Zulip server release checklist

This document has reminders of things one might forget to do when preparing a new release.

A week before the release

• Major releases only (e.g., 4.0):
  • Upgrade all Python dependencies in requirements to latest upstream versions so they can burn in (use pip list --outdated).
  • Upgrade all puppet dependencies in puppet/deps.yaml
  • Upgrade all puppet-installed dependencies (e.g., Smokescreen, go, etc) in puppet/zulip/manifests/common.pp
  • Post a message to Weblate inviting translators to translate new strings.
  • Merge draft updates to the changelog with changes since the last release. While doing so, take notes on things that might need follow-up work or documentation before we can happily advertise them in a release blog post.
• Create a burn-down list of issues that need to be fixed before we can release, and make sure all of them are being worked on.
• Draft the release blog post (a.k.a. the release notes) in Paper. In it, list the important changes in the release, from most to least notable.

Final release preparation

• Update the Paper blog post draft with any new commits.
• Merge updated translations from Weblate (using the appropriate branch for the release).
• Send around the Paper blog post draft for review.
• Move the blog post draft to Astro:
  • Use "··· > Export > Markdown" to get a pretty good Markdown conversion, and save it in src/posts with a filename appropriate for a URL slug.
  • Add the needed YAML frontmatter.
  • Move any images into public and update their references.
  • Proofread, especially for formatting.
  • If the draft post should remain secret until release, avoid using a guessable Git branch name for the pull request (the deployment preview URL is based on the branch name).
• Major releases only (e.g., 4.0): Schedule team members to provide extra responsive #production help support following the release.

Executing the release

• Create the release commit, on main (for major releases) or on the release branch (for minor releases):
  • Copy the Markdown release notes for the release into docs/overview/changelog.md.
  • Verify the changelog passes lint, and has the right release date.
  • Major releases only: Adjust the changelog.md heading to have the stable release series boilerplate.
  • Update ZULIP_VERSION and LATEST_RELEASE_VERSION in version.py.
  • Major releases only: Update API_FEATURE_LEVEL to a feature level for the final release, and document a reserved range.
• Run tools/release with the release version.
• Update the Docker image:
  • Commit the Docker updates:
    • Update ZULIP_GIT_REF in Dockerfile
    • Update README.md
    • Update the image in docker-compose.yml, as well as the ZULIP_GIT_REF
  • Commit the Helm updates:
    • Add a new entry to kubernetes/chart/zulip/CHANGELOG.md
    • Update the appVersion in kubernetes/chart/zulip/Chart.yaml
    • Update the tag in kubernetes/chart/zulip/values.yaml
    • Update the docs by running helm-docs
    • Update the image in kubernetes/manual/zulip-rc.yml
  • Build the image: docker build --pull . -t zulip/docker-zulip:4.11-0 --no-cache
  • Also tag it with latest: docker build . -t zulip/docker-zulip:latest
  • Push those tags: docker push zulip/docker-zulip:4.11-0; docker push zulip/docker-zulip:latest
  • Push the commits to main.
• Merge the blog post PR.
• Announce the release, pointing to the blog post, via:
  • Email to zulip-announce
  • Email to zulip-blog-announce
  • Message in #announce
  • Post from @zulip.bsky.social.
  • Toot from fosstodon.org/@zulip

Post-release

• The DigitalOcean one-click image will report in an internal channel once it is built, and how to test it. Verify it, then publish it to DigitalOcean marketplace.
• Major releases only:
  • Create a release branch (e.g., 4.x).
  • On the release branch, update ZULIP_VERSION in version.py to the present release with a +git suffix, e.g., 4.0+git.
  • On main, update ZULIP_VERSION to the future major release with a -dev+git suffix, e.g., 5.0-dev+git. Make a Git tag for this update commit with a -dev suffix, e.g., 5.0-dev. Push the tag to both zulip.git and zulip-internal.git to get a correct version number for future Cloud deployments.
  • Add the new release to .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/2_bug_report.md.
  • Consider removing a few old releases from the issue template and ReadTheDocs; we keep about two years of back-versions.
  • Update Weblate to add a component on the release branch for Django; then add a parallel Frontend component by using "Duplicate this component" on the Django release branch component.
  • In Weblate, remove the previous stable components.
  • Add a new CI production upgrade target:
    • Build a docker image: cd tools/ci && docker build --pull . -f Dockerfile.prod --build-arg=BASE_IMAGE=zulip/ci:bookworm --build-arg=VERSION=7.0 --tag=zulip/ci:bookworm-7.0 && docker push zulip/ci:bookworm-7.0
    • Add a new line to the production_upgrade matrix in .github/workflows/production-suite.yml.
  • Update /history page in templates/corporate/history.md.
  • Inspect all TODO/compatibility comments for whether we can remove any backwards-compatibility code following this release.
  • Review possible improvements to API bindings to better match the defaults and features of the new release.
• Minor releases only (e.g., 3.2):
  • On the release branch, update ZULIP_VERSION to the present release with a +git suffix, e.g., 3.2+git.
  • On main, update LATEST_RELEASE_VERSION with the released version, as well as the changelog changes from the release branch.
• Prereleases only (e.g., 7.0-beta3):
  • Atop the prerelease commit (e.g., 7.0-beta3), make a commit updating ZULIP_VERSION to the prerelease version with a +git suffix, e.g., 7.0-beta3+git. Push this to main. (If main has already diverged from the prerelease, a merge commit will be needed here.)
  • Delete the prerelease branch (e.g., 7.0-beta3-branch); it's now an ancestor of main and thus unnecessary.