PEP: 101 Title: Doing Python Releases 101 Author: Barry Warsaw
<barry@python.org>, Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> Status: Active
Type: Informational Created: 22-Aug-2001 Post-History: Replaces: 102

Abstract

Making a Python release is a thrilling and crazy process. You've heard
the expression "herding cats"? Imagine trying to also saddle those
purring little creatures up, and ride them into town, with some of their
buddies firmly attached to your bare back, anchored by newly sharpened
claws. At least they're cute, you remind yourself.

Actually, no, that's a slight exaggeration 😉 The Python release process
has steadily improved over the years and now, with the help of our
amazing community, is really not too difficult. This PEP attempts to
collect, in one place, all the steps needed to make a Python release.
Most of the steps are now automated or guided by automation, so manually
following this list is no longer necessary.

Things You'll Need

As a release manager there are a lot of resources you'll need to access.
Here's a hopefully-complete list.

-   A GPG key.

    Python releases are digitally signed with GPG; you'll need a key,
    which hopefully will be on the "web of trust" with at least one of
    the other release managers.

-   A bunch of software:

    -   A checkout of the python/release-tools repo. It contains a
        requirements.txt file that you need to install dependencies from
        first. Afterwards, you can fire up scripts in the repo, covered
        later in this PEP.
    -   blurb, the Misc/NEWS management tool. You can pip install it.

-   Access to servers where you will upload files:

    -   downloads.nyc1.psf.io, the server that hosts download files; and
    -   docs.nyc1.psf.io, the server that hosts the documentation.

-   Administrator access to python/cpython.

-   An administrator account on www.python.org, including an "API key".

-   Write access to the python/peps repository.

    If you're reading this, you probably already have this--the first
    task of any release manager is to draft the release schedule. But in
    case you just signed up... sucker! I mean, uh, congratulations!

-   Posting access to blog.python.org, a Blogger-hosted weblog. The RSS
    feed from this blog is used for the 'Python News' section on
    www.python.org.

-   A subscription to the super secret release manager mailing list,
    which may or may not be called python-cabal. Bug Barry about this.

-   A @python.org email address that you will use to sign your releases
    with. Ask postmaster@ for an address; you can either get a full
    account, or a redirecting alias + SMTP credentials to send email
    from this address that looks legit to major email providers.

-   Be added to the Python Security Response Team.

Types of Releases

There are several types of releases you will need to make. These
include:

-   alpha
-   begin beta, also known as beta 1, also known as new branch
-   beta 2+
-   release candidate 1
-   release candidate 2+
-   final
-   new branch
-   begin bugfix mode
-   begin security-only mode
-   end-of-life

Some of these release types actually involve more than one release
branch. In particular, a new branch is that point in the release cycle
when a new feature release cycle begins. Under the current organization
of the CPython Git repository, the main branch is always the target for
new features. At some point in the release cycle of the next feature
release, a new branch release is made which creates a new separate
branch for stabilization and later maintenance of the current
in-progress feature release (3.n.0) and the main branch is modified to
build a new version (which will eventually be released as 3.n+1.0).
While the new branch release step could occur at one of several points
in the release cycle, current practice is for it to occur at feature
code cutoff for the release which is scheduled for the first beta
release.

In the descriptions that follow, steps specific to release types are
labeled accordingly, for now, new branch and final.

How To Make A Release

Here are the steps taken to make a Python release. Some steps are more
fuzzy than others because there's little that can be automated (e.g.
writing the NEWS entries). Where a step is usually performed by An
Expert, the role of that expert is given. Otherwise, assume the step is
done by the Release Manager (RM), the designated person performing the
release. The roles and their current experts are:

-   RM = Release Manager
    -   Hugo van Kemenade <hugo@python.org> (FI)
    -   Thomas Wouters <thomas@python.org> (NL)
    -   Pablo Galindo Salgado <pablogsal@python.org> (UK)
    -   Łukasz Langa <lukasz@python.org> (PL)
-   WE = Windows - Steve Dower <steve.dower@python.org>
-   ME = Mac - Ned Deily <nad@python.org> (US)
-   DE = Docs - Julien Palard <julien@python.org> (Central Europe)

Note

It is highly recommended that the RM contact the Experts the day before
the release. Because the world is round and everyone lives in different
timezones, the RM must ensure that the release tag is created in enough
time for the Experts to cut binary releases.

