doc: Add note on deleting past-EOL release branches #23323

MarcoFalke commented at 11:01 AM on October 20, 2021: member

This is being done for years now, but wasn't documented.

Some reasons to do it:

Backports to those branches are unlikely to be tested both on CI (since it is often fragile and broken for stale branches) and by users (since those users likely don't exist). If a user exists, they are better off backporting any fixes they need from the last still-supported branch and test them on their own infrastructure.
Community support of those branches is still possible, though this will need to be done in another project to relieve the burden on this project.
All release tags will remain, so no historic code is lost.

DrahtBot added the label Docs on Oct 20, 2021

in doc/release-process.md:256 in fa14e2cd2d outdated

 252 | @@ -253,6 +253,8 @@ cat "$VERSION"/*/all.SHA256SUMS.asc > SHA256SUMS.asc
 253 |    - bitcoincore.org maintained versions update:
 254 |      [table](https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoincore.org/commits/master/_includes/posts/maintenance-table.md)
 255 |  
 256 | +  - Delete past-EOL [release branches](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/branches/all).

laanwj commented at 12:46 PM on October 20, 2021:

I'd say "For each branch to be deleted, first, make a -final tag to record the final commit of the branch, e.g. v23.0-final." (I think this is good to do for archival purposes, could make this conditional on there being commits that aren't on a release or -rc tag, but i don't think there's any hurt in doing it always)

MarcoFalke commented at 1:32 PM on October 20, 2021:

Added. That'd be v23.x-final, tough.

laanwj commented at 3:02 PM on October 20, 2021:

Agreed, sorry

laanwj commented at 12:56 PM on October 20, 2021: member

Concept ACK

MarcoFalke force-pushed on Oct 20, 2021

in doc/release-process.md:260 in fafc44d08b outdated

 252 | @@ -253,6 +253,8 @@ cat "$VERSION"/*/all.SHA256SUMS.asc > SHA256SUMS.asc
 253 |    - bitcoincore.org maintained versions update:
 254 |      [table](https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoincore.org/commits/master/_includes/posts/maintenance-table.md)
 255 |  
 256 | +  - Delete past-EOL [release branches](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/branches/all) and create a tag `v${branch_name}-final`.
 257 | +
 258 |    - bitcoincore.org RPC documentation update

laanwj commented at 2:41 PM on October 20, 2021:

We might also want to add a comment about removing (Needs backport to …) labels.

MarcoFalke commented at 3:53 PM on October 20, 2021:

Done

fanquake commented at 1:29 AM on October 21, 2021:

Yea ensuring the old ones are deleted, and not renamed (which iirc happened once in the past) is important, otherwise it's all sorts of confusing.

MarcoFalke force-pushed on Oct 20, 2021

in doc/release-process.md:258 in fa68489ab1 outdated

 252 | @@ -253,6 +253,10 @@ cat "$VERSION"/*/all.SHA256SUMS.asc > SHA256SUMS.asc
 253 |    - bitcoincore.org maintained versions update:
 254 |      [table](https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoincore.org/commits/master/_includes/posts/maintenance-table.md)
 255 |  
 256 | +  - Delete past-EOL [release branches](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/branches/all) and create a tag `v${branch_name}-final`.
 257 | +
 258 | +  - Delete [Needs Backport labels](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/labels?q=backport) for non-existing branches.

jonatack commented at 4:24 PM on October 20, 2021:

s/Backport/backport/ and maybe enclose in quotes (or code markup)

MarcoFalke commented at 4:46 PM on October 20, 2021:

fixed

in doc/release-process.md:256 in fa68489ab1 outdated

 252 | @@ -253,6 +253,10 @@ cat "$VERSION"/*/all.SHA256SUMS.asc > SHA256SUMS.asc
 253 |    - bitcoincore.org maintained versions update:
 254 |      [table](https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoincore.org/commits/master/_includes/posts/maintenance-table.md)
 255 |  
 256 | +  - Delete past-EOL [release branches](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/branches/all) and create a tag `v${branch_name}-final`.

jonatack commented at 4:25 PM on October 20, 2021:

  - Delete post-EOL [release branches](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/branches/all) and create a tag `v${branch_name}-final`.

MarcoFalke commented at 4:46 PM on October 20, 2021:

fixed

jonatack commented at 4:28 PM on October 20, 2021: member

ACK fa68489ab16a2618d906beff5ecaa598d6faface

doc: Add note on deleting past-EOL release branches fa38d98aa9

MarcoFalke force-pushed on Oct 20, 2021

hebasto commented at 7:42 PM on October 20, 2021: member

Concept ACK.

in doc/release-process.md:256 in fa38d98aa9

 252 | @@ -253,6 +253,10 @@ cat "$VERSION"/*/all.SHA256SUMS.asc > SHA256SUMS.asc
 253 |    - bitcoincore.org maintained versions update:
 254 |      [table](https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoincore.org/commits/master/_includes/posts/maintenance-table.md)
 255 |  
 256 | +  - Delete post-EOL [release branches](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/branches/all) and create a tag `v${branch_name}-final`.

hebasto commented at 7:47 PM on October 20, 2021:

Shouldn't "delete a branch" and "create a tag" actions be re-ordered?

laanwj commented at 2:43 PM on October 21, 2021:

Removing the tag is something you do on github, creating the tag is something you do locally (to be able to sign it), so assuming you have the branch locally I don't think there's really a conflict in the order. But yeah.

MarcoFalke commented at 2:46 PM on October 21, 2021:

Leaving as is for now. Might or might not fix on the next push.

hebasto commented at 7:47 PM on October 20, 2021: member

ACK fa38d98aa98bcf34b5b59ff894bbb5da67355b29

fanquake commented at 1:30 AM on October 21, 2021: member

Concept ACK

fanquake approved

fanquake commented at 2:21 AM on October 22, 2021: member

ACK fa38d98aa98bcf34b5b59ff894bbb5da67355b29 - I think this is fine as-is.

MarcoFalke merged this on Oct 22, 2021

MarcoFalke closed this on Oct 22, 2021

MarcoFalke deleted the branch on Oct 22, 2021

sidhujag referenced this in commit f2cb1d5a61 on Oct 22, 2021

DrahtBot locked this on Oct 30, 2022