Release Process
====================
Before every release candidate:
* Update translations (ping wumpus on IRC) see [translation_process.md ](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/translation_process.md#synchronising-translations ).
* Update manpages, see [gen-manpages.sh ](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/contrib/devtools/README.md#gen-manpagessh ).
Before every minor and major release:
* Update [bips.md ](bips.md ) to account for changes since the last release.
* Update version in sources (see below)
* Write release notes (see below)
* Update `src/chainparams.cpp` nMinimumChainWork with information from the getblockchaininfo rpc.
Before every major release:
* Update hardcoded [seeds ](/contrib/seeds/README.md ), see [this pull request ](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/7415 ) for an example.
* Update [`BLOCK_CHAIN_SIZE` ](/src/qt/intro.cpp ) to the current size plus some overhead.
### First time / New builders
If you're using the automated script (found in [contrib/gitian-build.sh ](/contrib/gitian-build.sh )), then at this point you should run it with the "--setup" command. Otherwise ignore this.
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' "$*" | sort -ui | sed -e 's/^/- /'
Tag version (or release candidate) in git
git tag -s v(new version, e.g. 0.8.0)
### Setup and perform Gitian builds
If you're using the automated script (found in [contrib/gitian-build.sh ](/contrib/gitian-build.sh )), then at this point you should run it with the "--build" command. Otherwise ignore this.
Setup Gitian descriptors:
pushd ./bitcoin
export SIGNER=(your Gitian key, ie bluematt, sipa, etc)
export VERSION=(new version, e.g. 0.8.0)
git fetch
git checkout v${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:
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
Create the OS X SDK tarball, see the [OS X readme ](README_osx.md ) for details, and copy it into the inputs directory.
### 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 < b > DO NOT DO THIS< / b > by default.
### Build and sign Bitcoin Core for Linux, Windows, and OS X:
pushd ./gitian-builder
./bin/gbuild --memory 3000 --commit bitcoin=v${VERSION} ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-linux.yml
./bin/gsign --signer $SIGNER --release ${VERSION}-linux --destination ../gitian.sigs/ ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-linux.yml
mv build/out/bitcoin-*.tar.gz build/out/src/bitcoin-*.tar.gz ../
./bin/gbuild --memory 3000 --commit bitcoin=v${VERSION} ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-win.yml
./bin/gsign --signer $SIGNER --release ${VERSION}-win-unsigned --destination ../gitian.sigs/ ../bitcoin/contrib/gitian-descriptors/gitian-win.yml
mv build/out/bitcoin-*-win-unsigned.tar.gz inputs/bitcoin-win-unsigned.tar.gz
mv build/out/bitcoin-*.zip build/out/bitcoin-*.exe ../
./bin/gbuild --memory 3000 --commit bitcoin=v${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, and/or refresh keys.
gpg --import bitcoin/contrib/gitian-keys/*.pgp
gpg --refresh-keys
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 ](https://github.com/bitcoin-core/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:
```bash
sha256sum * > SHA256SUMS
```
The list of files should be:
```
bitcoin-${VERSION}-aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
bitcoin-${VERSION}-arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.gz
bitcoin-${VERSION}-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.gz
bitcoin-${VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu.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-${VERSION}-win64.zip
```
The `*-debug*` files generated by the gitian build contain debug symbols
for troubleshooting by developers. It is assumed that anyone that is interested
in debugging can run gitian to generate the files for themselves. To avoid
end-user confusion about which file to pick, as well as save storage
space *do not upload these to the bitcoin.org server, nor put them in the torrent* .
- GPG-sign it, delete the unsigned file:
```
gpg --digest-algo sha256 --clearsign SHA256SUMS # outputs SHA256SUMS.asc
rm SHA256SUMS
```
(the digest algorithm is forced to sha256 to avoid confusion of the `Hash:` header that GPG adds with the SHA256 used for the files)
Note: check that SHA256SUMS itself doesn't end up in SHA256SUMS, which is a spurious/nonsensical entry.
- Upload zips and installers, as well as `SHA256SUMS.asc` from last step, to the bitcoin.org server
into `/var/www/bin/bitcoin-core-${VERSION}`
- A `.torrent` will appear in the directory after a few minutes. Optionally help seed this torrent. To get the `magnet:` URI use:
```bash
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 ](https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/ubuntu/bitcoin )
- Add release notes for the new version to the directory `doc/release-notes` in git master
- Celebrate