You should not make the release public (by updating the website and
sending announcements) before all experts have updated their bits. In
rare cases where the expert for Windows or Mac is MIA, you may add a
message "(Platform) binaries will be provided shortly" and proceed.

As much as possible, the release steps are automated and guided by the
release script, which is available in a separate repository:
python/release-tools.

We use the following conventions in the examples below. Where a release
number is given, it is of the form 3.X.YaN, e.g. 3.13.0a3 for Python
3.13.0 alpha 3, where "a" == alpha, "b" == beta, "rc" == release
candidate.

Release tags are named v3.X.YaN. The branch name for minor release
maintenance branches is 3.X.

This helps by performing several automatic editing steps, and guides you
to perform some manual editing steps.

-   Log into Discord and join the Python Core Devs server. Ask Thomas or
    Łukasz for an invite.

    You probably need to coordinate with other people around the world.
    This communication channel is where we've arranged to meet.

-   Check to see if there are any showstopper bugs.

    Go to https://github.com/python/cpython/issues and look for any open
    bugs that can block this release. You're looking at two relevant
    labels:

    release-blocker

        Stops the release dead in its tracks. You may not make any
        release with any open release blocker bugs.

    deferred-blocker

        Doesn't block this release, but it will block a future release.
        You may not make a final or candidate release with any open
        deferred blocker bugs.

    Review the release blockers and either resolve them, bump them down
    to deferred, or stop the release and ask for community assistance.
    If you're making a final or candidate release, do the same with any
    open deferred.

-   Check the stable buildbots.

    Go to https://buildbot.python.org/all/#/release_status

    Look at the buildbots for the release you're making. Ignore any that
    are offline (or inform the community so they can be restarted). If
    what remains are (mostly) green buildbots, you're good to go. If you
    have non-offline red buildbots, you may want to hold up the release
    until they are fixed. Review the problems and use your judgement,
    taking into account whether you are making an alpha, beta, or final
    release.

-   Make a release clone.

    On a fork of the CPython repository on GitHub, create a release
    branch within it (called the "release clone" from now on). You can
    use the same GitHub fork you use for CPython development. Using the
    standard setup recommended in the Python Developer's Guide, your
    fork would be referred to as origin and the standard CPython repo as
    upstream. You will use the branch on your fork to do the release
    engineering work, including tagging the release, and you will use it
    to share with the other experts for making the binaries.

    For a final or release candidate 2+ release, if you are going to
    cherry-pick a subset of changes for the next rc or final from all
    those merged since the last rc, you should create a release
    engineering branch starting from the most recent release candidate
    tag, i.e. v3.8.0rc1. You will then cherry-pick changes from the
    standard release branch as necessary into the release engineering
    branch and then proceed as usual. If you are going to take all of
    the changes since the previous rc, you can proceed as normal.

-   Make sure the current branch of your release clone is the branch you
    want to release from (git status).

-   Run blurb release <version> specifying the version number (e.g.
    blurb release 3.4.7rc1). This merges all the recent news blurbs into
    a single file marked with this release's version number.

-   Regenerate Lib/pydoc-topics.py.

    While still in the Doc directory, run:

        make pydoc-topics
        cp build/pydoc-topics/topics.py ../Lib/pydoc_data/topics.py

-   Commit your changes to pydoc_topics.py (and any fixes you made in
    the docs).

-   Consider running autoconf using the currently accepted standard
    version in case configure or other Autoconf-generated files were
    last committed with a newer or older version and may contain
    spurious or harmful differences. Currently, Autoconf 2.71 is our de
    facto standard. if there are differences, commit them.

-   Make sure the SOURCE_URI in Doc/tools/extensions/pyspecific.py
    points to the right branch in the Git repository (main or 3.X). For
    a new branch release, change the branch in the file from main to the
    new release branch you are about to create (3.X).

