Releasing Guide

To prepare an oCIS production release, you must follow a specific sequence of steps in the correct order.

New oCIS Version

Use these detailed copy/paste checklists for Jira when starting a new release.

  • The examples use the following versions which will need to be adapted for the planned release:

    • For Major and Minor versions: 8.2.0

    • For Patch releases: 8.2.1

  • The process differs slightly when creating a patch release only.

  • Changes applied to a stable-8.2 branch valid for documentation will be processed to the docs-stable-x.y branch automatically after merging.

Steps for Major or Minor Releases

  • A new production release is being prepared and the implementation of new features has finished in master.

  • web, reva and dependencies have already been bumped.

  • Translations

    • For oCIS, all required translations changes are included.

    • For Web, all translation changes have been applied and are part of the web version provided.

  • Only bug fixes to release candidates are allowed.

Overview

  1. Start the Releasing Process

  2. Start the Release Candidates Phase

  3. Prepare Release
    Integrate all RC changes and set the final version

  4. Sign-off the Releasing Process

  5. Release the new Version

  6. Postprocessing and Finalization
    Backport changes to master and create other required stable branches, update cronjobs and clean up

Details

https://doc.owncloud.com/ocis/releasing_guide/releasing_guide.html

* [ ] Start the Releasing Process
  * [ ] Create a `stable-8.2` branch based on current `master`
  * [ ] Inform documentation that the releasing process has started

* [ ] Start the Release Candidates Phase
  * [ ] Create a new feature branch based on `stable-8.2`
  * [ ] Move all changelog items from `unreleased` to `8.2.0-rc.1_2025-06-12`
  * [ ] Bump oCIS version in `ocis-pkg/version/version.go`
  * [ ] Bump oCIS version in `sonar-project.properties`
  * [ ] Create PR with `[full-ci][k6-test]` against `stable-8.2`
  * [ ] Get PR approved. **DO NOT MERGE YET**
  * [ ] Wait for pipeline to be green
  * [ ] Create tag: `git tag -s v8.2.0-rc.1 -m "Release 8.2.0-rc.1"`
  * [ ] Push tag: `git push origin v8.2.0-rc.1`
  * [ ] Watch the PR to see pipeline succeed (can be restarted)
  * [ ] Merge PR
  * [ ] Sync with DevOps and Product\
  Repeat process with `rc.2`,`rc.3`, ...
  * [ ] All required translations from oCIS are included
  * [ ] All issues are fixed, RC phase has finished

* [ ] Prepare Release
  * [ ] Create a new feature branch based on `stable-8.2`
  * [ ] Move all changelog items from `8.2.0-rc.*` to `8.2.0_2025-04-01`
  * [ ] Bump oCIS version in `ocis-pkg/version/version.go`
  * [ ] Bump oCIS version in `sonar-project.properties`
  * [ ] Create PR with `[full-ci][k6-test]` against `stable-8.2`
  * [ ] Mark PR as **Draft** to avoid accidentially merging
  * [ ] Get PR approved. **DO NOT MERGE YET**\
  Info: merging will be done in step *Release the new Version*
  * [ ] Wait for pipeline to be green

* [ ] Get new Release Sign-off (jira)
  * [ ] **EITHER (preferred):** Find someone who wants the release more than you do, and have them sign-off
  * [ ] **OR (not recommended):** Have the appropriate people sign the *release sign-off* document

* [ ] Release the new Version
  * [ ] Create tag: `git tag -s v8.2.0 -m "Release 8.2.0"`\
  Note the tag name scheme is important
  * [ ] Push tag: `git push origin v8.2.0`
  * [ ] Watch the PR to see pipeline succeed (can be restarted)
  * [ ] Smoke test docker image `owncloud/ocis@v8.2.0`
    * [ ] Choose any docker-compose example from oCIS repository
    * [ ] Export `OCIS_DOCKER_IMAGE=owncloud/ocis`
    * [ ] Export `OCIS_DOCKER_TAG=8.2.0`
    * [ ] `docker compose up -d`
    * [ ] Confirm oCIS version in browser and start the `upload-download-awesome` test
  * [ ] Remove the **Draft** state and Merge PR\
  This is the PR from step *Prepare Release*
    * [ ] Delete the feature branch
  * [ ] Announce release in *Teams channel: oCIS*

