@@ -53,6 +53,20 @@ At this stage, we consider the release to be "production ready" and ask will ask
At this stage, the release is "battle hardened" and ready for wide deployment.
## Release Cycle
A full release process should take about 3 weeks, a week per stage 1-3. We will start a new process every 6 weeks, regardless of when the previous release landed unless it's still ongoing.
## Patch Releases
Patch releases will usually follow a compressed release cycle and should take 2-3 days. In a patch release:
1. Internal testing will be compressed to a few hours to a day.
2. Stage 2 will be skipped.
3. Community production testing will be shortened to 1-2 days of opt-in testing in production (early testers can choose to pass).
Some patch releases, especially ones fixing one or more complex bugs, may undergo the full release process.
## Performing a Release
The release is managed by the `Lead Maintainer` for `go-ipfs`. It starts with the opening of an issue containing the content available on the [RELEASE_ISSUE_TEMPLATE](./RELEASE_ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md). Then, the 5 stages will be followed until the release is done.
