Release notes

Introduction

Masakari uses the following release notes sections:

• features — for new features or functionality; these should ideally refer to the blueprint being implemented;

• fixes — for fixes closing bugs; these must refer to the bug being closed;

• upgrade — for notes relevant when upgrading from the previous version; these should ideally be added only between major versions; required when the proposed change affects behaviour in a non-backwards-compatible way or generally changes something impactful;

• deprecations — to track deprecated features; relevant changes may consist of only the commit message and the release note;

• prelude — filled in by the PTL before each release or RC.

Other release note types may be applied per common sense. Each change should include a release note unless being a TrivialFix change or affecting only docs or CI. Such changes should not include a release note to avoid confusion. Remember release notes are mostly for end users which, in case of Masakari, are OpenStack administrators/operators as well as cloud users. In case of doubt, the core team will let you know what is required.

To add a release note, run the following command:

tox -e venv -- reno new <summary-line-with-dashes>

All release notes can be inspected by browsing releasenotes/notes directory. Further on this page we show reno templates, examples and how to make use of them.

Note

The term release note is often abbreviated to reno as it is the name of the tool that is used to manage the release notes.

To generate renos in HTML format in releasenotes/build, run:

tox -e releasenotes

Note this requires the release note to be tracked by git so you have to at least add it to the git’s staging area.

The release notes are linted in the CI system. To lint locally, run:

tox -e doc8

The above lints all of documentation at once.

Templates and examples

All approved release notes end up being published on a dedicated site:

https://docs.openstack.org/releasenotes/masakari/

When looking for examples, it is advised to consider browsing the page above for a similar type of change and then comparing with their source representation in releasenotes/notes.

The sections below give further guidelines. Please try to follow them but note they are not set in stone and sometimes a different wording might be more appropriate. In case of doubt, the core team will be happy to help.

Features

Template

---
features:
  - |
    Implements [some feature].
    [Can be described using multiple sentences if necessary.]
    [Limitations worth mentioning can be included as well.]
    `Blueprint [blueprint id] <https://blueprints.launchpad.net/masakari/+spec/[blueprint id]>`__

Note

The blueprint can be mentioned even if the change implements it only partially. This can be emphasised by preceding the Blueprint word by Partial. See the example below.

Example

Implementing blueprint with id proactive-failure-detectors, we use reno to generate the scaffolded file:

tox -e venv -- reno new --from-template releasenotes/templates/feature.yml blueprint-proactive-failure-detectors

Note

Since we don’t require blueprints for simple features, it is allowed to make up a blueprint-id-friendly string (like in the example here) ad-hoc for the proposed feature. Please then skip the blueprint- prefix to avoid confusion.

And then fill it out with the following content:

---
features:
  - |
    Implements support for a future generation of proactive failure detectors.
    However, please note we don't support alternative time streams yet.
    `Partial Blueprint proactive-failure-detectors <https://blueprints.launchpad.net/masakari/+spec/proactive-failure-detectors>`__

Note

The example above shows how to introduce a limitation. The limitation may be lifted in the same release cycle and it is OK to mention it nonetheless. Release notes can be edited later as long as they have not been shipped in an existing release or release candidate.

Fixes

Template

---
fixes:
  - |
    Fixes [some bug].
    [Can be described using multiple sentences if necessary.]
    [Possibly also giving the previous behaviour description.]
    `LP#[bug number] <https://launchpad.net/bugs/[bug number]>`__

Example

Fixing bug number 1234567890, we use reno to generate the scaffolded file:

tox -e venv -- reno new --from-template releasenotes/templates/fix.yml bug-1234567890

And then fill it out with the following content:

---
fixes:
  - |
    Fixes everything. RLY
    `LP#1234567890 <https://launchpad.net/bugs/1234567890>`__