-   Bump version numbers via the release script:

        .../release-tools/release.py --bump 3.X.YaN

    Reminder: X, Y, and N should be integers. a should be one of a, b,
    or rc (e.g. 3.4.3rc1). For final releases omit the aN (3.4.3). For
    the first release of a new version Y should be 0 (3.6.0).

    This automates updating various release numbers, but you will have
    to modify a few files manually. If your $EDITOR environment variable
    is set up correctly, release.py will pop up editor windows with the
    files you need to edit.

    Review the blurb-generated Misc/NEWS file and edit as necessary.

-   Make sure all changes have been committed. (release.py --bump
    doesn't check in its changes for you.)

-   Check the years on the copyright notice. If the last release was
    some time last year, add the current year to the copyright notice in
    several places:

    -   README
    -   LICENSE (make sure to change on main and the branch)
    -   Python/getcopyright.c
    -   Doc/copyright.rst
    -   Doc/license.rst
    -   PC/python_ver_rc.h sets up the DLL version resource for Windows
        (displayed when you right-click on the DLL and select
        Properties). This isn't a C include file, it's a Windows
        "resource file" include file.

-   For a final major release, edit the first paragraph of
    Doc/whatsnew/3.X.rst to include the actual release date; e.g.
    "Python 2.5 was released on August 1, 2003." There's no need to edit
    this for alpha or beta releases.

-   Do a git status in this directory.

    You should not see any files, i.e., you better not have any
    uncommitted changes in your working directory.

-   Tag the release for 3.X.YaN:

        .../release-tools/release.py --tag 3.X.YaN

    This executes a git tag command with the -s option so that the
    release tag in the repo is signed with your GPG key. When prompted
    choose the private key you use for signing release tarballs etc.

-   For begin security-only mode and end-of-life releases, review the
    two files and update the versions accordingly in all active
    branches.

-   Time to build the source tarball. Use the release script to create
    the source gzip and xz tarballs, documentation tar and zip files,
    and GPG signature files:

        .../release-tools/release.py --export 3.X.YaN

    This can take a while for final releases, and it will leave all the
    tarballs and signatures in a subdirectory called 3.X.YaN/src, and
    the built docs in 3.X.YaN/docs (for final releases).

    Note that the script will sign your release with Sigstore. Use your
    @python.org email address for this. See here for more information:
    https://www.python.org/download/sigstore/.

-   Now you want to perform the very important step of checking the
    tarball you just created, to make sure a completely clean, virgin
    build passes the regression test. Here are the best steps to take:

        cd /tmp
        tar xvf /path/to/your/release/clone/<version>//Python-3.2rc2.tgz
        cd Python-3.2rc2
        ls
        # (Do things look reasonable?)
        ls Lib
        # (Are there stray .pyc files?)
        ./configure
        # (Loads of configure output)
        make test
        # (Do all the expected tests pass?)

    If you're feeling lucky and have some time to kill, or if you are
    making a release candidate or final release, run the full test
    suite:

        make buildbottest

    If the tests pass, then you can feel good that the tarball is fine.
    If some of the tests fail, or anything else about the freshly
    unpacked directory looks weird, you better stop now and figure out
    what the problem is.

-   Push your commits to the remote release branch in your GitHub fork:

        # Do a dry run first.
        git push --dry-run --tags origin
        # Make sure you are pushing to your GitHub fork,
        # *not* to the main python/cpython repo!
        git push --tags origin

-   Notify the experts that they can start building binaries.

Warning

STOP: at this point you must receive the "green light" from other
experts in order to create the release. There are things you can do
while you wait though, so keep reading until you hit the next STOP.

-   The WE generates and publishes the Windows files using the Azure
    Pipelines build scripts in .azure-pipelines/windows-release/,
    currently set up at
    https://dev.azure.com/Python/cpython/_build?definitionId=21.

