-unsigned>/(your Gitian key)/)

Verify other gitian builders signatures to your own. (Optional)

Add other gitian builders keys to your gpg keyring

gpg --import bitcoin/contrib/gitian-keys/*.pgp

Verify the signatures

pushd ./gitian-builder
./bin/gverify -v -d ../gitian.sigs/ -r ${VERSION}-linux ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-linux.yml
./bin/gverify -v -d ../gitian.sigs/ -r ${VERSION}-win-unsigned ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-win.yml
./bin/gverify -v -d ../gitian.sigs/ -r ${VERSION}-osx-unsigned ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-osx.yml
popd

Next steps:

Commit your signature to gitian.sigs:

pushd gitian.sigs
git add ${VERSION}-linux/${SIGNER}
git add ${VERSION}-win-unsigned/${SIGNER}
git add ${VERSION}-osx-unsigned/${SIGNER}
git commit -a
git push  # Assuming you can push to the gitian.sigs tree
popd

Wait for Windows/OS X detached signatures:

• Once the Windows/OS X builds each have 3 matching signatures, they will be signed with their respective release keys.
• Detached signatures will then be committed to the bitcoin-detached-sigs repository, which can be combined with the unsigned apps to create signed binaries.

Create (and optionally verify) the signed OS X binary:

pushd ./gitian-builder
./bin/gbuild -i --commit signature=v${VERSION} ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-osx-signer.yml
./bin/gsign --signer $SIGNER --release ${VERSION}-osx-signed --destination ../gitian.sigs/ ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-osx-signer.yml
./bin/gverify -v -d ../gitian.sigs/ -r ${VERSION}-osx-signed ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-osx-signer.yml
mv build/out/bitcoin-osx-signed.dmg ../bitcoin-${VERSION}-osx.dmg
popd

Create (and optionally verify) the signed Windows binaries:

pushd ./gitian-builder
./bin/gbuild -i --commit signature=v${VERSION} ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-win-signer.yml
./bin/gsign --signer $SIGNER --release ${VERSION}-win-signed --destination ../gitian.sigs/ ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-win-signer.yml
./bin/gverify -v -d ../gitian.sigs/ -r ${VERSION}-win-signed ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-win-signer.yml
mv build/out/bitcoin-*win64-setup.exe ../bitcoin-${VERSION}-win64-setup.exe
mv build/out/bitcoin-*win32-setup.exe ../bitcoin-${VERSION}-win32-setup.exe
popd

Commit your signature for the signed OS X/Windows binaries:

pushd gitian.sigs
git add ${VERSION}-osx-signed/${SIGNER}
git add ${VERSION}-win-signed/${SIGNER}
git commit -a
git push  # Assuming you can push to the gitian.sigs tree
popd

After 3 or more people have gitian-built and their results match:

• Create SHA256SUMS.asc for the builds, and GPG-sign it:

sha256sum * > SHA256SUMS

The list of files should be:

bitcoin-${VERSION}-linux32.tar.gz
bitcoin-${VERSION}-linux64.tar.gz
bitcoin-${VERSION}-osx64.tar.gz
bitcoin-${VERSION}-osx.dmg
bitcoin-${VERSION}.tar.gz
bitcoin-${VERSION}-win32-setup.exe
bitcoin-${VERSION}-win32.zip
bitcoin-${VERSION}-win64-setup.exe
bitcoin-${VERSION}-win64.zip

• GPG-sign it, delete the unsigned file:

gpg --digest-algo sha256 --clearsign SHA256SUMS # outputs SHA256SUMS.asc
rm SHA256SUMS

(the digest algorithm is forced to sha256 to avoid confusion of the Hash: header that GPG adds with the SHA256 used for the files) Note: check that SHA256SUMS itself doesn't end up in SHA256SUMS, which is a spurious/nonsensical entry.

• Upload zips and installers, as well as SHA256SUMS.asc from last step, to the bitcoin.org server into /var/www/bin/bitcoin-core-${VERSION}

• A .torrent will appear in the directory after a few minutes. Optionally help seed this torrent. To get the magnet: URI use:

transmission-show -m <torrent file>

Insert the magnet URI into the announcement sent to mailing lists. This permits people without access to bitcoin.org to download the binary distribution. Also put it into the optional_magnetlink: slot in the YAML file for bitcoin.org (see below for bitcoin.org update instructions).

• Update bitcoin.org version

  • First, check to see if the Bitcoin.org maintainers have prepared a release: https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org/labels/Releases

    • If they have, it will have previously failed their Travis CI checks because the final release files weren't uploaded. Trigger a Travis CI rebuild---if it passes, merge.

  • If they have not prepared a release, follow the Bitcoin.org release instructions: https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org#release-notes

  • After the pull request is merged, the website will automatically show the newest version within 15 minutes, as well as update the OS download links. Ping @saivann/@harding (saivann/harding on Freenode) in case anything goes wrong

• Announce the release:

  • bitcoin-dev and bitcoin-core-dev mailing list

  • Bitcoin Core announcements list https://bitcoincore.org/en/list/announcements/join/

  • bitcoincore.org blog post

  • Update title of #bitcoin on Freenode IRC

  • Optionally twitter, reddit /r/Bitcoin, ... but this will usually sort out itself

  • Notify BlueMatt so that he can start building the PPAs

  • Add release notes for the new version to the directory doc/release-notes in git master

  • Celebrate