This is based on the release guide of the Apache Beam project: https://beam.apache.org/contribute/release-guide/ |
The Apache Flink project periodically declares and publishes releases. A release is one or more packages of the project artifact(s) that are approved for general public distribution and use. They may come with various degrees of caveat regarding their perceived quality and potential for change, such as “alpha”, “beta”, “incubating”, “stable”, etc.
The Flink community treats releases with great importance. They are a public face of the project and most users interact with the project only through the releases. Releases are signed off by the entire Flink community in a public vote.
Each release is executed by a Release Manager, who is selected among the Flink PMC members. This document describes the process that the Release Manager follows to perform a release. Any changes to this process should be discussed and adopted on the dev@ mailing list.
Please remember that publishing software has legal consequences. This guide complements the foundation-wide Product Release Policy and Release Distribution Policy.
The release process consists of several steps:
Deciding to release and selecting a Release Manager is the first step of the release process. This is a consensus-based decision of the entire community.
Anybody can propose a release on the dev@ mailing list, giving a solid argument and nominating a committer as the Release Manager (including themselves). There’s no formal process, no vote requirements, and no timing requirements. Any objections should be resolved by consensus before starting the release.
In general, the community prefers to have a rotating set of 3-5 Release Managers. Keeping a small core set of managers allows enough people to build expertise in this area and improve processes over time, without Release Managers needing to re-learn the processes for each release. That said, if you are a committer interested in serving the community in this way, please reach out to the community on the dev@ mailing list.
Before your first release, you should perform one-time configuration steps. This will set up your security keys for signing the release and access to various release repositories.
To prepare for each release, you should audit the project status in the JIRA issue tracker, and do necessary bookkeeping.
You need to have a GPG key to sign the release artifacts. Please be aware of the ASF-wide release signing guidelines. If you don’t have a GPG key associated with your Apache account, please create one according to the guidelines.
Determine your Apache GPG Key and Key ID, as follows:
gpg --list-keys |
This will list your GPG keys. One of these should reflect your Apache account, for example:
-------------------------------------------------- pub 2048R/845E6689 2016-02-23 uid Nomen Nescio <anonymous@apache.org> sub 2048R/BA4D50BE 2016-02-23 |
Here, the key ID is the 8-digit hex string in the pub
line: 845E6689
.
Now, add your Apache GPG key to the Flink’s KEYS
file in release
repository at dist.apache.org
. Follow the instructions listed at the top of these files. (Note: Only PMC members have write access to the release repository. If you end up getting 403 errors ask on the mailing list for assistance.) PMC member can refer following scripts to add your Apache GPG key to the KEYS in the release repository.
svn co https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/flink flink-dist-release-repo cd flink-dist-release-repo (gpg --list-sigs <YOUR_KEY_ID> && gpg --armor --export <YOUR_KEY_ID>) >> KEYS svn ci -m "[flink] Add <YOUR_NAME>'s public key" |
Configure git
to use this key when signing code by giving it your key ID, as follows:
git config --global user.signingkey 845E6689 |
You may drop the --global
option if you’d prefer to use this key for the current repository only.
You may wish to start gpg-agent
to unlock your GPG key only once using your passphrase. Otherwise, you may need to enter this passphrase hundreds of times. The setup for gpg-agent
varies based on operating system, but may be something like this:
eval $(gpg-agent --daemon --no-grab --write-env-file $HOME/.gpg-agent-info) export GPG_TTY=$(tty) export GPG_AGENT_INFO |
Configure access to the Apache Nexus repository, which enables final deployment of releases to the Maven Central Repository.
org.apache.flink
under Staging Profiles
.Profile
(top right dropdown menu of the page).User Token
from the dropdown, then click Access User Token
. Copy a snippet of the Maven XML configuration block.Insert this snippet twice into your global Maven settings.xml
file, typically ${HOME}/.m2/settings.xml
. The end result should look like this, where TOKEN_NAME
and TOKEN_PASSWORD
are your secret tokens:
<settings> <servers> <server> <id>apache.releases.https</id> <username>TOKEN_NAME</username> <password>TOKEN_PASSWORD</password> </server> <server> <id>apache.snapshots.https</id> <username>TOKEN_NAME</username> <password>TOKEN_PASSWORD</password> </server> </servers> </settings> |
Run mvn -Prelease clean install
to ensure that the build processes that are specific to that profile are in good shape.
dist.apache.org
org.apache.flink
listed under Staging Profiles
in Nexussettings.xml
The core of the release process is the build-vote-fix cycle. Each cycle produces one release candidate. The Release Manager repeats this cycle until the community approves one release candidate, which is then finalized.