    The build process runs in multiple stages, with each stage's output
    being available as a downloadable artifact. The stages are:

    -   Compile all variants of binaries (32-bit, 64-bit,
        debug/release), including running profile-guided optimization.
    -   Compile the HTML Help file containing the Python documentation.
    -   Codesign all the binaries with the PSF's certificate.
    -   Create packages for python.org, nuget.org, the embeddable distro
        and the Windows Store.
    -   Perform basic verification of the installers.
    -   Upload packages to python.org and nuget.org, purge download
        caches and run a test download.

    After the uploads are complete, the WE copies the generated hashes
    from the build logs and emails them to the RM. The Windows Store
    packages are uploaded manually to
    https://partner.microsoft.com/dashboard/home by the WE.

-   The ME builds Mac installer packages and uploads them to
    downloads.nyc1.psf.io together with GPG signature files.

-   scp or rsync all the files built by release.py --export to your home
    directory on downloads.nyc1.psf.io.

    While you're waiting for the files to finish uploading, you can
    continue on with the remaining tasks. You can also ask folks on
    Discord and/or discuss.python.org to download the files as they
    finish uploading so that they can test them on their platforms as
    well.

-   Now you need to go to downloads.nyc1.psf.io and move all the files
    in place over there. Our policy is that every Python version gets
    its own directory, but each directory contains all releases of that
    version.

    -   On downloads.nyc1.psf.io,
        cd /srv/www.python.org/ftp/python/3.X.Y creating it if
        necessary. Make sure it is owned by group downloads and
        group-writable.

    -   Move the release .tgz, and .tar.xz files into place, as well as
        the .asc GPG signature files. The Win/Mac binaries are usually
        put there by the experts themselves.

        Make sure they are world readable. They should also be group
        writable, and group-owned by downloads.

    -   Use gpg --verify to make sure they got uploaded intact.

    -   If this is a final or rc release: Move the doc zips and tarballs
        to /srv/www.python.org/ftp/python/doc/3.X.Y[rcA], creating the
        directory if necessary, and adapt the "current" symlink in
        .../doc to point to that directory. Note though that if you're
        releasing a maintenance release for an older version, don't
        change the current link.

    -   If this is a final or rc release (even a maintenance release),
        also unpack the HTML docs to
        /srv/docs.python.org/release/3.X.Y[rcA] on docs.nyc1.psf.io.
        Make sure the files are in group docs and are group-writeable.

    -   Let the DE check if the docs are built and work all right.

    -   Note both the documentation and downloads are behind a caching
        CDN. If you change archives after downloading them through the
        website, you'll need to purge the stale data in the CDN like
        this:

            curl -X PURGE https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.12.0/Python-3.12.0.tar.xz

        You should always purge the cache of the directory listing as
        people use that to browse the release files:

            curl -X PURGE https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.12.0/

-   For the extra paranoid, do a completely clean test of the release.
    This includes downloading the tarball from www.python.org.

    Make sure the md5 checksums match. Then unpack the tarball, and do a
    clean make test:

        make distclean
        ./configure
        make test

    To ensure that the regression test suite passes. If not, you screwed
    up somewhere!

Warning

STOP and confirm:

-   Have you gotten the green light from the WE?
-   Have you gotten the green light from the ME?
-   Have you gotten the green light from the DE?

If green, it's time to merge the release engineering branch back into
the main repo.

-   In order to push your changes to GitHub, you'll have to temporarily
    disable branch protection for administrators. Go to the
    Settings | Branches page:

    https://github.com/python/cpython/settings/branches

    "Edit" the settings for the branch you're releasing on. This will
    load the settings page for that branch. Uncheck the "Include
    administrators" box and press the "Save changes" button at the
    bottom.

