title: Making a SilverStripe core release
summary: Development guide for core contributors to build and publish a new release
# Making a SilverStripe core release
## Introduction
This guide is intended to be followed by core contributors, allowing them to take
the latest development branch of each of the core modules, and building a release.
The artifacts for this process are typically:
* A downloadable tar / zip on silverstripe.org
* A published announcement
* A new composer installable stable tag for silverstripe/installer
While this document is not normally applicable to normal silverstripe contributors,
it is still useful to have it available in a public location so that these users
are aware of these processes.
## First time setup
As a core contributor it is necessary to have installed the following set of tools:
### First time setup: Standard releases
* PHP 5.5+
* Python 2.7 / 3.5
* [cow release tool](https://github.com/silverstripe/cow#install). This should typically
be installed in a global location via the below command. Please see the installation
docs on the cow repo for more setup details.
- `composer global require silverstripe/cow dev-master`
* [transifex client](http://docs.transifex.com/client/). You will also need to ensure that
your transifex account has been granted the necessary write permissions on the cms, framework,
installer, simple theme, siteconfig and reports modules:
- `pip install transifex-client`
* [AWS CLI tools](https://aws.amazon.com/cli/):
- `pip install awscli`
* The `tar` and `zip` commands
* A good _ss_environment.php setup in your localhost webroot.
Example `_ss_environment.php`:
:::php
Security issues are never disclosed until a public stable release containing this fix
is available, or within a reasonable period of time of such a release.
Producing a security fix follows this general process:
* When a security issue is disclosed on security@silverstripe.com it should be given
a CVE (common vulnerability exposure) code. E.g. ss-2015-020. Make sure you thank
anyone who disclosed this issue, and confirm with them as soon as possible whether
this issue is a verified security issue.
* Log this CVE, along with description, release version, and name of reporter in
JIRA at [open source security jira](https://silverstripe.atlassian.net/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?rapidView=198&view=detail).
* Create a similar record of this issue on the [security releases page](http://www.silverstripe.org/download/security-releases)
in draft mode.
* Post a pre-announcement to the [security pre-announcement list](https://groups.google.com/a/silverstripe.com/forum/#!forum/security-preannounce).
It's normally ideal to include a [VCSS](https://nvd.nist.gov/CVSS-v2-Calculator)
(common vulnerability scoring system) along with this pre-announcement. If the
release date of the final stable is not known, then it's ok to give an estimated
release schedule.
* Push the current upstream target branches (e.g. 3.2) to the corresponding security fork
to a new branch named for the target release (e.g. 3.2.4). Security fixes should be
applied to this branch only. Once a fix (or fixes) have been applied to this branch, then
a tag can be applied, and a private release can then be developed in order
to test this release.
* Once RC testing is completed and the release is ready for stabilisation, then these fixes
can then be pushed to the upstream module fork, and the release completed as per normal.
Make sure to publish any draft security pages at the same time as the release is published (same day).
Note: It's not considered acceptable to disclose any security vulnerability until a fix exists in
a public stable, not an RC or dev-branch. Security warnings that do not require a stable release
can be published as soon as a workaround or usable resolution exists.
## Standard release process
The release process, at a high level, involves creating a release, publishing it, and
reviewing the need for either another pre-release or a final stable tag within a short period
(normally within 3-5 business days).
During the pre-release cycle a temporary branch is created, and should only receive
absolutely critical fixes during the cycle. Any changes to this branch should
result in the requirement for a new release, thus a higher level of scrutiny is typically
placed on any pull request to these branches.
When creating a new pre-release or stable, the following process is broken down into two
main sets of commands:
### Stage 1: Release preparation:
If you are managing a release, it's best to first make sure that SilverStripe marketing
are aware of any impending release. This is so that they can ensure that a relevant blog
post will appear on [www.silverstripe.org/blog](http://www.silverstripe.org/blog/), and
cross-posted to other relevant channels such as Twitter and Facebook.
Make sure Nicole and Vinh at silverstripe at aware by sending an email to
[marketing@silverstripe.com](mailto:marketing@silverstripe.com).
This is the part of the release that prepares and tests everything locally, but
doe not make any upstream changes (so it's safe to run without worrying about
any mistakes migrating their way into the public sphere).
Invoked by running `cow release` in the format as below:
cow release --from= --branch-auto -vvv
This command has the following parameters:
* `` The version that is to be released. E.g. 3.2.4 or 3.2.4-rc1
* `` The version from which to compare to generate a changelog.