The following sections assume that the release_utils
branch from flink-connector-shared-utils is mounted as a git submodule under tools/releasing/shared
, you can update the submodule by running git submodule update --remote
(or git submodule update --init --recursive
if the submodule wasn't initialized, yet) to use latest release utils, you need to mount the flink-connector-shared-utils as a submodule under the tools/releasing/shared
if it hasn't been mounted in the connector repository. See the README for details.
Check out the commit from which you intend to create the release, and run these commands in the root directory of the connector repo:
# Set up a few environment variables to simplify Maven commands that follow. # (We use bash Unix syntax in this guide.) export NEW_VERSION=3.0.0 export RC_NUM=1 export PROJECT=flink-connector-<project> export REMOTE=origin export MAVEN_SKIP_RC=false export MAVEN_OPTS="" export MAVEN_CONFIG="" export MAVEN_DEBUG_OPTS="" |
If you are releasing flink-connector-parent, you need to define an extra $PROJECT variable so that the artifacts are not named after the project directory which is flink-connector-shared-utils:
export PROJECT=flink-connector-parent |
We now need to do several things:
# verify the environment contains all software needed for the release process ./tools/releasing/shared/check_environment.sh # update the versions in the poms ./tools/releasing/shared/update_branch_version.sh # create and stage artifacts to be voted on ./tools/releasing/shared/release_git_tag.sh ./tools/releasing/shared/stage_source_release.sh |
We now need to build and deploy jar artifacts to the Apache Nexus Repository, which is the staging area for deploying the jars to Maven Central
Note: Please do not use VPN or change your IP address when stage artifacts to Apache Nexus Repository, it may lead to multiple staging repositories which is unexpected. |
For regular connector release, there is a jar per supported Flink version:
# call this once for each supported (minor) Flink version FLINK_VERSION=1.16.0 FLINK_MINOR_VERSION=1.16 ./tools/releasing/shared/stage_jars.sh |
For flink-connector-parent release, there is no notion of supported Flink version, there is one single artifact:
# run only once ./tools/releasing/shared/stage_jars.sh |
Close the staging repository on Apache Nexus.
JIRA automatically generates Release Notes based on the Fix Version
field applied to issues. Release Notes are intended for Flink users (not Flink committers/contributors). You should ensure that Release Notes are informative and useful.
Open the release notes from the version status page by choosing the release underway and clicking Release Notes.
You should verify that the issues listed automatically by JIRA are appropriate to appear in the Release Notes. Specifically, issues should:
Bug
, New Feature
, Improvement
, etc.Adjust any of the above properties to the improve clarity and presentation of the Release Notes.
To get the list of "release notes" field from JIRA, you can ran the following script using JIRA REST API (notes the maxResults limits the number of entries):
curl -s https://issues.apache.org/jira//rest/api/2/search?maxResults=200&jql=project%20%3D%20FLINK%20AND%20%22Release%20Note%22%20is%20not%20EMPTY%20and%20fixVersion%20%3D%20${RELEASE_VERSION} | jq '.issues[]|.key,.fields.summary,.fields.customfield_12310192' | paste - - - |
jq
is present in most Linux distributions and on MacOS can be installed via brew.
The final step of building the candidate is to propose a website pull request.
The flink_connectors.yml
must be updated to contain the new release.
Finally, propose a pull request with these changes. (Don’t merge before finalizing the release.)
Once you have built and individually reviewed the release candidate, please share it for the community-wide review. Please review foundation-wide voting guidelines for more information.
Start the review-and-vote thread on the dev@ mailing list. Here’s an email template; please adjust as you see fit.
echo " From: Release Manager To: dev@flink.apache.org Subject: [VOTE] Release ${PROJECT:-flink-connector-<connector>} v${NEW_VERSION}, release candidate #${RC_NUM} Content: Hi everyone, Please review and vote on release candidate #${RC_NUM} for ${PROJECT:-flink-connector-<connector>} v${NEW_VERSION}, as follows: [ ] +1, Approve the release [ ] -1, Do not approve the release (please provide specific comments) The complete staging area is available for your review, which includes: * JIRA release notes [1], * the official Apache source release to be deployed to dist.apache.org [2], which are signed with the key with fingerprint $(git config user.signingKey) [3], * all artifacts to be deployed to the Maven Central Repository [4], * source code tag v${NEW_VERSION}-rc${RC_NUM} [5], * website pull request listing the new release [6]. * CI build of the tag [7]. The vote will be open for at least 72 hours. It is adopted by majority approval, with at least 3 PMC affirmative votes. Thanks, Release Manager [1] link [2] https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/flink/${PROJECT:-flink-connector-<connector>}-${NEW_VERSION}-rc${RC_NUM} [3] https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/flink/KEYS [4] link [5] https://github.com/apache/${PROJECT:-flink-connector-<connector>}/releases/tag/v${NEW_VERSION}-rc${RC_NUM} [6] link [7] link " |
If there are any issues found in the release candidate, reply on the vote thread to cancel the vote. There’s no need to wait 72 hours. Proceed to the Fix Issues
step below and address the problem. However, some issues don’t require cancellation.