-   Merge your release clone into the main development repo:

        # Pristine copy of the upstream repo branch
        git clone git@github.com:python/cpython.git merge
        cd merge

        # Checkout the correct branch:
        # 1. For feature pre-releases up to and including a
        #    **new branch** release, i.e. alphas and first beta
        #   do a checkout of the main branch
        git checkout main

        # 2. Else, for all other releases, checkout the
        #       appropriate release branch.
        git checkout 3.X

        # Fetch the newly created and signed tag from your clone repo
        git fetch --tags git@github.com:your-github-id/cpython.git v3.X.YaN
        # Merge the temporary release engineering branch back into
        git merge --no-squash v3.X.YaN
        git commit -m 'Merge release engineering branch'

-   If this is a new branch release, i.e. first beta, now create the new
    release branch:

        git checkout -b 3.X

    Do any steps needed to setup the new release branch, including:

    -   In README.rst, change all references from main to the new
        branch, in particular, GitHub repo URLs.

-   For all releases, do the guided post-release steps with the release
    script:

        .../release-tools/release.py --done 3.X.YaN

-   For a final or release candidate 2+ release, you may need to do some
    post-merge cleanup. Check the top-level README.rst and
    include/patchlevel.h files to ensure they now reflect the desired
    post-release values for on-going development. The patchlevel should
    be the release tag with a +. Also, if you cherry-picked changes from
    the standard release branch into the release engineering branch for
    this release, you will now need to manually remove each blurb entry
    from the Misc/NEWS.d/next directory that was cherry-picked into the
    release you are working on since that blurb entry is now captured in
    the merged x.y.z.rst file for the new release. Otherwise, the blurb
    entry will appear twice in the changelog.html file, once under
    Python next and again under x.y.z.

-   Review and commit these changes:

        git commit -m 'Post release updates'

-   If this is a new branch release (e.g. the first beta), update the
    main branch to start development for the following feature release.
    When finished, the main branch will now build Python X.Y+1.

    -   First, set main up to be the next release, i.e. X.Y+1.a0:

            git checkout main
            .../release-tools/release.py --bump 3.9.0a0

    -   Edit all version references in README.rst

    -   Edit Doc/tutorial/interpreter.rst (two references to
        '[Pp]ython3x', one to 'Python 3.x', also make the date in the
        banner consistent).

    -   Edit Doc/tutorial/stdlib.rst and Doc/tutorial/stdlib2.rst, which
        have each one reference to '[Pp]ython3x'.

    -   Add a new whatsnew/3.x.rst file (with the comment near the top
        and the toplevel sections copied from the previous file) and add
        it to the toctree in whatsnew/index.rst. But beware that the
        initial whatsnew/3.x.rst checkin from previous releases may be
        incorrect due to the initial midstream change to blurb that
        propagates from release to release! Help break the cycle: if
        necessary make the following change:

            -For full details, see the :source:`Misc/NEWS` file.
            +For full details, see the :ref:`changelog <changelog>`.

    -   Update the version number in configure.ac and re-run autoconf.

    -   Make sure the SOURCE_URI in Doc/tools/extensions/pyspecific.py
        points to main.

    -   Update the version numbers for the Windows builds which have
        references to python38:

            ls PC/pyconfig.h.in PCbuild/rt.bat | xargs sed -i 's/python3\(\.\?\)[0-9]\+/python3\19/g'

    -   Edit the bug.yml and crash.yml issue templates in
        .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ to add the new branch to the "versions"
        dropdown.

    -   Commit these changes to the main branch:

            git status
            git add ...
            git commit -m 'Bump to 3.9.0a0'

-   Do another git status in this directory.

    You should not see any files, i.e., you better not have any
    uncommitted changes in your working directory.

-   Commit and push to the main repo:

        # Do a dry run first.

        # For feature pre-releases prior to a **new branch** release,
        #   i.e. a feature alpha release:
        git push --dry-run --tags  git@github.com:python/cpython.git main
        # If it looks OK, take the plunge.  There's no going back!
        git push --tags  git@github.com:python/cpython.git main

        # For a **new branch** release, i.e. first beta:
        git push --dry-run --tags  git@github.com:python/cpython.git 3.X
        git push --dry-run --tags  git@github.com:python/cpython.git main
        # If it looks OK, take the plunge.  There's no going back!
        git push --tags  git@github.com:python/cpython.git 3.X
        git push --tags  git@github.com:python/cpython.git main

