
Previously, releases were always made from a point in the revision history of the `main` branch (typically the tip of the branch at the time of the release). Although the simplicity of this approach is nice, it can be limiting in some cases. For this reason, the project is switching to using a "trunk-based" development strategy, as described here: https://trunkbaseddevelopment.com/ This approach allows making releases at any time that consist of the arbitrary subset of revisions suitable for shipping to the users at that time. The commits that should be included in the release are cherry-picked to a release branch and the tag created on that branch. This means that: - PRs can be merged to the `main` branch as soon as they have passed review rather than having to postpone the merge of changes that are not ready to be included in the next release. - Releases don't need to be postponed if the prior revision history on the `main` branch contains changes that are not ready to be included in the release. The documented release procedure must be adjusted to reflect the new development strategy. CI System Adjustments --------------------- The status of the GitHub Actions workflows should be evaluated before making a release. However, this is not so simple as checking the status of the commit at the tip of the release branch. The reason is that, for the sake of efficiency, the workflows are configured to run only when the processes are relevant to the trigger event (e.g., no need to run unit tests for a change to the readme). In the case of the default branch, you can simply set the workflow runs filter to that branch and then check the result of the latest run of each workflow of interest. However, that was not possible to do with the release branch since it might be that the workflow was never run in that branch. The status of the latest run of the workflow in the default branch might not match the status for the release branch if the release branch does not contain the full history. For this reason, it will be helpful to trigger all relevant workflows on the creation of a release branch. This will ensure that each of those workflows will always have at least one run in the release branch. Subsequent commits pushed to the branch can run based on their usual trigger filters and the status of the latest run of each workflow in the branch will provide an accurate indication of the state of that branch. Branches are created for purposes other than releases, most notably feature branches to stage work for a pull request. Due to the comprehensive nature of this project's CI system, it would not be convenient or efficient to fully run all CI workflows on the creation of every feature branch. Unfortunately, GitHub Actions does not support filters on the `create` event of branch creation like it does for the `push` and `pull_request` events. There is support for a `branches` filter of the `push` event, but that filter is an "AND" to the `paths` filter while this application requires an "OR". For this reason, the workflows must be triggered by the creation of any branch. The unwanted job runs are prevented by adding a `run-determination` job with the branch filter handled by Bash commands. The other jobs of the workflow use this `run-determination` job as a dependency, only running when it indicates they should via a job output. Because this minimal `run-determination` job runs very quickly, it is roughly equivalent to the workflow having been skipped entirely for non-release branch creations.
9.5 KiB
Release Procedure
The "trunk-based" development strategy is used for releases of Arduino IDE. A branch named <major>.<minor>.x
(where <major>.<minor>
is the major and minor version numbers), is created for each minor version series. Release tags (both pre-release and production) are created from these branches. This allows a release to be created from a select subset of the commits in the main
branch, cherry-picked to the release branch.
Steps
The following are the steps to follow to make a release of Arduino IDE:
1. 🗺️ Merge localization sync PR
A pull request titled "Update translation files" is submitted periodically by the "github-actions" bot to pull in the localization data from Transifex.
If there is an open PR, this must be merged before making the release.
It will be shown in these search results:
https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide/pulls/app%2Fgithub-actions
2. 🛠️ Check bundled tool versions
The Arduino IDE release includes several tool dependencies. Unstable versions of these tools may be pinned provisionally for use with the development version of Arduino IDE, but production releases of Arduino IDE must use production releases of the tool dependencies.
The tool versions are defined in the arduino
object of arduino-ide-extension/package.json
.
If any of the tools are pinned to a development version, ensure a suitable production release of the tool is available and then submit a PR to update the version in arduino-ide-extension/package.json
.
3. 👀 Check version of packages
The version
field of the project's package.json
metadata files received a patch version bump (e.g., 2.0.1
-> 2.0.2
) at the time of the previous release.
If this is a patch release, the current metadata values are correct and no action is needed.
The changes contained in this release might be considered to change the project's "API". If so, a patch version bump will not be appropriate and the version must be adjusted in compliance with the Semantic Versioning Specification.
Follow the instructions for updating the version metadata here.
Examples
If the version number of the previous release was 2.0.1
:
- If this is considered a minor release (non-breaking changes to the "API"), the
version
values must be changed to2.1.0
. - If this is considered a major release (breaking changes to the "API"), the
version
values must be changed to3.0.0
.
4. 🍒 Prepare release branch
Create
A new release branch must be created on every minor version bump. For example, if you are making the 2.2.0
release, then it is necessary to create a branch named 2.2.x
. That branch will be used for all subsequent releases in the 2.2
minor version series (e.g., 2.2.1
, 2.2.2
).
