Release Checklist

The following instructions describe how to cut a new release of Prometheus when the release version is the HEAD of the master branch. The process for cutting bugfix releases based off the latest stable release (non-HEAD) is not clearly defined yet.

1. Consider updating all or some of the vendored dependencies before the release. Make sure that https://github.com/prometheus/client_golang is vendored at a release version.

2. Create a PR that updates the CHANGELOG.md along with the version/VERSION file and get it merged.

3. Tag the new release and push the tag to GitHub:

   git tag $(cat version/VERSION)
   git push --tags

4. Head to https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases and create a new release for the pushed tag.

5. Attach the relevant changelog excerpt to the release on GitHub.

6. Build linux-amd64, linux-386, and darwin-amd64 binaries, pack them into tarballs, and attach them to the release. Please note that this needs manual care for now, see issue #1265. The following shell commands give you an idea about the necessary steps:

   export GOOS=linux # or darwin
   export GOARCH=amd64 # or 386
   make build
   tar --transform "s,^,prometheus-$(cat version/VERSION).$GOOS-$GOARCH/,S" -czf prometheus-$(cat version/VERSION).$GOOS-$GOARCH.tar.gz prometheus promtool consoles console_libraries

7. Update the stable branch to point to the new release (to tag the latest release image on https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/prom/prometheus/):

   git branch -f stable <new-release-tag>
   git push origin stable

8. Head to https://hub.docker.com/r/prom/prometheus/~/settings/automated-builds/ and create a automated build associations for the new tag. Then, click "Trigger a build". Note that multiple tags on the Docker hub will need updating, depending on whether it's a patch/minor/major release. Update the <major-version> tag name to point to the new release with that major version. Similarly, update the <major-version>.<minor-version> tag. Finally, add a new tag for the full new release version.

9. Merge any release-specific documentation changes in https://github.com/prometheus/docs (changes that are only applicable to the next release should be kept in a next-release branch there).

10. Announce the release on the mailing list and on Twitter.