Release model¶

Release Dates

Armbian runs “train” based releases. Whatever is ready to board the train, does so. Whatever isn’t ready, has to wait for the next train. This enables us to have a predictable release cycles making it easy to plan. It also puts the responsibility on developers to make sure they have features ready on time.

Armbian releases quarterly at the end of February, May, August, November. Offset is because we all know that nothing happens for half of December. At the beginning of a release cycle, we have a planning meeting and two weeks before the end of the release we freeze integration of new features.

Release Cycle

Releases last 3 months. Each release starts with a planning meeting. After planning, developers and development teams build their deliverable using whatever methods (scrum, kanban, waterfall, … ) they want but shall commit their code frequently, leading up to the last 2 weeks. The project does not accept “dumps” of code at the end. Commit early and often on master. Two weeks before the release date, we halt feature integration and only allow bug fixes. At some point during those two weeks, we start the release candidate process. This process starts by pulling a branch off master that will become the release branch. That frees up master for development on the next release. On the release candidate branch we work on bug fixes, and choose “release candidate”, RC, tags. The software at that tag is a candidate for release, and it is submitted to automated and manual tests on real hardware. If automated tests are passing, we can officially tag it as the release. If it doesn’t, we enter another bug fix cycle and create a new release candidate. We iterate until we have a candidate that can be the formal release. Usually, this takes 2-3 cycles and 1-3 weeks of time.

Development epics, stories and bugs for each release are tracked through Jira.

Release Branching, Versioning and Tags¶

Branches in Armbian follow this convention:

Master branch (master): Main development will happen on the master branch. This is the latest and greatest branch, but is always “stable” and “deployable”. All tests always pass on this branch.
Maintenance branch (support): This is the long-term maintenance branch per release.
Development branch (dev): This is a branch created for lengthy and/or involved feature development that could destabilize master.

Each Armbian release will have the following version format:

Format: <major>.<minor>.<revision>

<major> and <minor> version will be incremented at the end of the release cycles while <revision> is incremented for a fix (or set of fixes)

Tags are used in ad-hoc manner.

Release Naming¶

version	codename	release month	work
19.11	Vaquita	November	done
20.02	Chiru	February	done
20.05	Kagu	May	done
20.08	Caple	August	planned
20.11	Tamandua	November

by http://www.codenamegenerator.com/

Release Planning¶

A release planning starts with an public IRC meeting where developers and interested users come together in first Saturday, one month before the release month.

Dates for 2020:

April 4th
July 4th
October 3rd

Agenda:

check meeting attendees (if nick is not self explanatory, add your forum/github handle. Just say hi or something)
choose upcoming release officer (so far it was me and Lane)
present tasks, bugs or project you are working on (open discussion if there will not be much people, otherwise meeting officer call people out). Jira should be open in not already.
cycle Jira backlog:
discuss task / bug (one at a time)
assign to person / release / tag
re-prioritise
cycle open issues and PR on build engine
board status update on download pages and build engine (wip, supported, eol)
change (build) branch protection rule to “Require pull request reviews before merging”
decide upon best meetings hours
misc / open discussion

Tips:

when you got a voice, be concise (1-2 min) and make it clear when you stop. (“No more, I’m done”)
channel is recorded so a summary and adjustments to Jira can made afterwards, ideally along with the meeting

Meeting location is IRC channel #armbian on freenode. Meeting starts at 2pm GMT.

Release Coordinating¶

Summary¶

A release starts as a RC Branch cut from master at freeze time. Once a RC Branch is cut, master can be unfrozen and development can continue. RC Branches accept bug fixes. The bug fixes should be cherry-picked back to master branch. Once the RC Is stable. A Final release is made. A release is never merged to master. Once a release is complete, it only should be updated for severe bugs and severe security vulnerabilities. A release is only maintained until the next release.

1. Forum Communication¶

Create a new thread in the Armbian Build Framework Subforum
Ex topic name: Ambian 20.02 (Chiru) Release Thread
Tag the post with relase, release version, and codename
Use the following template to begin the body of the release thread:

Release Candidate Code Freeze Date: YYYY-MM-DD
Release Date: YYYY-MM-DD
Release Candidate Branch Link: URL
Release Changelog: URL
Release Coordinator: @yourname
Testing Tracking Sheet: https://example.com/link  (google sheets)

The goal of this thread is to discuss testing, bugfixes, and the overall quality of the release.  Once the release is complete, this thread should be locked and unpinned.

Before Code Freeze – Make note in the thread the incomplete jira issues tagged for the release example
After test images are procuded, engage in community for assistants wih testing.. forums, twitter, etc. share this tool

2. Release Candidate Branch Management¶

For code freeze – create a RC branch in the format (vYY.MM-rcX) ex: v20.02-rc1
If Possible, create Jira tickets for major changes in github that were not tracked in Jira
Begin Testing Process. See Release Testing
Do not modify branch directy. Only accept PRs
Only accept PRs for Bugfixes. No features
Update master branch version to the NEXT release version with -trunk ex. If RC is v20.02.0-rc1 Master bacomes v20.05.0-trunk
FIXME ? Coordinate with Igor or other Admins generate test build from branch ?
Repeat build, test, and bugfix process until release is stable
Cherry-pick bugfixes back into master
Create Final Release branch from RC

3. Release¶

In Github create a Release from final release branch
Copy Release notes generated by Jira Release into Github form
Add other appropriate information into release github release notes
Point Armbian build system to new release
Update armbian documentation to reflect current release
Celebrate

Release Testing¶

See Opportunties for improvement

Reflection on Prior Releases¶

Opportunities for Improvement¶

wireless driver testing¶

wireless is a particularly sensitive issue. We need to test, fix, or at least be able to inform others of what is broken