Skip to content

RELEASING.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
146 lines (110 loc) · 5.34 KB

RELEASING.md

File metadata and controls

146 lines (110 loc) · 5.34 KB
Raw

Releasing

This document is the runbook for cutting a go-redis release. It is intended for maintainers with write/tag access to the repository.

For the format and style of the release notes themselves, see .github/RELEASE_NOTES_TEMPLATE.md.

Versioning

go-redis follows Semantic Versioning:

  • Patch (vX.Y.Z+1) — bug fixes, no API changes.
  • Minor (vX.Y+1.0) — backwards-compatible new features, deprecations.
  • Major (vX+1.0.0) — breaking changes. Coordinate with the team first.

Pre-releases use vX.Y.Z-beta.N / vX.Y.Z-rc.N.

Pre-release checklist

  • Target branch is master and CI is green on the latest commit.
  • All PRs intended for this release are merged.
  • There are no open issues in the release milestone (if used).
  • CHANGELOG / release notes have been considered; dependabot-only and doc-only changes are excluded per the template.
  • Confirm the next version number and decide if it's a patch / minor / major.

1. Draft the release notes

  1. Open the draft release auto-generated by release-drafter on GitHub.
  2. Prepend a new section to RELEASE-NOTES.md using .github/RELEASE_NOTES_TEMPLATE.md as the format. Keep the file in chronological order (newest first).
  3. Pick 3–5 Highlights — the most user-facing, impactful changes.
  4. Remove dependabot bumps and doc-only typo fixes from the lists.
  5. Verify every PR has a contributor attribution and link.
  6. Open a PR with just the release-notes change if you want review before bumping versions, otherwise include it in the release PR below.

2. Bump versions and open the release PR

Create a release branch from master:

git checkout master && git pull --ff-only
git checkout -b release/vX.Y.Z

Run the release script on that branch:

TAG=vX.Y.Z ./scripts/release.sh

What the script does (and explicitly does not do):

  • ✅ Validates TAG matches the semver regex and isn't already a git tag.
  • ✅ Rewrites every redis/go-redis* line in every sub-module go.mod to point at the new TAG. Trailing // indirect markers are preserved.
  • ✅ Runs go mod tidy -compat=1.24 in each sub-module.
  • ✅ Updates the return value in version.go.
  • ❌ Does not switch branches (runs in your current branch).
  • ❌ Does not require a clean working tree (so you can mix it with release-notes edits in the same branch).
  • ❌ Does not commit, tag, or push anything.

Review and commit the changes yourself:

git diff                 # sanity-check the bumps
git add -u
git commit -m "chore: release vX.Y.Z"
git push origin release/vX.Y.Z

Then on GitHub:

  • Open a PR from release/vX.Y.Z into master.
  • Wait for all required CI checks (build, golangci-lint, spellcheck, doctests, e2e where applicable) to pass.
  • Get at least one maintainer approval.
  • Merge the PR (use a merge commit — the tag will point at the merge SHA).

3. Tag the release

After the release PR is merged, pull the latest master and dry-run the tagger:

git checkout master && git pull --ff-only
TAG=vX.Y.Z ./scripts/tag.sh vX.Y.Z

The script defaults to dry-run and prints the commands it would run. Verify the output, then apply for real with -t:

./scripts/tag.sh vX.Y.Z -t

This creates and pushes:

  • The top-level tag vX.Y.Z.
  • A per-module tag <module>/vX.Y.Z for each public sub-module (skipping example/* and internal/*).

4. Publish the GitHub release

  1. On GitHub, open the draft release created by release-drafter.
  2. Set the tag to vX.Y.Z and the target to master.
  3. Replace the auto-generated body with the curated notes from RELEASE-NOTES.md for this version.
  4. For pre-releases, check "Set as a pre-release".
  5. Publish.

5. Post-release

  • Verify the release appears on pkg.go.dev within a few minutes (trigger a fetch by visiting the version URL if needed).
  • Announce on Discord (see the link in CONTRIBUTING.md).
  • Close the release milestone if one was used.
  • Open follow-up issues for anything deferred from this release.

Hotfix / patch release

For an urgent fix on top of the latest release:

  1. Branch from the latest release tag: git checkout -b hotfix/vX.Y.Z+1 vX.Y.Z.
  2. Cherry-pick (or re-apply) only the required fix commits.
  3. Follow the normal release flow above with TAG=vX.Y.Z+1.
  4. Make sure the fix is also present on master (forward-port if necessary).

Troubleshooting

  • release.sh fails with "tag already exists" — the tag has already been created. Pick the next version, or delete the local tag first if it was created by mistake.
  • tag.sh reports version mismatch in a go.mod — a sub-module was not updated by release.sh. Fix the go.mod manually (or re-run release.sh), amend the release PR, and re-run the tagger.
  • version.go does not contain the tag — release.sh did not run or the bump was reverted. Re-run release.sh on the release branch.
  • pkg.go.dev does not show the new version — visit https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/redis/go-redis/v9@vX.Y.Z once to trigger a fetch from the module proxy.