Rawhide release & package build

This guide describes how one create a new Anaconda release, from release commit to a new build in Koji. While aimed primarily on core Anaconda developers and package maintainers doing official release and package build, it could very well be useful for other use cases, such as for scratch builds or creation of custom Anaconda packages. In that case just ignore all section that require you to be an Anaconda maintainer or developer. :)

prerequisites

you need an up to date anaconda source code checkout
it is recommended to make the release on a fresh clone (prevents you from pushing local work into the upstream repository)
you need to have commit access to the anaconda repository (so that you can push release commits)
you need to have write access to the https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda-l10n localization repository
you need to have the rpmbuild or mock and fedpkg tools installed
you need to have the Fedora Kerberos based authentication setup
you need to have committer access to the anaconda package on Fedora distgit

The (mostly) automated build path

This is the default way of building the Anaconda package & should be used as long as the automation works. If the automation is not working, fall back to the manual method until it has been fixed.

The overall workflow can be summarized to 3 steps:

Anaconda release tarball build
Packit PR in Fedora distgit
start build in Fedora distgit

have an up to date Anaconda repo clone and master branch checked out
tag an Anaconda release:

./scripts/makebumpver -c

check the commit and tag are correct
push the master branch to the remote

git push master --tags

this should trigger a GitHub workflow that will create a new Anaconda release + release tarball, taking ~10 minutes
visit https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/releases and check the new draft release look correct
if the release looks fine, click the edit icon and release the draft as a regular non-draft release
this will trigger Packit to open a PR in Fedora distgit https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/anaconda/pull-requests in the next ~10 minutes
check the PR looks correct and ideally wait for all the CI jobs started on the PR to run to the end & investigate any failures
if all is good enough, merge the PR
use fedpkg to trigger the build (no, there is no button for this just yet…)

fedpkg clone anaconda
cd anaconda
fedpkg switch-branch rawhide
fedpkg build

if you already have a distgit checkout, you can do just:

fedpkg switch-branch rawhide
git pull
fedpkg build

this should start the package build in koji - wait for it to succeed or debug any failures

Using the manual `rpmbuild` path

This is more standard and stable way to make Anaconda release. The drawback of this method is you need to have everything installed locally so you are required to install a lot of dependencies to your system. For the mock environment way see mock path below. It is also fully manual.

do any changes that are needed to anaconda.spec.in

vim anaconda.spec.in

do a release commit

./scripts/makebumpver -c

check the commit and tag are correct
push the master branch to the remote

git push master --tags

configure anaconda

make clean
./autogen.sh
./configure

create tarball

make release

copy tarball to SOURCES

cp anaconda-*.tar.bz2 ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/

create SRPM

rpmbuild -bs --nodeps anaconda.spec

if you don’t have it yet checkout Anaconda from Fedora distgit, switch to the rawhide branch & make sure it’s up to date

cd <some folder>
fedpkg clone anaconda
cd anaconda
fedpkg switch-branch rawhide
git pull

switch to Fedora distgit folder and import the SRPM

fedpkg import ~/rpmbuild/SRPMS/anaconda-<version>.src.rpm

this will stage a commit, check it’s content and commit

Do not forget to replace the <new-version> with correct version!!

fedpkg commit --with-changelog --message "New version <new-version>"

push the update

fedpkg push

start the build

fedpkg build

check repository on path returned by the above command and push if it’s correct

Upcoming Fedora release & package build

Creating an anaconda release and build for an upcoming Fedora release is pretty similar to a Rawhide build with a few key differences:

the upstream project branch is named fedora-<version>
the distgit branch is named f<version>
you need to create a Bodhi update so that the build actually reaches the stable package repository

So let’s enumerate the steps that do something differently in more detail (we use Fedora 28 in the CLI examples):

if you don’t have it yet checkout Anaconda from Fedora distgit, switch to the f<version> branch & make sure it’s up to date

cd <some folder>
fedpkg clone anaconda
fedpkg switch-branch f28
git pull

As this is a build for a upcoming Fedora release we need to also submit a Bodhi update:

create a Bodhi update from the command line (from the distgit folder)

you can only do this once the Koji build finishes successfully
it’s also possible to create the update from the Bodhi web UI

fedpkg update

Next an update template should open in your editor of choice - fill it out, save it & quite the editor. A link to the update should be returned and you should also start getting regular spam from Bodhi when anything remotely interesting happens with the update. :)

Releasing during a Fedora code freeze

There are two generally multi-week phases during which the upcoming Fedora release development a temporary code freeze:

the Beta freeze
the Final freeze

During these periods of time only accepted freeze exceptions and blocker fixes are allowed to reach the stable repository.

