Release Checklist for BIND 9.11.16, BIND 9.11.16-S1, BIND 9.14.11, BIND 9.16.0

Release Schedule

Tagging Deadline: Wednesday, February 12th, 2020

Public Release: Wednesday, February 19th, 2020

Release Checklist

2 Working Days Before the Tagging Deadline

• (QA) Check whether all issues assigned to the release milestone are resolved¹.
• (QA) Ensure that there are no outstanding merge requests in the private repository¹ (Subscription Edition only).
• (QA) Ensure all merge requests marked for backporting have been indeed backported.

Before the Tagging Deadline

• (QA) Inform Support/Marketing of impending release (and give estimated release dates).
• (QA) Check Perflab to ensure there has been no unexplained drop in performance for the versions being released.
• (SwEng) Update API files for libraries with new version information.
• (SwEng) Change software version and library versions in configure.ac (new major release only).
• (SwEng) Rebuild configure using Autoconf on docs.isc.org.
• (SwEng) Update CHANGES.
• (SwEng) Update CHANGES.SE (Subscription Edition only).
• (SwEng) Update README.md.
• (SwEng) Update version.
• (SwEng) Build documentation on docs.isc.org.
• (QA) Check that all the above steps were performed correctly.
• (QA) Check that the contents of release notes match the merge requests comprising the releases.
• (QA) Check that the formatting is correct for text, PDF, and HTML versions of release notes.
• (SwEng) Tag the releases². (Tags may only be pushed to the public repository for releases which are not security releases.)
• (SwEng) If this is the first tag for a release (e.g. beta), create a release branch named release_v9_X_Y to allow development to continue on the maintenance branch whilst release engineering continues.

Before the ASN Deadline (for ASN Releases) or the Public Release Date (for Regular Releases)

• (QA) Verify GitLab CI results for the tags created and prepare a QA report for the releases to be published.
• (QA) Request signatures for the tarballs, providing their location and checksums.
• (Signers) Validate tarball checksums, sign tarballs, and upload signatures.
• (QA) Verify tarball signatures and check tarball checksums again.
• (Support) Pre-publish ASN and/or Subscription Edition tarballs so that packages can be built.
• (QA) Build and test ASN and/or Subscription Edition packages.
• (QA) Notify Support that the releases have been prepared.
• (Support) Send out ASNs (if applicable).

On the Day of Public Release

• (Support) Wait for clearance from Security Officer to proceed with the public release (if applicable).
• (Support) Place tarballs in public location on FTP site.
• (Support) Publish links to downloads on ISC website.
• (Support) Write release email to bind-announce.
• (Support) Write email to bind-users (if a major release).
• (Support) Update tickets in case of waiting support customers.
• (QA) Build and test any outstanding private packages.
• (QA) Build public packages (*.deb, RPMs).
• (QA) Inform Marketing of the release.
• (QA) Update the internal BIND release dates wiki page when public announcement has been made.
• (Marketing) Post short note to Twitter.
• (Marketing) Update Wikipedia entry for BIND.
• (Marketing) Write blog article (if a major release).
• (QA) Ensure all new tags are annotated and signed.
• (SwEng) Push tags for the published releases to the public repository.
• (SwEng) Merge the automatically prepared prep 9.X.Y commit which updates version and documentation on the release branch into the relevant maintenance branch (v9_X).

1. If not, use the time remaining until the tagging deadline to ensure all outstanding issues are either resolved or moved to a different milestone. ↩ ↩²

2. Preferred command line: git tag -u <DEVELOPER_KEYID> -a -s -m "BIND 9.X.Y[alphatag]" v9_X_Y[alphatag], where [alphatag] is an optional string such as b1, rc1, etc. ↩