Release 8.4

13th: (7 working days before the 22nd)

• Triage the Omnibus milestone

14th: (6 working days before the 22nd)

• Determine QA person and notify this person
• Follow the Creating RC1 guide:
  • Update the "Installation from Source" guide
  • Create the Update guides
  • Merge CE master into EE master via merge request
  • Tag the RC1 version
• Build RC1 packages

15th: (5 working days before the 22nd)

• Do QA and fix anything coming out of it (gitlab-org/gitlab-ce#10442)
• Close the Omnibus milestone
• Prepare the blog post

18th: (4 working days before the 22nd)

• Update GitLab.com with RC1

• Create the regression issue in the CE issue tracker

• Tweet about RC1 release:

  GitLab 8.4.0-rc1 is available: https://packages.gitlab.com/gitlab/unstable
  Use at your own risk. Please link regressions issues from
  LINK_TO_REGRESSION_ISSUE

19th: (3 working days before the 22nd)

• Merge 8-4-stable into 8-4-stable-ee

• Check that everyone is mentioned on the blog post using @all:

  Hello @all, this is the monthly release post that will go out on the 22nd,
  announcing the new GitLab version. Look through it to see if we can make any
  changes and feel free to comment with suggestions or questions!

20th: (2 working days before the 22nd)

• Check that MVP is added to the MVP page

21st: (1 working day before the 22nd)

• Merge 8-4-stable into 8-4-stable-ee
• Create CE and EE release candidates
• Create Omnibus tags and build packages for the latest release candidates
• Update GitLab.com with the latest RC

22nd before 1200 CET:

Release before 1200 CET / 2AM PST, to make sure the majority of our users get the new version on the 22nd and there is sufficient time in the European workday to quickly fix any issues.

• Merge 8-4-stable into 8-4-stable-ee
• Create the '8.4.0' tag with the release tools
• Try to do before 1100 CET: Create and push Omnibus tags for 8.4.0 (will auto-release the packages)
• Try to do before 1200 CET: Publish the release blog post
• Create the '8.4.0' version on version.gitlab.com
• Tweet about the release
• Schedule a second Tweet of the release announcement with the same text at 1800 CET / 8AM PST

mentioned in issue #6053 (closed)

cc @JobV @marin @yorickpeterse @sytses @jacobvosmaer

Marked the task Triage the [Omnibus milestone] as completed

@kelvinmutuma will you do QA again?

@JobV Yeah I will.

Marked the task Determine QA person and notify this person as completed

Marked the task Update the "Installation from Source" guide as completed

Marked the task Create the Update guides as completed

Marked the task Merge CE master into EE master via merge request as completed

Marked the task Tag the RC1 version as completed

Found an issue with markdown rendering for numbered lists gitlab-org/gitlab-ce#7960

Marked the task Build RC1 packages as completed

Marked the task Update GitLab.com with RC1 as completed

Marked the task Tweet about RC1 release: as completed

@kelvinmutuma I'm going to build an RC2 package tonight (EST) for deploying tomorrow morning (CET), so we should use that for QA.

Nope, too many merge conflicts. Probably best to use RC1.

@kelvinmutuma Did QA happen?

@marin RC2 is tagged, please package and deploy in the morning.

@rspeicher Yes. But later than it should have. Sorry for the delay. Will not happen again

@rspeicher tagged, shipped and deployed.

Marked the task Do QA and fix anything coming out of it (gitlab-org/gitlab-ce#10442) as completed

Marked the task Prepare the [blog post] as completed

Marked the task Merge 8-4-stable into 8-4-stable-ee as completed

Marked the task Check that everyone is mentioned on the [blog post] using @all: as completed

Marked the task Check that MVP is added to the [MVP page] as completed

@rspeicher https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/merge_requests/127 I created an MR with elastic to stable.

Marked the task Merge 8-4-stable into 8-4-stable-ee as completed

Marked the task Create CE and EE release candidates as completed

Marked the task Create Omnibus tags and build packages for the latest release candidates as completed

Marked the task Update GitLab.com with the latest RC as completed

Marked the task Merge 8-4-stable into 8-4-stable-ee as completed

Over to you, @marin. Branches are synced and updated.

If you're feeling magnanimous, you can ask if anyone has any last-minute merges to be included in 8.4, but I think I got everything. It's likely we're going to need a patch release soon after release, maybe same-day, but I'll deal with that in the PST afternoon.

Please complete the remaining tasks for the 22nd. @JobV is finishing up the blog post.

@marin: You can probably ping @nearlythere to handle the Tweets if you want.

Marked the task Create the '8.4.0' tag with the [release tools] as completed

Marked the task Try to do before 1100 CET: Create and push Omnibus tags for 8.4.0 (will auto-release the packages) as completed

Marked the task Try to do before 1200 CET: Publish the release [blog post] as completed

Marked the task Create the '8.4.0' version on version.gitlab.com as completed

Marked the task Tweet about the release as completed

Marked the task Schedule a second Tweet of the release announcement with the same text at 1800 CET / 8AM PST as completed

@rspeicher All done! I have to say that the new release tool works like magic!

Status changed to closed

@marin Awesome!

Thanks everyone for your help, as usual.