rclone/RELEASE.md

# Release

This file describes how to make the various kinds of releases

## Extra required software for making a release

- [gh the github cli](https://github.com/cli/cli) for uploading packages
- pandoc for making the html and man pages

## Making a release

- git checkout master # see below for stable branch
- git pull # IMPORTANT
- git status - make sure everything is checked in
- Check GitHub actions build for master is Green
- make test # see integration test server or run locally
- make tag
- edit docs/content/changelog.md # make sure to remove duplicate logs from point
  releases
- make tidy
- make doc
- git status - to check for new man pages - git add them
- git commit -a -v -m "Version v1.XX.0"
- make check
- make retag
- git push origin # without --follow-tags so it doesn't push the tag if it fails
- git push --follow-tags origin
- \# Wait for the GitHub builds to complete then...
- make fetch_binaries
- make tarball
- make vendorball
- make sign_upload
- make check_sign
- make upload
- make upload_test_website # check sponsors are correct/unchanged
- make upload_website
- make upload_github
- make startdev # make startstable for stable branch
- \# announce with forum post, twitter post, and post to annoucements list

## Update dependencies

Early in the next release cycle update the dependencies.

- Review any pinned packages in go.mod and remove if possible
- `make updatedirect`
- `make GOTAGS=cmount`
- `make compiletest`
- Fix anything which doesn't compile at this point and commit changes here
- `git commit -a -v -m "build: update all dependencies"`

If the `make updatedirect` upgrades the version of go in the `go.mod`

```text
go 1.22.0
```

then so this instead `make updatedirectnoupgrade`. This will try each
upgrade individually. Consider making an upstream bug report for any
`SKIPPING` lines as these only support the latest Go version not the
previous version too.

If `make updatedirect` or `make updatedirectnoupgrade` added a
`toolchain` directive then remove it. We don't want to force a
toolchain on our users. Linux packagers are often using a version of
Go that is a few versions out of date.

Optionally upgrade the direct and indirect dependencies. This is very
likely to fail if `make updatedirectnoupgrade` was used.

- `make update`
- `make GOTAGS=cmount`
- `make compiletest`
- roll back any updates which didn't compile
- `git commit -a -v --amend`
- **NB** watch out for this changing the default go version in `go.mod`

Note that `make update` updates all direct and indirect dependencies
and there can occasionally be forwards compatibility problems with
doing that so it may be necessary to roll back dependencies to the
version specified by `make updatedirect` in order to get rclone to
build.

Once it compiles locally, push it on a test branch and commit fixes
until the tests pass.

### Pseudo versions

Go makes pseudo versions for untagged repos and repos not at a tag.
The pseudo versions on repos that have been tagged before do not get
updated automatically so need manually checking. These can be found with

```console
grep -E '[0-9]{14}-[0-9a-f]{12}' go.mod | grep -v indirect | grep -v 'v0\.0\.0'
```

These will need to be updated manually using the `go get ...@branch`
syntax.

### Major versions

The above procedure will not upgrade major versions, so v2 to v3.
However this tool can show which major versions might need to be
upgraded:

```console
go run github.com/icholy/gomajor@latest list -major
```

Expect API breakage when updating major versions.

## Updating Go

When a new Go stable is released update to it. We support the current
stable Go and the previous release which is in line with the rest of
the Go ecosystem.

These files will need editing:

- `.github/workflows/build.yml` - change current and previous Go versions
- `docs/content/install.md` - change minimum Go version required
- `fs/versioncheck.go` - update minimum Go version required
- `go.mod` - update minimum Go version required

Check it builds

- `make GOTAGS=cmount`
- `make compiletest`

Assuming `go1.XX` is current and `go1.YY` is previous version:

Use `git grep go1.YY` and `git grep go1.YY` to look for opportunities
to remove build tags we no longer need.

Commit with message like this:

```text
build: update to go1.YY and make go1.YY the minimum required version
```

Send to CI and if it passes, merge.

### gofix

Updating the minimum required version of Go is a good opportunity to
run the `go fix` command to modernize Go usage.

This needs to be run for all architectures.

```console
GOOS=linux go fix -tags cmount ./...
GOOS=freebsd go fix -tags cmount ./...
GOOS=windows go fix -tags cmount ./...
GOOS=darwin go fix -tags cmount ./...
```

Examine the diff carefully.

Commit with message

```text
build: modernize Go code with go fix for go1.YY
```

## Tidy beta

At some point after the release run

```console
bin/tidy-beta v1.55
```

where the version number is that of a couple ago to remove old beta binaries.

## Making a point release

If rclone needs a point release due to some horrendous bug:

Set vars

- BASE_TAG=v1.XX          # e.g. v1.52
- NEW_TAG=${BASE_TAG}.Y   # e.g. v1.52.1
- echo $BASE_TAG $NEW_TAG # v1.52 v1.52.1

First make the release branch.  If this is a second point release then
this will be done already.

- git co -b ${BASE_TAG}-stable ${BASE_TAG}.0
- make startstable

Now

- git co ${BASE_TAG}-stable
- git cherry-pick any fixes
- make startstable
- Do the steps as above
- git co master
- `#` cherry pick the changes to the changelog - check the diff to make sure it
  is correct
- git checkout ${BASE_TAG}-stable docs/content/changelog.md
- git commit -a -v -m "Changelog updates from Version ${NEW_TAG}"
- git push

## Sponsor logos

If updating the website note that the sponsor logos have been moved out of the
main repository.

You will need to checkout `/docs/static/img/logos` from <https://github.com/rclone/third-party-logos>
which is a private repo containing artwork from sponsors.

## Update the website between releases

Create an update website branch based off the last release

```console
git co -b update-website
```

If the branch already exists, double check there are no commits that need saving.

Now reset the branch to the last release

```console
git reset --hard v1.64.0
```

Create the changes, check them in, test with `make serve` then

```console
make upload_test_website
```

Check out <https://test.rclone.org> and when happy

```console
make upload_website
```

Cherry pick any changes back to master and the stable branch if it is active.

## Making a manual build of docker

To do a basic build of rclone's docker image to debug builds locally:

```console
docker buildx build --load -t rclone/rclone:testing --progress=plain .
docker run --rm rclone/rclone:testing version
```

To test the multipatform build

```console
docker buildx build -t rclone/rclone:testing --progress=plain --platform linux/amd64,linux/386,linux/arm64,linux/arm/v7,linux/arm/v6 .
```

To make a full build then set the tags correctly and add `--push`

Note that you can't only build one architecture - you need to build them all.

```console
docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64,linux/386,linux/arm64,linux/arm/v7,linux/arm/v6 -t rclone/rclone:1.54.1 -t rclone/rclone:1.54 -t rclone/rclone:1 -t rclone/rclone:latest --push .
```