RELEASING.md

Making a Backup Utilities release

Starting with Backup Utilities v2.13.0, all major releases will follow GitHub Enterprise Server releases and the version support is inline with that of the GitHub Enterprise Server upgrade requirements and as such, support is limited to three versions of GitHub Enterprise Server: the version that corresponds with the version of Backup Utilities, and the two releases prior to it.

For example, Backup Utilities 2.13.0 can be used to backup and restore all patch releases from 2.11.0 to the latest patch release of GitHub Enterprise 2.13. Backup utilities 2.14.0 will be released when GitHub Enterprise 2.14.0 is released and will then be used to backup all releases of GitHub Enterprise from 2.12.0 to the latest patch release of GitHub Enterprise 2.14.

There is no need to align Backup Utilities patch releases with GitHub Enterprise Server patch releases.

When making a .0 release, you will need to specify the minimum supported version of GitHub Enterprise Server that that release supports.

Pre-release Actions

Prior to making a release,

1. Go through the list of open pull requests and merge any that are ready for merging.
2. Go through the list of closed pull requests since the last release and ensure those that should be included in the release notes:

• have a "bug", "enhancement" or "feature" label,
• have a title that clearly describes the changes in that pull request. Reword if necessary.

3. Perform a dry run (add --dry-run to one of the commands below) and verify the version strings are going to be changed and verify the release notes.

Automatic Process from chatops (internal to GitHub only)

Coming 🔜

Automatic Process from CLI

1. Install the Debian devscripts package: sudo apt-get install devscripts
2. Run...

• Feature release: GH_AUTHOR="Bob Smith <bob@example.com>" GH_RELEASE_TOKEN=your-amazing-secure-token script/release 2.13.0 2.11.0
• Patch release: GH_AUTHOR="Bob Smith <bob@example.com>" GH_RELEASE_TOKEN=your-amazing-secure-token script/release 2.13.1

Manual Process

In the event you can't perform the automatic process, or a problem is encountered with the automatic process, these are the manual steps you need to perform for a release.

1. Install the Debian devscripts package: sudo apt-get install devscripts
2. Add a new version and release notes to the debian/changelog file: dch --newversion 2.13.0 --release-heuristic log You can use make pending-prs to craft the release notes.
3. Rev the share/github-backup-utils/version file. If this is a feature release, update supported_minimum_version= in bin/ghe-host-check too.
4. Commit your changes.
5. Tag the release: git tag v2.13.0
6. Build that tarball package: make dist
7. Build the deb package: make deb. All the tests should pass.
8. Draft a new release at https://github.com/github/backup-utils/releases, including the release notes and attaching the tarball and deb packages. The dist tarball you should upload has the revision in the file name, i.e. something like github-backup-utils-v2.13.0.tar.gz
9. Push the head of the release to the 'stable' branch.

Post-release Actions

Immediately after making a release using one of the methods above, verify the release has succeeded by checking:

• latest release at https://github.com/github/backup-utils/releases is correct,
• release at https://github.com/github/backup-utils/releases is linked to the vX.Y.Z tag,
• release has the notes you expect to see,
• asset download links for the latest release at https://github.com/github/backup-utils/releases all download the correct version of Backup Utilities,
• the stable branch is inline with master - https://github.com/github/backup-utils/compare/stable...master.