If there are no issues, reply on the vote thread to close the voting. Then, tally the votes in a separate email. Here’s an email template; please adjust as you see fit.
echo " From: Release Manager To: dev@flink.apache.org Subject: [RESULT][VOTE] ${PROJECT:-flink-connector-<connector>} ${NEW_VERSION}, release candidate #${RC_NUM} I'm happy to announce that we have unanimously approved this release. There are XXX approving votes, XXX of which are binding: * approver 1 * approver 2 * approver 3 * approver 4 There are no disapproving votes. Thanks everyone! " |
Any issues identified during the community review and vote should be fixed in this step.
Code changes should be proposed as standard pull requests to the master
branch and reviewed using the normal contributing process. Then, relevant changes should be cherry-picked into the release branch. The cherry-pick commits should then be proposed as the pull requests against the release branch, again reviewed and merged using the normal contributing process.
Once all issues have been resolved, you should go back and build a new release candidate with these changes.
Once the release candidate has been reviewed and approved by the community, the release should be finalized.
Use the Apache Nexus repository to release the staged binary artifacts to the Maven Central repository. In the Staging Repositories
section, find the relevant release candidate orgapacheflink-XXX
entry and click Release
. Drop all other release candidates that are not being released.
Copy the source and binary releases from the dev
repository to the release
repository at dist.apache.org
.
PROJECT=flink-connector-<connector> VERSION=${NEW_VERSION} RC_NUM=${RC_NUM} ./tools/releasing/shared/release_source_release.sh |
Create a new Git tag for the released version by copying the tag for the final release candidate, as follows
export RC_NUM=none ./tools/releasing/shared/release_git_tag.sh |
In JIRA, inside version management, hover over the current release and a settings menu will appear. Click Release
, and select today’s date.
flink-connector-parent is just a pom.xml file with no dedicated documentation page, so this section does not apply to flink-connector-parent release |
Make sure that in the correct Flink release branch (e.g. release-1.19, release-1.18 etc) in https://github.com/apache/flink/blob/master/docs/setup_docs.sh#L45-L57 there's a line that shows:
integrate_connector_docs yourConnectorRepoName yourReleasedConnectorBranch |
When the documentation is being build, it will also download the documentation from the connector repository from the specified branch, so that it will be integrated into the Flink documentation
flink-connector-parent is just a pom.xml file with only a simple "mvn install" git workflow, so this section does not apply to flink-connector-parent release |
Update .github/workflows/weekly.yml
in the main
branch for the connector repository to make sure that:
Once the release has been finalized, the last step of the process is to promote the release within the project and beyond. Please wait for 24h after finalizing the release in accordance with the ASF release policy.
Merge the website pull request to list the release. Make sure to regenerate the website as well, as it isn't built automatically.
Announce on the dev@ mailing list that the release has been finished.
Make sure that you send this email using text MIME Content-Type otherwise ASF mail servers will refuse to send it to announce@apache.org
echo " From: Release Manager To: announce@apache.org, user@flink.apache.org, dev@flink.apache.org Reply-To: user@flink.apache.org Subject: [ANNOUNCE] Apache ${PROJECT:-flink-connector-<connector>} ${NEW_VERSION} released The Apache Flink community is very happy to announce the release of Apache ${PROJECT:-flink-connector-<connector>} ${NEW_VERSION}. Apache Flink® is an open-source stream processing framework for distributed, high-performing, always-available, and accurate data streaming applications. The release is available for download at: https://flink.apache.org/downloads.html The full release notes are available in Jira: <jira release notes link> We would like to thank all contributors of the Apache Flink community who made this release possible! Regards, Release Manager " |
Use reporter.apache.org to seed the information about the release into future project reports.
It is important that we improve the release processes over time. Once you’ve finished the release, please take a step back and look what areas of this process can be improved. Perhaps some part of the process can be simplified. Perhaps parts of this guide can be clarified.
If we have specific ideas, please start a discussion on the dev@ mailing list and/or propose a pull request to update this guide. Thanks!