E.g. 3.2.3 (if releasing 3.2.4), or 3.2.5 (if releasing 3.3.0 and that's the
newest 3.2.x version). You can normally leave this out for patch releases,
and the code will normally be able to guess the right version, but you may
as well declare it every time.
* `--branch-auto` Will automatically create a new temporary release branch (e.g. 3.2.4) if
one does not exist.
This can take between 5-15 minutes, and will invoke the following steps,
each of which can also be run in isolation (in case the process stalls
and needs to be manually advanced):
* `realease:create` The release version will be created in the `release-`
folder directly underneath the folder this command was invoked in. Cow
will look at the available versions and branch-aliases of silverstripe/installer
to determine the best version to install from. E.g. installing 4.0.0 will
know to install dev-master, and installing 3.3.0 will install from 3.x-dev.
If installing pre-release versions for stabilisation, it will use the correct
temporary release branch.
* `release:branch` If release:create installed from a non-rc branch, it will
create the new temporary release branch (via `--branch-auto`). You can also customise this branch
with `--branch=`, but it's best to use the standard.
* `release:translate` All upstream transifex strings will be pulled into the
local master strings, and then the [api:i18nTextCollector] task will be invoked
and will merge these strings together, before pushing all new master strings
back up to transifex to make them available for translation. Changes to these
files will also be automatically committed to git.
* `release:test` Will run all unit tests on this release. Make sure that you
setup your `_ss_environment.php` correctly (as above) so that this will work.
* `release:changelog` Will compare the current branch head with `--from` parameter
version in order to generate a changelog file. This wil be placed into the
`./framework/docs/en/04_Changelogs/` folder. If an existing file named after
this version is already in that location, then the changes will be automatically
regenerated beneath the automatically added line:
``.
It may be necessary to edit this file to add details of any upgrading notes
or special considerations. If this is a security release, make sure that any
links to the security registrar (http://www.silverstripe.org/download/security-releases)
match the pages saved in draft.
Once the release task has completed, it may be ideal to manually test the site out
by running it locally (e.g. `http://localhost/release-3.3.4`) to do some smoke-testing
and make sure that there are no obvious issues missed.
It's also ideal to eyeball the git changes generated by the release tool, making sure
that no translation strings were unintentionally lost, or that the changelog
was generated correctly.
In particular, double check that all necessary information is included in the release notes,
including:
* Upgrading notes
* Security fixes included
* Major changes
Once this has been done, then the release is ready to be published live.
### Stage 2: Release publication
Once a release has been generated, has its translations updated, changelog generated,
and tested, the next step is to publish the release. This involves tagging,
building an archive, and uploading to
[www.silverstripe.org](http://www.silverstripe.org/software/download/) download page.
Invoked by running `cow release:publish` in the format as below:
cow release:publish -vvv
As with the `cow release` command, this step is broken down into the following
subtasks which are invoked in sequence:
* `release:tag` Each module will have the appropriate tag applied (except the theme).
* `release:push` The temporary release branches and all tags are pushed up to origin on github.
* `release:archive` This will generate a new tar.gz and zip archive, each for
cms and framework-only installations. These will be copied to the root folder
of the release directory, although the actual build will be created in temporary
directories (so any temp files generated during testing will not end up in the release).
If the tags generated in the prior step are not yet available on packagist (which can
take a few minutes at times) then this task will cycle through a retry-cycle,
which will re-attempt the archive creation periodically until these tags are available.
* `release:upload` This will invoke the AWS CLI command to upload these archives to the
s3 bucket `silverstripe-ssorg-releases`. If you have setup your AWS profile
for silverstripe releases under a non-default name, you can specify this profile
on the command line with the `--aws-profile=` command.
Once all of these commands have completed there are a couple of final tasks left that
aren't strictly able to be automated:
* If this is a stable release, it will be necessary to perform a post-release merge
on open source. This normally will require you to merge the temporary release branch into the
source branch (e.g. merge 3.2.4 into 3.2), or sometimes create new branches if
releasing a new minor version, and bumping up the branch-alias in composer.json.
E.g. branching 3.3 from 3, and aliasing 3 as 3.4.x-dev. You can then delete
the temporary release branches. This will need to be done before updating the
release documentation in stage 3.
* Merging up the changes in this release to newer branches, following the
SemVer pattern (e.g. 3.2.4 > 3.2 > 3.3 > 3 > master). The more often this is
done the easier it is, but this can sometimes be left for when you have
more free time. Branches not receiving regular stable versions anymore (e.g.
