Zephyr 4.2 Release Checklist

[fabiobaltieri]

As soon as possible

• Ensure there is a draft doc/releases/release-notes-4.2.rst and doc/releases/migration-guide-4.2.rst with feature summary from the previous one and if not create one (previous doc: releases: add working draft release notes + guide for v3.7.0 #69418)
• Ensure the draft release_notes and migration guide for this release (4.2) are included in the toc (doc: releases: expose draft 4.2 release notes + migration guide in toc #86866)
• Ensure MAINTAINERS.yml "Release Notes"'s maintainers to point at the current release owners (MAINTAINERS: update Release Notes maintainers #88675)
• Set the current release managers as assignee's in this issue and ensure it is linked from the release plan.

From day one but with extra focus as we approach RC1 and after:

• Check the CI weekly run for build failures that should be fixed and report or fix them.
• Make sure the release plan is kept up to date (Release Plan)
• Ensure the release management page has an up-to-date schedule for the release

One month before RC1:

• Ping west project maintainers to remind them of the RC1/freeze deadline and to consider if their modules should be updated (you may want to extract all west projects' maintainers names from the MAINTAINERS files and create an issue like) (Notification to Zephyr west project maintainers & collaborators of Zephyr 4.2 feature freeze approaching #91788)
• Start giving heads ups on the TSC meeting about the incoming freeze.
• Check on the status for features to be deprecated as listed in Deprecated APIs/options to be removed by 4.2 #77070
• Ensure that the latest Zephyr SDK contains all the changes necessary to support the new features included in, or planned for this release; if not, ping the SDK maintainer (@stephanosio) to release a new SDK version.
  • Check if any toolchain-related enhancements and bug fixes are required for any of the pull requests targeting this release. If any of these enhancements and bug fixes are not part of the latest Zephyr SDK, a new SDK version must be released.
  • Check that the Picolibc sha in the latest SDK (check sdk-ng for the sha of the picolibc submodule for the current tag) matches the picolibc module revision in west.yml. If they do not match, a new SDK version must be released. (ping @stephanosio and @keith-packard )

Two weeks before RC1:

• Send a heads ups about the incoming freeze to dev-mailing list and Discord General channel

Pre RC1

• Create next release (v4.2.0) milestone so that features that don't make it to the release can be assigned a milestone
• Verify that all security-critical external components and external dependencies are up to date
  • (4.1) Zephyr 4.1 security related modules update overview #85522
  • (4.1) Zephyr 4.1 module update overview #85523
  • (4.2) Zephyr 4.2 module update overview #92149
• Check known vulnerabilities, and fix exploitable vulnerabilities or verify them as un-exploitable (ask Security working group).
• Make sure there's no pending "Release Blocker" issues
• Create a "Deprecated APIs/options to be removed by x.y" issue for 4.3 (N+3), linking to it from & to the 4.2 one (Deprecated APIs/options to be removed by 4.2 #77070) . Remember to set the deprecation_tracker label.

See https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/project/release_process.html#tagging for tagging details, release specific filters under https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/wiki/Filters to find pending PRs.

• Update Release Notes and Migration Guide
  • Be sure to remind maintainers to update the release notes, at the very least in the rc1, rc2 and rc3 emails.

After RC3, before final release

• Create backport v4.2-branch label, use it for fixes that are not bad enough to go in RC3
• Finalize Release Notes and Migration Guide: (previous: Misc clean-up Zephyr 3.7 release notes and migration guide #76113, 3.7 Release notes and migration guide 2nd polish pass #76295 )
  • Review doc/releases/release-notes-4.2.rst overview summary and details sections
• Add new version in doc/conf.py, doc/releases/index.rst, and doc/releases/eol_releases.rst (previous release: Zephyr v3.7.0 #76047)
• Remove EOL version(s) in doc/conf.py, doc/releases/index.rst, and doc/releases/eol_releases.rst : (previous: release: Zephyr v3.6.0 #69404) .
• Update doc/LICENSING.rst for new components that do not have a license: (previous: docs: licensing: update list of 3rd party code licensed under GPL #69392) (ping @nashif to check)
• Remaining Release Notes (previous 3.7 Release notes - pending areas #75933)
• Update version in VERSION (EXTRAVERSION must be empty, not zero 0) (previous release: Zephyr v3.7.0 #76047 )
• Tag v4.2.0 (see https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/project/release_process.html#tagging)
• Update and publish the draft GitHub release created by the CI.
• Tag v4.2.0 in example-application (previous: Create a v4.1.0 tagpoint example-application#80) and create github release from tag.

Directly After Tagging Release

• Update patchlevel in VERSION (PATCHLEVEL = 99) (e.g. release: Zephyr v3.7.99 #76334) and tag v4.2.99 (release: Zephyr v4.0.99 #81474)
• Create v4.2-branch branch for 4.2.x releases (from v4.2.0 tag, don't include the switch to patchlevel 99)
• Email devel@lists.zephyrproject.org & announce@lists.zephyrproject.org lists about release and announce the opening of the merge window
• Marketing Blog for announcing release (https://www.zephyrproject.org/blog / https://www.zephyrproject.org/announcements/)
• Post an update in https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/discussions under General, have one of our administrators move it to Announcements and pin it.
  • (4.0: Zephyr 4.0.0 is released! #81499)
• Post an announcement in discord in the #general & #release channels

After Release

• Move all PRs/Issues in the v4.2.0 milestone to the next milestone
• Close v4.2.0 milestone
• Create checklist issue for next release
• Add a comment to this issue linking to the next release checklist issue
• Update MAINTAINERS.yml "Release Notes" maintainers to point at the next release owners (MAINTAINERS: Update maintainer for release notes #81669)
• Update current and supported version information in the Security Policy. (github: Update security page for v4.0.0 release #81614)
• If you're a first time release manager, you may contact Tracey (or info@zephyrproject.org) to claim your Release Manager badge.
• Create draft doc/releases/release-notes-4.4.rst and doc/releases/migration-guide-4.4.rst with feature summary from the previous one (if not there already) doc: releases: add working draft release notes + guide for v4.0.0 #76344

Previous checklist: #81713