Releasing

This document describes the process for releasing a new version of Electron.

Create a temporary branch

Create a new branch from master. Name it release or anything you like.

Note: If you are creating a backport release, you’ll check out 1-6-x, 1-7-x, etc instead of master.

git checkout master
git pull
git checkout -b release

This branch is created as a precaution to prevent any merged PRs from sneaking into a release between the time the temporary release branch is created and the CI builds are complete.

Check for extant drafts

The upload script looks for an existing draft release. To prevent your new release from clobbering an existing draft, check the releases page and make sure there are no drafts.

Bump the version

Run the bump-version script, passing major, minor, or patch as an argument:

npm run bump-version -- patch
git push origin HEAD

This will bump the version number in several files. See this bump commit for an example.

Most releases will be patch level. Upgrades to Chrome or other major changes should use minor. For more info, see electron-versioning.

Wait for builds

The presence of the word Bump in the commit message created by the bump-version script will trigger the release process.

To monitor the build progress, see the following pages:

• 208.52.191.140:8080/view/All/builds for Mac and Windows
• jenkins.githubapp.com/label/chromium/ for Linux

Compile release notes

Writing release notes is a good way to keep yourself busy while the builds are running. For prior art, see existing releases on the releases page.

Tips:

• Each listed item should reference a PR on electron/electron, not an issue, nor a PR from another repo like libcc.
• No need to use link markup when referencing PRs. Strings like #123 will automatically be converted to links on github.com.
• To see the version of Chromium, V8, and Node in every version of Electron, visit atom.io/download/electron/index.json.

Patch releases

For a patch release, use the following format:

## Bug Fixes

* Fixed a cross-platform thing. #123

### Linux

* Fixed a Linux thing. #123

### macOS

* Fixed a macOS thing. #123

### Windows

* Fixed a Windows thing. #1234

## API Changes

* Changed a thing. #123

### Linux

* Changed a Linux thing. #123

### macOS

* Changed a macOS thing. #123

### Windows

* Changed a Windows thing. #123

Minor releases

For a minor release (which is normally a Chromium update, and possibly also a Node update), e.g. 1.8.0, use this format:

**Note:** This is a beta release. This is the first release running on upgraded versions of Chrome/Node.js/V8 and most likely will have have some instability and/or regressions.

Please file new issues for any bugs you find in it.

This release is published to [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/electron) under the `beta` tag and can be installed via `npm install electron@beta`.

## Upgrades

- Upgraded from Chrome `oldVersion` to `newVersion`. #123
- Upgraded from Node `oldVersion` to `newVersion`. #123
- Upgraded from v8 `oldVersion` to `newVersion`. #9116

## Other Changes

- Some other change. #123

Edit the release draft

1. Visit the releases page and you’ll see a new draft release with placeholder release notes.
2. Edit the release and add release notes.
3. Ensure the prerelease checkbox is checked. This should happen automatically for Electron versions >=1.7
4. Click ‘Save draft’. Do not click ‘Publish release’!
5. Wait for all builds to pass before proceeding.

Merge temporary branch

Merge the temporary back into master, without creating a merge commit:

git merge release master --no-commit
git push origin master

If this fails, rebase with master and rebuild:

git pull
git checkout release
git rebase master
git push origin HEAD

Run local debug build

Run local debug build to verify that you are actually building the version you want. Sometimes you thought you were doing a release for a new version, but you’re actually not.

npm run build
npm start

Verify the window is displaying the current updated version.

Set environment variables

You’ll need to set the following environment variables to publish a release. Ask another team member for these credentials.

• ELECTRON_S3_BUCKET
• ELECTRON_S3_ACCESS_KEY
• ELECTRON_S3_SECRET_KEY
• ELECTRON_GITHUB_TOKEN - A personal access token with “repo” scope.

You will only need to do this once.

Publish the release

This script will download the binaries and generate the node headers and the .lib linker used on Windows by node-gyp to build native modules.

npm run release

Note: Many distributions of Python still ship with old HTTPS certificates. You may see a InsecureRequestWarning, but it can be disregarded.

Delete the temporary branch

git checkout master
git branch -D release # delete local branch
git push origin :release # delete remote branch

Promoting a release on npm

New releases are published to npm with the beta tag. Every release should eventually get promoted to stable unless there’s a good reason not to.

Releases are normally given around two weeks in the wild before being promoted. Before promoting a release, check to see if there are any bug reports against that version, e.g. issues labeled with version/1.7.x.

It’s also good to ask users in Slack if they’re using the beta versions successfully.

To see what’s beta and stable at any given time:

$ npm dist-tag ls electron  
beta: 1.7.5
latest: 1.6.11

To promote a beta version to stable (aka latest):

npm dist-tag add [email protected] latest