So don’t merge any PRs to the fedora-<version> upstream branch during a Fedora freeze that don’t fix a freeze exception or a release blocker.

If there is a merged PR that has not been approved for a FE or release blocker, it should be reverted before the next Anaconda build targeting the frozen Fedora.

Branching for the next Fedora release

Anaconda uses separate branch for each Fedora release to make parallel Anaconda development for Rawhide and next Fedora release possible. The branch is named fedora-<version>.

The branch contains release commits and any changes suitable for the given branched Fedora version.

This might be both “regular” changes merged and released outside of a freeze period as well as approved Fedora freeze-exceptions and release blocker fixes.

Create new localization branch for Anaconda

First thing which needs to be done before branching in Anaconda is to create a new localization branch which will be used by the new Anaconda branch.

Start by cloning translation repository (ideally outside of Anaconda git) and enter this repository:

git clone git@github.com:rhinstaller/anaconda-l10n.git
cd anaconda-l10n

Create a new localization directory from master directory:

cp -r master fedora-<version>

Add the new folder to git:

git add fedora-<version>

Commit these changes:

git commit -m "Branch new Fedora <version> from master"

Push new localization directory. This will be automatically discovered and added by Weblate service:

git push origin

Enable Cockpit CI for the new branch

Anaconda is using the Cockpit CI infrastructure to run Web UI test. Cockpit CI tests are triggered automatically for all listed projects and per-project branches. To enable Cockpit CI in automatic mode for the new Fedora branch, our new fedora-<version> upstream branch needs to be added under the ‘rhinstaller/anaconda’ key in the file. The end result could look like this:

::

‘rhinstaller/anaconda’: {

‘master’: [: ‘fedora-35/rawhide’,

], ‘fedora-38’: [

‘fedora-38’,

], ‘_manual’: [ ]

},

Just fork the repo cockpit-project repo and submit the change to lib/testmap.py as a PR. In case something is not clear (such as what are the valid target strings - fedora-35/rawhide, fedora-36, etc.) reach out to the #cockpit IRC channel on libera.chat.

How to branch Anaconda

First make sure that localization branch for the next Fedora is already created.

Create the fedora-<version> upstream branch:

git checkout master
git pull
git checkout -b fedora-<version>

Edit branch specific settings:

vim .branch-variables.yml

And change content according to comments in the file.

Then rebuild everything that is templatized:

make -f Makefile.am reload-infra

This should set up infrastructure and some other parts like makefile variables and pykickstart version used.

Verify the changes and commit:

git commit -a -m "Set up the fedora-NN branch"

After doing this, please verify that Pykickstart supports Fedora <version> and <version + 1> if not, please file an issue on the Pykickstart project. The Pykickstart support for future release of Fedora will prevent issues during the next branching.

Check if everything is correctly set:

make check-branching

If everything works correctly you can push the branch to the origin (-u makes sure to setup tracking) :

git checkout fedora-<version>
git push -u origin fedora-<version>

After the branching is done, you also need to update infrastructure on the master branch. Switch to that branch:

git switch master

Edit branch specific settings:

vim .branch-variables.yml

In the file, set the correct branched Fedora version, then rebuild the files, check and commit. Expect changes only in Github workflows that generate containers etc. for multiple branches.

make -f Makefile.am reload-infra
git commit -a -m "infra: Configure for the new fedora-NN branch"

How to add release version for next Fedora

The current practise is to keep the Rawhide major & minor version from which the given Anaconda was branched as-is and add a third version number (the release number in the NVR nomenclature) and bump that when releasing a new Anaconda for the upcoming Fedora release.

For example, for the F27 branching:

the last Rawhide Anaconda release was 27.20
so the first F27 Anaconda release will be 27.20.1, the next 27.20.2 and so on

First checkout the fedora-<version> upstream branch:

git checkout fedora-<version>

Next add the third (release) version number:

./scripts/makebumpver -c --add-version-number

If everything looks fine (changelog, the version number & tag) push the changes to the origin:

git push origin fedora-<version> --tags

Then continue with the normal Upcoming Fedora Anaconda build process.

How to bump Rawhide Anaconda version

major version becomes major version +1
minor version is set to 1