nix/maintainers/release-process.md

Nix release process

Release artifacts

The release process is intended to create the following for each release:

• A Git tag

• Binary tarballs in https://releases.nixos.org/?prefix=nix/

• Docker images

• Closures in https://cache.nixos.org

• (Optionally) Updated fallback-paths.nix in Nixpkgs

• An updated manual on https://nix.dev/manual/nix/latest/

Creating a new release from the master branch

• Make sure that the Hydra master jobset succeeds.

• In a checkout of the Nix repo, make sure you're on master and run git pull.

• Compile the release notes by running

  $ export VERSION=X.YY
  $ git checkout -b release-notes
  $ ./maintainers/release-notes
  

  where X.YY is without the patch level, e.g. 2.12 rather than 2.12.0.

  A commit is created.

• Proof-read / edit / rearrange the release notes if needed. Breaking changes and highlights should go to the top.

• Run maintainers/release-credits to make sure the credits script works and produces a sensible output. Some emails might not automatically map to a GitHub handle.

• Push.

  $ git push --set-upstream $REMOTE release-notes
  

• Create a PR for release-notes.

• Wait for the PR to be merged.

• Create a branch for the release:

  $ git checkout master
  $ git pull
  $ git checkout -b $VERSION-maintenance
  

• Mark the release as official:

  $ sed -e 's/officialRelease = false;/officialRelease = true;/' -i flake.nix
  

  This removes the link to rl-next.md from the manual and sets officialRelease = true in flake.nix.

• Commit

• Push the release branch:

  $ git push --set-upstream origin $VERSION-maintenance
  

• Create a jobset for the release branch on Hydra as follows:

  • Go to the jobset of the previous release (e.g. https://hydra.nixos.org/jobset/nix/maintenance-2.11).

  • Select Actions -> Clone this jobset.

  • Set identifier to maintenance-$VERSION.

  • Set description to $VERSION release branch.

  • Set flake URL to github:NixOS/nix/$VERSION-maintenance.

  • Hit Create jobset.

• Wait for the new jobset to evaluate and build. If impatient, go to the evaluation and select Actions -> Bump builds to front of queue.

• When the jobset evaluation has succeeded building, take note of the evaluation ID (e.g. 1780832 in https://hydra.nixos.org/eval/1780832).

• Tag the release and upload the release artifacts to releases.nixos.org and Docker Hub:

  $ IS_LATEST=1 ./maintainers/upload-release.pl <EVAL-ID>
  

  Note: IS_LATEST=1 causes the latest-release branch to be force-updated. This is used by the nixos.org website to get the latest Nix manual.

  TODO: This script requires the right AWS credentials. Document.

  TODO: This script currently requires a /home/eelco/Dev/nix-pristine.

  TODO: trigger nixos.org netlify: https://docs.netlify.com/configure-builds/build-hooks/

• Prepare for the next point release by editing .version to e.g.

  $ echo 2.12.1 > .version
  $ git commit -a -m 'Bump version'
  $ git push
  

  Commit and push this to the maintenance branch.

• Bump the version of master:

  $ git checkout master
  $ git pull
  $ NEW_VERSION=2.13.0
  $ echo $NEW_VERSION > .version
  $ git checkout -b bump-$NEW_VERSION
  $ git commit -a -m 'Bump version'
  $ git push --set-upstream origin bump-$NEW_VERSION
  

  Make a pull request and auto-merge it.

• Create a milestone for the next release, move all unresolved issues from the previous milestone, and close the previous milestone. Set the date for the next milestone 6 weeks from now.

• Create a backport label.

• Post an announcement on Discourse, including the contents of rl-$VERSION.md.

Creating a point release

• Checkout.

  $ git checkout XX.YY-maintenance
  

• Determine the next patch version.

  $ export VERSION=XX.YY.ZZ
  

• Update release notes.

  $ ./maintainers/release-notes
  

• Push.

  $ git push
  

• Wait for the desired evaluation of the maintenance jobset to finish building.

• Run

  $ IS_LATEST=1 ./maintainers/upload-release.pl <EVAL-ID>
  

  Omit IS_LATEST=1 when creating a point release that is not on the most recent stable branch. This prevents nixos.org to going back to an older release.

• Bump the version number of the release branch as above (e.g. to 2.12.2).

Recovering from mistakes

upload-release.pl should be idempotent. For instance a wrong IS_LATEST value can be fixed that way, by running the script on the actual latest release.

Security releases

See also the instructions for handling security reports.

Once a security fix is ready for merging:

1. Summarize all past communication in the report.

2. Request a CVE in the GitHub security advisory for the security fix.

3. Notify all collaborators on the advisory with a timeline for the release.

4. Merge the fix. Publish the advisory.

5. Make point releases for all affected versions.

6. Update the affected Nix releases in Nixpkgs to the patched version.

   For each Nix release, change the version = strings and run

   nix-build -A nixVersions.nix_<major>_<minor>
   

   to get the correct hash for the hash = field.

7. Once the release is built by Hydra, update fallback paths.

   For the Nix release ${version} shipped with Nixpkgs, run:

   curl https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-${version}/fallback-paths.nix > nixos/modules/installer/tools/nix-fallback-paths.nix
   

   Starting with Nixpkgs 24.11, there is an automatic check that fallback paths with Nix binaries match the Nix release shipped with Nixpkgs.

8. Backport the updates to the two most recent stable releases of Nixpkgs.

   Add backport release-<version> labels, which will trigger GitHub Actions to attempt automatic backports.

9. Once the pull request against master lands on nixpkgs-unstable, post a Discourse announcement with

   • Links to the CVE and GitHub security advisory
   • A description of the vulnerability and its fix
   • Credits to the reporters of the vulnerability and contributors of the fix
   • A list of affected and patched Nix releases
   • Instructions for updating
   • A link to the pull request tracker to follow when the patched Nix versions will appear on the various release channels

   Check past announcements for reference.