How to create a service release

• Fetch maintainer scripts from https://git.openwrt.org/maintainer-tools.git
• Ensure that GPG and usign keys are published and working according to https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/security/keygen

• Fetch pristine source tree, best do a new local clone, e.g.

  git clone git@git.openwrt.org:openwrt/openwrt.git
  git checkout openwrt-24.10

  • Replace branch name with appropriate one
• Place maketag.sh script from maintainer repo into the clone
• Execute ./maketag.sh -k 818021EBB6C9ECDA -v 24.10.0
  • Replace key ID and version number with appropriate values
• Review auto generated commits with git log -p -2
  • Should show one setting adjustment and one setting revert commit
• Review auto generated tag with git show v24.10.0
  • Should show a git tag with associated GPG info and commit references
  • Replace version number accordingly
• Compare the files changed automatically with a previous tag
  • git diff v24.10.0-rc7 v24.10.0 -- feeds.conf.default include/version.mk package/base-files/image-config.in version version.date
• Check the signature on the tag with git verify-tag -v v24.10.0
  • Should show “Good signature from <your name>
• Push auto generated commits and tag to the remote:

  git push origin openwrt-24.10
  git push --follow-tags origin refs/tags/v24.10.0:refs/tags/v24.10.0

  • Replace version numbers and branch name accordingly
  • Review https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=tags

• Log into https://buildbot.openwrt.org/images/#/builders/119
  • Use credentials provided by admin
• Open the “Builds → Builders” page
  • Select 00_force_build builder
  • Click on Force builds button at the top of the page
• Fill out the form
  • Enter your name at Your name input box
  • Enter for example “Trigger release builds” as reason
  • Select Git tag you want to build from Build tag list
  • Click “Force Build”
• Review buildbot activity in waterfall view

• If this is the first build on a new branch, then updates to the ASU server config must be made as follows. (If this is a release candidate or maintenance release on an existing branch, just skip down to the “Every release build” section.)
  1. Find the commit for the branch:
     

     $ git log --oneline ^main origin/openwrt-25.12 | grep 'set branch defaults'
     12316d0280c5 OpenWrt v25.12: set branch defaults

  2. Convert the branch to the OpenWrt rev number:
     

     $ scripts/getver.sh 12316d0280c5
     r32295+1-c25265953b9c

  3. Add the branch-name:rev-number entry to the ASU config, should be somewhere around:
     https://github.com/openwrt/asu/blob/main/asu/config.py#L86
     

     ...
             },
             "25.12": release(32295),
             "24.10": release(27990),
             "23.05": release(23069),

• In order for the ASU system to function properly, there are three metadata files that are re-generated correspond to the result of the build. Once the waterfall shows all builds as complete, look at:
  1. https://downloads.openwrt.org/.versions.json - Verify that the stable_version, oldstable_version and upcoming_version are correct; upcoming_version should be what was just built (24.10.0-rc3) for all RC builds, but blank for all maintenance releases. The topmost value in the version_list should be the just-completed build. This file is used by the ASU server to construct its branches and versions in https://sysupgrade.openwrt.org/json/v1/overview.json.
  2. https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/24.10.5/.overview.json - Must exist and is expected to contain ~1850 profiles. This file is used by Firmware Selector, so any missing entries in the json will be reflected there when you try to select the device.
  3. https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/24.10.5/.targets.json - Must exist and is expected to contain ~90 target/subtarget pairs mapping to their architecture. These files are used to flesh out ASU's https://sysupgrade.openwrt.org/json/v1/overview.json.
• The docker images for each imagebuilder must be built. Look at https://github.com/openwrt/docker/actions/workflows/containers.yml and see if they are running.
• For the 24.10.4 release, the docker image build was forced manually. The results looked like this as an example of what to expect: https://github.com/openwrt/docker/actions/runs/17896066567

• Copy make-changelog.pl from maintainer repo into the local clone
  • The script needs the perl module JSON.pm, install libjson-perl and libtext-csv-perl on Debian
• Execute ./make-changelog.pl v24.10.0..v24.10.1
  • Replace version numbers accordingly
  • Revision range should cover all commits since last release
  • Suggest to redirect stdout to a file
• Copy resulting change log into https://openwrt.org/releases/24.10/changelog-24.10.0
  • Replace base and minor versions accordingly
  • Take care to preserve the first introductory paragraph in the wiki pages
  • Ideally use a prior change log page as template

• Once the release builds are finished and uploaded to https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/24.10.0/targets/ ...
• ... head to release series parent page at https://openwrt.org/releases/24.10/start
  • Replace base version accordingly if needed
• Update timeline and latest version number, links etc. to point to the latest release
• Start preparing release notes at https://openwrt.org/releases/24.10/notes-24.10.0
  • Replace version accordingly
  • Mention most important changes since last release
  • Use old release note pages as template
  • Good technique is to skim through detailed change log and taking note of outstanding commits or series of commits
  • Add redirect for ToH toh_maintenance

See Update ToH to new release

• Write an announcement to the mailing lists
  • Use http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/openwrt-devel/2017-October/009401.html as template
• Write an announcement in the forum
  • All forum users in the developer, moderator or admin group can create new topics in this forum category
  • Use https://forum.openwrt.org/t/lede-v17-01-4-service-release/7573 as template
  • “Pin” the topic for 4-8 weeks
• Update references to the most recent release on the following services:
  • Update IRC channel topics (ping rmilecki)
  • Update https://sysupgrade.openwrt.org/ (ping aparcar)
  • Update https://downloads.openwrt.org page (ping jow)