= Introduction = 

This page outlines the release process for OpenVPN 2.x. It also works as a release checklist.

= External systems involved =

* Community Release build infrastructure
* The openvpn.net staging website
* The openvpn.net production website

= Build tools =

== openvpn-build == 

The scripts used during the various builds are maintained in [https://github.com/OpenVPN/openvpn-build openvpn-build].

Overview of the various sub-directories:

* '''release''' contains scripts to prepare the source tarballs and tag the git repositories. It also has scripts to orchestrate the other parts of the build.
* '''debian-sbuild''' contains scripts to build Debian packages for all supported distributions.
* '''windows-msi''' contains scripts to build Windows MSI installers.

= Pre-release checklist =

== Notifying external entities ==

=== OpenVPN Inc website team ===

The OpenVPN Inc. website team makes weekly website releases. Any changes to the website should be made to the staging web server first, then released in production. In case of emergency releases an off the cycle website release can be made, but that needs to be coordinated with the website team.

Note that we now maintain our own wiki:Downloads page in Trac to avoid a dependency on the website team for small releases.

=== OpenVPN Inc marketing ===

OpenVPN Inc. marketing people should be notified 7 days prior to ''a new major release'' is about to be released. At minimum, allow for 48 hours.

=== Access Server team ===

OpenVPN Inc. Access server team should be notified prior to a release that affects the Access Server. This means primarily ''releases with security fixes''.

=== Package maintainers ===

Downstream package maintainers (Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat, etc) should be notified about ''releases with major security fixes''. This is easiest to do via the [https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security oss-security mailing list].

= Release process =

== Sync repositories ==

Merge pull requests and rebase your local clones for repositories affected by the release:

* tap-windows6
* openvpnserv2
* openvpn-build
* openvpn-gui

== Prepare dependencies ==

* tap-windows6
    * Build
    * Cross-sign for Windows 7 (Note: This is not supported by Microsoft anymore)
    * Produce signed CAB files for attestation signing
    * Send CABs to Microsoft signing services
    * Wait 15-30 minutes
    * Download signed driver files
    * Copy signed driver files to tap-windows6 building/signing computer
    * Produce MSM packages
* openvpnserv2
    * Build
    * Put new version to build.openvpn.net
    * Put GPG signature (ASC file) to build.openvpn.net
* openvpn-build
    * Update git submodules under '''src'''
    * Update configuration under '''release'''

== Package ==

* openvpn-build
    * Make sure community release build machines are up and running
    * Run '''release/full-release-build.sh'''
       * This uploads source tarball to build.openvpn.net
       * Builds Debian packages with '''debian-sbuild'''
       * Build Windows installers with '''windows-msi'''

== Smoketest packages ==

* Windows installer
* Debian packages

== Update online documentation ==

* Copy generated changelog to Trac wiki (currently [[ChangesInOpenvpn26]])
* Copy generated man-page to build.openvpn.net (currently https://build.openvpn.net/man/openvpn-2.6/openvpn.8.html)

== Publish packages ==

All openvpn.net website changes have to go through the usual website release process (staging -> production). This means that package publishing should generally happen at the same time as website releases.

The package release process is the following:

* Push Debian packages to the freight apt repository on build.openvpn.net with [https://github.com/OpenVPN/sbuild_wrapper/blob/master/scripts/freight-add-many.py freight-add-many.py]
* Copy release files to build.openvpn.net
* Copy release files to swupdate S3 bucket (AWS CLI or AWS Console)
* Update community downloads page wiki:Downloads
* Update links to latest release from Puppet

= Release announcements =

Release announcements should be sent once packages have been published and the openvpn.net website updated:

* Mailing lists (attach changelog)
* Forums
* Add security announcement to Trac (as needed)
* Notify Windows package maintainers ([https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/pull/95836#issuecomment-1434205757 winget], [https://github.com/dgalbraith/chocolatey-packages/issues/452#issuecomment-1434223069 chocolatey])

== After release ==

Tag release and push tags to Git for all repositories that changed:

* tap-windows6 (when needed)
* openvpnserv2 (when needed) 
* openvpn-gui
* openvpn-build

= Misc =

* In openvpn-build/windows-msi use PRODUCT_VERSION 2.5.0xx for release/2.5 and 2.5.1xx for release/2.6+. This ensures smooth upgrades.
* Remove !GitHub tokens if you pushed to Git from the Windows signing computer