Update
Push all commits that are to be included in the release to the release branch. This can be a cherry-picked subset of the commits from the main
branch if not all the work from main
is ready for release.
5. ✅ Validate release
Evaluate CI status
The checks run by the continuous integration system might provide an indication of a problem that should block the release. Since the code in the release branch doesn't necessarily match to that of the main
branch, it is essential to check the status of the release branch even when everything is passing in the main
branch.
- Open the following URL in your browser:
https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide/actions - Type
branch:<release branch>
(where<release branch>
is the name of the release branch for this release) in the "Filter workflow runs" field of the "Actions" page. - Press the Enter key.
- Wait for all in progress workflow runs to finish.
- Click on the first workflow name on the list at the left side of the page.
- Check the status of the latest run. If it was not successful, investigate the cause and determine if it is of significance to the release.
- Repeat the above steps for each of the listed workflows.
Beta testing
The "Arduino IDE" workflow run that was triggered by the branch creation will contain artifacts that can be used for beta testing.
More information about beta testing
6. 🚢 Create the release on GitHub
Then, you need to create and push the new tag and wait for the release to appear on the "Releases" page.
⚠ Doing this will create a new release and users who already have the IDE installed will be notified from the automatic updater that a new version is available. Do not push the tag if you don't want that.
- Checkout the release branch in the repository.
- Run the following commands:
git pull git tag -a <YOUR_VERSION> -m "<YOUR_VERSION>" git push origin <YOUR_VERSION>
Pushing a tag will trigger a GitHub Actions workflow on the main
branch. Check the "Arduino IDE" workflow and see that everything goes right. If the workflow succeeds, a new release will be created automatically and you should see it on the "Releases" page.
7. ⬆️ Bump version metadata of packages
In order for the version number of the tester and nightly builds to have correct precedence compared to the release version, the version
field of the project's package.json
files must be given a patch version bump (e.g., 2.0.1
-> 2.0.2
) after the creation of the release tag.
Follow the instructions for updating the version metadata here.
8. 📄 Create the changelog
Create GitHub issues for the known issues that we haven't solved in the current release:
https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide/issues
From the "Releases" page, edit the release notes following the Keep A Changelog scheme:
https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/#how
Add a list of mentions of GitHub users who contributed to the release in any of the following ways (ask @per1234):
- Submitted a PR that was merged
- Made a valuable review of a PR
- Submitted an issue that was resolved
- Provided valuable assistance with the investigation of an issue that was resolved
Add a "Known Issues" section at the bottom of the changelog.
9. ✎ Update the "Software" Page
Open a PR on the bcmi-labs/wiki-content repository to update the links and texts.
ℹ️ If you don't have access to the repo, ask in the #team_wedo
Slack channel.
❗ Make sure all the links to the new IDE build are working.
If they aren't, there has probably been some issue with the "Arduino IDE" workflow run triggered when pushing the tag during the "Create the release on GitHub" step of the release procedure.
Ask for a review of the PR and merge it.
Follow the "Production (subset of https://arduino.cc)" instructions in the bcmi-labs/wiki-content
repository readme to deploy the updated "Software" page content.
When the deploy workflow is done, check if links on the "Software" page are working:
https://www.arduino.cc/en/software#future-version-of-the-arduino-ide
10. 😎 Brag about it
- Ask in the
#product_releases
Slack channel to write a post for the social media and, if needed, a blog post. - Post a message on the forum (ask @per1234).
Example: https://forum.arduino.cc/t/arduino-ide-2-0-0-rc9-3-available-for-download/1028858/4 - Write a message in the
#general
Slack channel:Hey Arduinos! Updates from the Tooling Team 🛠️
Arduino IDE 2.0.0 Beta 12 is out! :doge: You can download it from the Download Page The highlights of this release are:
- auto-installation of arduino:avr at first startup
- improvement of Serial Monitor performances
- Arduino CLI upgrade to 0.19.1
- Theia upgrade to 1.18.0
- some bugfixing
To see the details, you can take a look at the Changelog If you want to post about it on social media and you need more details feel free to ask us on #team_tooling! 😉
Operations
The following are detailed descriptions of operations performed during the release process:
⚙ Update version metadata of packages
You need to set the new version in all the package.json
files across the app (./package.json
, ./arduino-ide-extension/package.json
, and ./electron-app/package.json
), create a PR, and merge it on the main
branch.
To do so, you can make use of the update:version
script.
For example, if you want to update the version to <YOUR_VERSION>
, you should run the following commands:
git checkout main
git pull
git checkout -b version-<YOUR_VERSION>
yarn update:version <YOUR_VERSION>
git commit -am <YOUR_VERSION>
git push origin version-<YOUR_VERSION>
replacing <YOUR_VERSION>
with the version you want. Then create a PR and merge it.