3.0 or 3.1) should usually be omitted.
* Set the github milestones to completed, and create placeholders for the next
minor versions. It may be necessary to re-assign any issues assigned to the prior
milestones to these new ones. See the below links for each module milestone list:
* [installer](https://github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-installer/milestones)
* [framework](https://github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-framework/milestones)
* [cms](https://github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-cms/milestones)
* Make sure that the [releases page](https://github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-installer/releases)
on github shows the new tag.
*Updating non-patch versions*
If releasing a new major or minor version it may be necessary to update various SilverStripe portals. Normally a new
minor version will require a new branch option to be made available on each site menu. These sites include:
* [docs.silverstripe.org](https://docs.silverstripe.org): Update on [github](https://github.com/silverstripe/doc.silverstripe.org)
and deployed internally.
* [api.silverstripe.org](https://api.silverstripe.org): Update on [github](https://github.com/silverstripe/api.silverstripe.org)
and deployed internally.
* [userhelp.silverstripe.org](https://userhelp.silverstripe.org/en/3.2): Update on
[github](https://github.com/silverstripe/userhelp.silverstripe.org) and deployed internally.
The content for this site is pulled from [silverstripe-userhelp-content](https://github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-userhelp-content)
* [demo.silverstripe.org](http://demo.silverstripe.org/): Update on
[github](https://github.com/silverstripe/demo.silverstripe.org/) and deployed internally.
It's also a good idea to check that `Deprecation::notification_version('4.0.0');` in framework/_config.php points to
the right major version. This should match the major version of the current release. E.g. all versions of 4.x
should be set to `4.0.0`.
### Stage 3: Let the world know
Once a release has been published there are a few places where user documentation
will need to be regularly updated.
* Make sure that the [download page](http://www.silverstripe.org/download) on
silverstripe.org has the release available. If it's a stable, it will appear
at the top of the page. If it's a pre-release, it will be available under the
[development builds](http://www.silverstripe.org/download#download-releases)
section. If it's not available, you might need to check that the release was
properly uploaded to aws s3, or that you aren't viewing a cached version of
the download page. You can cache-bust this by adding `?release=` to
the url. If things aren't working properly (and you have admin permissions)
you can run the [CoreReleaseUpdateTask](http://www.silverstripe.org/dev/tasks/CoreReleaseUpdateTask)
to synchronise with packagist.
* Ensure that [docs.silverstripe.org](http://docs.silverstripe.org) has the
updated documentation by running the build task in the root folder. If
you do not have ssh access to this server, then contact a SilverStripe staff member
to update this for you. Make sure that the download link below links to the
correct changelog page. E.g.
[https://docs.silverstripe.org/en/3.2/changelogs/3.2.1/](https://docs.silverstripe.org/en/3.2/changelogs/3.2.1/)
* Post a release announcement on the [silverstripe release announcement](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/silverstripe-announce)
google group.
* Create a release announcement forum sticky on the
[releases and announcements](http://www.silverstripe.org/community/forums/releases-and-announcements/)
forum category. Make this a global read-only sticky, and un-sticky any older release.
* Update the IRC topic to include the new release version.
### Stage 4: Web platform installer release
The web platform installer is available [on the web app gallery](http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/silverstripecms.aspx).
In order to update this you will need a Microsoft live account, and have it authorised
by SilverStripe staff in order to publish these releases.
To update this release there is an additional download tool at
[https://code.platform.silverstripe.com/silverstripe/webpi](https://code.platform.silverstripe.com/silverstripe/webpi)
which will guide you through the process of generating a new zip release.
./make-package 3.2.4 3.2.4
aws s3 cp ./silverstripe-3.2.4-webpi.zip s3://silverstripe-ssorg-releases/sssites-ssorg-prod/assets/downloads/webpi/silverstripe-3.2.4-webpi.zip --acl public-read --profile silverstripe
Once you have a new release, update the necessary details at
[http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/appsubmit.aspx?id=57](http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/appsubmit.aspx?id=57)
to submit a new version, including:
* Set the version number
* Update the release date
* Submit the package URL
* Submit the package SHA
## See also
* [Release Process](release_process)
* [Translation Process](translation_process)
* [Core committers](core_committers)
If at any time a release runs into an unsolveable problem contact the
core committers on the [discussion group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/silverstripe-committers)
to ask for support.