* [ ] Postprocessing and Finalization
  * [ ] Backport `stable-8.2` to the master branch
  * [ ] Create a `docs-stable-8.2` branch
    * [ ] Create orphan branch: `git checkout --orphan docs-stable-8.2`
    * [ ] Initial commit: `git commit --allow-empty -m "initial commit"`
    * [ ] Push it: `git push`
  * [ ] Add `stable-8.2` to the nightly cron jobs in drone (`Settings` -> `Cron Jobs`)

Steps for Patch Releases Only

  • A patch branch is prepared, based off the appropriate stable branch, and contains all the changes including web, reva and dependencies bumps. The patch branch is merged into the corresponding stable branch. No release candidates are used because the changes are known.

  • Translations

    • For oCIS, all required translations changes are included.

    • For Web, all translation changes have been applied and are part of the web version provided.

  • Only bug fixes to the patch branch are allowed.

Overview

  1. Prepare Release
    Integrate all patches and set the final version

  2. Sign-off the Releasing Process

  3. Release the new Version

  4. Check Forward Porting to Master

Details

https://doc.owncloud.com/ocis/releasing_guide/releasing_guide.html

* [ ] Prepare Release
  * [ ] Create a new feature branch based on `stable-8.2`
  * [ ] Move all changelog items from `unreleased` to `8.2.1_2026-07-01`
  * [ ] Bump oCIS version in `ocis-pkg/version/version.go`
  * [ ] Bump oCIS version in `sonar-project.properties`
  * [ ] Create PR with `[full-ci][k6-test]` against `stable-8.2`
  * [ ] Mark PR as **Draft** to avoid accidentially merging
  * [ ] Get PR approved **requires 2 approvals**, **DO NOT MERGE YET**\
  Info: merging will be done in step *Release the new Version*
  * [ ] Wait for pipeline to be green

* [ ] Get new Release Sign-off (confluence)
  * [ ] **EITHER (preferred):** Find someone who wants the release more than you do, and have them sign-off
  * [ ] **OR (not recommended):** Have the appropriate people sign the *release sign-off* document

* [ ] Release the new Version
  * [ ] Create tag: `git tag -s v8.2.1 -m "Release 8.2.1"`\
  Note the tag name scheme is important
  * [ ] Push tag: `git push origin v8.2.1`
  * [ ] Watch the PR to see pipeline succeed (can be restarted)
  * [ ] Smoke test docker image `owncloud/ocis@v8.2.1`
    * [ ] Choose any docker-compose example from ocis repository
    * [ ] Export `OCIS_DOCKER_IMAGE=owncloud/ocis`
    * [ ] Export `OCIS_DOCKER_TAG=8.2.1`
    * [ ] `docker compose up -d`
    * [ ] Confirm oCIS version in browser and start the `upload-download-awesome` test
  * [ ] Remove the **Draft** state and Merge PR\
  This is the PR from step *Prepare Release*
    * [ ] Delete the feature branch
  * [ ] Announce release in *Teams channel: oCIS*

* [ ] Check if Forward Porting to Master is Required

Envvar Changes

Follow the Release Process for Envvars documentation to update the required environment variable data. These changes must be present in the appropriate stable-8.2 branch and should be applied to the respective feature branch during the development cycle. This avoids manually backporting to stable-8.2 but may be required if changes go to master instead. Changes to envvars are typically found in the docs folder.

The admin docs processes access the data via the branch name, not the tag set. Therefore, any changes applied to the stable branch are accessible to the documentation process without the need of a new version.

Prepare Admin Docs

The admin documentation must be prepared for the new release.

Note that this section is only informational for oCIS developers and is done by the documentation team. This is why they need to be informed in a timely manner.

* [ ] Create _overview release notes_ in the `ROOT` module of the `main` component\
in the `docs.owncloud.com` repo based on the changelog\
The source is most likely the unreleased folder during the development cycle
* [ ] For Major and Minor versions:
  * [ ] Add all _documentation changes_ including the upgrade guide in the `docs-ocis` repo in master
  * [ ] Create a new release branch in the `docs-ocis` repo based off master
  * [ ] _Update oCIS branches and versions_ in the `docs` repo
* [ ] For Patch releases:
  * [ ] _Update oCIS versions_ in the `docs` repo