Development:Release process

This page describes the standard procedures for making Moodle releases.

For a stable release on an existing branch XX with point value Y

One week before:

1. Notify Moodle developers and Moodle Partners about the upcoming release
2. Freeze stable development and post in the General developer forum to inform everyone of the freeze
3. Review and complete the release notes of the upcoming version.
4. Test / QA etc

Release day: (exactly before the next integration cycle begins on Monday)

1. Make sure all the Unit tests pass!
2. Edit version.php, update name and version to new point release and commit in the integration repository
3. Run the mdlrelease process, that will do, for a release:
   • Tag the integration repository with a tag name vX.Y.Z using "MOODLE_XXY" as a tag message
   • push change to main git repo, github and Gitorious
   • sync CVS mirror (copy the version.php file and update githash.php to point to the release commit)
   • cvs tag -FR MOODLE_XXY to tag everything in the release
   • cvs tag -FR MOODLE_XX_WEEKLY to make the weekly version match the release
4. cvs -q update -dP all code on download server
5. Run moodle-makenightlystableXX
6. Go to download/stableXX
7. Copy current daily as release package:
   1. cp moodle-latest-XX.zip moodle-X.X.Y.zip
   2. cp moodle-latest-XX.tgz moodle-X.X.Y.tgz
8. Edit download index.php page with new release info and links
9. Run moodle-makewindowspackages so all the windows packages will be rebuilt
10. Edit download windows/index.php page with new release info (always keeping the "+")
11. Visit releases page on tracker and make the release, bumping all remaining open bugs to the next point release. This must be done both for the Moodle Project and the Non-core contributed modules project.
12. Add the release date to the release notes
13. Update the Latest release notes page
14. Add the new version to the Moodle version history page
15. Include the new versions in Moodle 1.8 release notes, Moodle 1.9 release notes and Moodle 2.0 release notes
16. Notify all registered sys admins
17. Create a new (blocker serious security issue!) META bug in the Tracker "META: Moodle XX.Y+1 and friends security bugs" to associate new/pending security bugs that will be fixed in the next release as subtasks. An example is MDL-20840 (for Moodle 1.9.7).
18. Create a new (blocker serious security issue!) task in the Tracker "Prepare security advisories for XX.Y+1 and friends" to define/edit/polish the security advisories in the next release. Link it with the previous one as "will be resolved by". An example is MDL-20722 (for Moodle 1.9.7).

One week later:

1. Update the version.php in git to be X.X.Y+ during the next weekly PULL process
2. Add all security advisories to Security news
3. Add all security issues to the release notes with links to security advisories
4. Update the Latest Release block on Moodle.org news
5. Post about the release in the moodle.org news
6. Create a new release notes page for the next version XX.Y+1 (here you can find one template for that)

See also

• Development:Stable branch support
• Development:Major release process
• MDLSITE-699: How to repackage one weekly at any moment (a.k.a. "emergency weekly").