AutoQA Release Process

This page describes the process for tagging, building and deploying a new version of autoqa. This page assumes a basic understanding of rpm spec file syntax and commands such as git, mock and yum.

Numbering scheme

Each release has X.Y.Z identification denoting a major, a minor and a revision number:

• Major number is increased when AutoQA makes incompatible changes in its test API. (Not used currently, since no stable public API has been offered yet.)
• Minor number is increased when AutoQA adds new features.
• Revision number is increased when AutoQA adds new hotfixes, but no new features.

Pre-requisites

You must have AutoQA source code checked out with write access (ssh:// protocol, requires gitautoqa membership):

git clone ssh://git.fedorahosted.org/git/autoqa.git
cd autoqa

Stable release

The following process concerns a stable public release of AutoQA. We use this procedure when we want to officially release a new version of AutoQA for all our users.

Switch Git branch

All the changes must be done in a correct git branch.

• If you want to create a new X.Y.0 major or minor release, create a new release branch:

  git checkout -b release-X.Y master

  

  Time of branching
  It is possible to create release-X.Y branch immediately before tagging X.Y.0 release, or it is possible to do it much earlier - then we can use master for further heavy development and release-X.Y for stabilization of the current features.
• If you want to create a new revision release X.Y.Z, switch to a corresponding existing release branch:

  git checkout release-X.Y

  and apply all hotfixes you have prepared.

Update autoqa.spec and NEWS

Every new release must be mentioned in the rpm spec file. We also want to provide high-level changes overview in the NEWS file.

1. Edit autoqa.spec by incrementing the Version and updating the %changelog
2. Edit NEWS file and add a section for the new release. Document only the most important end-user visible changes.
3. Locally commit the changes

   git commit autoqa.spec NEWS

Tag the release

The last commit (changing the autoqa.spec file) must be tagged to mark the release.

1. Tag the commit:

   git tag vX.Y.Z

2. Check that the tag was applied to the correct commit by inspecting:

   git log --decorate=full

Pull changes back to master

After you tag the release on the release branch, you need to pull the release-related changes (now tagged with vX.Y.Z tag) into the master branch. Merging is a preferred approach, because it ensures the master branch will contain the vX.Y.Z commit. But it is desirable only for a fast-forward merge, otherwise some other changes (we might not want) may be pulled in as well. In that case (e.g. the release branch was used for stabilization and contain several previous commits) we need to use cherry-picking.

1. Change to the master branch

   git checkout master

2. If you created the release branch immediately before tagging a new release, merge the changes using fast-forward approach:

   git merge --ff-only release-X.Y

3. If you can't use fast-forward merge or it failed, cherry pick the appropriate commit instead:

   git cherry-pick vX.Y.Z

Push changes to remote repository

It's time now to push all the changes to the shared remote origin repository.

1. Push the release branch changes:

   git push --tags origin release-X.Y

2. If you modified the master branch (i.e. for major or minor releases), push it too:

   git push --tags origin master

Upload tarball

Like many projects, the appropriate method to release a new version is by tarball. Once you have tagged the release, upload a new tarball using the following commands.

1. Check-out the correct tag

   git checkout vX.Y.Z

2. Upload a new release tarball

   make upload

Build a source RPM

With the tarball uploaded, it's time to package the new release as an RPM.

1. Check-out the correct tag

   git checkout vX.Y.Z

2. Build a source package

   make srpm

Build for applicable releases

With a source RPM created, it's time to build updated packages for any existing stable repositories. This includes Fedora 41, Fedora 40 and, depending on the time of release, potentially Fedora 39. Traditionally, this step would be handled by running the koji build --tag dist-f41-updates path/to/src.rpm command. However, since autoqa is not yet packaged and available in Fedora repositories, updates are built locally using mock.

Update your mock configuration
You will need to update the mock configuration files in /etc/mock so that the autoqa package repositories are included. This means updating all mock configuration files of all systems you want to build RPMs for. For instance, if you are going to build for Fedora 16, you will add the following into /etc/mock/fedora-16-x86_64.cfg

[fedora-autoqa]
name=The autoqa project provides a basic framework for Fedora test automation
baseurl=http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/fedora-qa/autoqa/fedora-16/x86_64
enabled=1
skip_if_unavailable=1
gpgcheck=0

Information on autoqa package repositories is available at Install_and_configure_AutoQA.

1. Build packages using mock for Fedora, specify version using DIST variable. For possible values for DIST, consult Packaging:DistTag

   make clean mock DIST=.fc41 

2. Repeat the build procedure for all desired releases

Create updates

With packages built, it's time to submit them as updates. Traditionally, this step would be handled by using the bodhi update tool. However, since autoqa is not yet packaged and available in official Fedora repositories, a custom package repository is used to deliver updates.

1. Mirror the autoqa package repository locally

   rsync -avz fedorapeople.org:/srv/repos/fedora-qa/autoqa ~/public_html/ ; cd autoqa/

2. Add locally built packages to the desired repositories

   ./move-pkgs.sh path/to/autoqa.git/build/MOCK/*/*.rpm

   

   Simulating the updates-testing repository
   For pre-release or testing packages an alternative repository is available to mimic the official updates-testing Fedora repository. To submit packages into the fedora-autoqa-testing repository, add the command-line option -r testing. A complete example is included below.

   ./move-pkgs.sh -r testing path/to/autoqa.git/rpm-build/MOCK/*/*.rpm

3. Update the yum repo metadata

   ./update-repos.sh

4. Update remote repository with changes

    rsync -avz ~/public_html/autoqa fedorapeople.org:/srv/repos/fedora-qa/

5. Change permissions on the server so that anyone in gitautoqa FAS group can update the repos

    chgrp -R gitautoqa /srv/repos/fedora-qa/autoqa

    chmod g+w -R /srv/repos/fedora-qa/autoqa

Cleanup tasks

Purging old release branches

If we are sure we will no longer work on older releases (e.g. before X.Y), we can also delete older release branches. If W < Y, then we can delete release-X.W:

1. Make sure there's a tag at the tip of the branch and therefore no work is lost:

   git tag --contains origin/release-X.W

   This must output some tag (like vX.W.3). Otherwise the branch contains commits which are not part of any tag.
2. Delete the remote branch:

   git push origin :release-X.W

3. Prune the local branches (that no longer exist on the remote server):

   git remote prune origin

The same goes for deleting older major branches (branches release-Q.Y where Q < X).

Testing release

The following process concerns a testing release of AutoQA. We use this procedure when we want to deploy a testing version of AutoQA onto our staging server for thorough testing.

Build and install RPM

1. SSH to the staging server and go to the AutoQA checkout directory (create one if you don't have one).
2. Switch to the git branch you want to test, probably master:

   git pull; git checkout master

3. Build an RPM from current HEAD using the same approach as in #Build for applicable releases, but with appending DEVEL=1 option:

   make clean mock DEVEL=1

   • Your user must be in the mock group to be able to run this.
4. Install the RPM created in ./build/MOCK/<release>/.
   • Since we use git describe to generate package versions and sometimes we build and install package from other branches than master, you can actually end up with a package version that is lower than the one currently installed. Instead of using yum update autoqa-version.rpm use yum downgrade autoqa-version.rpm.
   • Be sure to inspect all .rpmnew and .rpmold files (if they are created, yum will tell you so) and merge the changes.