        # For all other releases:
        git push --dry-run --tags  git@github.com:python/cpython.git 3.X
        # If it looks OK, take the plunge.  There's no going back!
        git push --tags  git@github.com:python/cpython.git 3.X

-   If this is a new branch release, add a Branch protection rule for
    the newly created branch (3.X). Look at the values for the previous
    release branch (3.X-1) and use them as a template.
    https://github.com/python/cpython/settings/branches

    Also, add a needs backport to 3.X label to the GitHub repo.
    https://github.com/python/cpython/labels

-   You can now re-enable enforcement of branch settings against
    administrators on GitHub. Go back to the Settings | Branch page:

    https://github.com/python/cpython/settings/branches

    "Edit" the settings for the branch you're releasing on. Re-check the
    "Include administrators" box and press the "Save changes" button at
    the bottom.

Now it's time to twiddle the website. Almost none of this is automated,
sorry.

To do these steps, you must have the permission to edit the website. If
you don't have that, ask someone on pydotorg@python.org for the proper
permissions.

-   Log in to https://www.python.org/admin

-   Create a new "release" for the release. Currently "Releases" are
    sorted under "Downloads".

    The easiest thing is probably to copy fields from an existing Python
    release "page", editing as you go.

    You can use Markdown or reStructured Text to describe your release.
    The former is less verbose, while the latter has nifty integration
    for things like referencing PEPs.

    Leave the "Release page" field on the form empty.

-   "Save" the release.

-   Populate the release with the downloadable files.

    Your friend and mine, Georg Brandl, made a lovely tool called
    add_to_pydotorg.py. You can find it in the python/release-tools repo
    (next to release.py). You run the tool on downloads.nyc1.psf.io,
    like this:

        AUTH_INFO=<username>:<python.org-api-key> python add_to_pydotorg.py <version>

    This walks the correct download directory for <version>, looks for
    files marked with <version>, and populates the "Release Files" for
    the correct "release" on the web site with these files. Note that
    clears the "Release Files" for the relevant version each time it's
    run. You may run it from any directory you like, and you can run it
    as many times as you like if the files happen to change. Keep a copy
    in your home directory on dl-files and keep it fresh.

    If new types of files are added to the release, someone will need to
    update add_to_pydotorg.py so it recognizes these new files. (It's
    best to update add_to_pydotorg.py when file types are removed, too.)

    The script will also sign any remaining files that were not signed
    with Sigstore until this point. Again, if this happens, do use your
    @python.org address for this process. More info:
    https://www.python.org/download/sigstore/

-   In case the CDN already cached a version of the Downloads page
    without the files present, you can invalidate the cache using:

        curl -X PURGE https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-XXX/

-   If this is a final release:

    -   Add the new version to the Python Documentation by Version page
        https://www.python.org/doc/versions/ and remove the current
        version from any 'in development' section.

    -   For 3.X.Y, edit all the previous X.Y releases' page(s) to point
        to the new release. This includes the content field of the
        Downloads -> Releases entry for the release:

            Note: Python 3.x.(y-1) has been superseded by
            `Python 3.x.y </downloads/release/python-3xy/>`_.

        And, for those releases having separate release page entries
        (phasing these out?), update those pages as well, e.g.
        download/releases/3.x.y:

            Note: Python 3.x.(y-1) has been superseded by
            `Python 3.x.y </download/releases/3.x.y/>`_.

    -   Update the "Current Pre-release Testing Versions web page".

        There's a page that lists all the currently-in-testing versions
        of Python:

        -   https://www.python.org/download/pre-releases/

        Every time you make a release, one way or another you'll have to
        update this page:

        -   If you're releasing a version before 3.x.0, you should add
            it to this page, removing the previous pre-release of
            version 3.x as needed.
        -   If you're releasing 3.x.0 final, you need to remove the
            pre-release version from this page.

        This is in the "Pages" category on the Django-based website, and
        finding it through that UI is kind of a chore. However! If
        you're already logged in to the admin interface (which, at this
        point, you should be), Django will helpfully add a convenient
        "Edit this page" link to the top of the page itself. So you can
        simply follow the link above, click on the "Edit this page"
        link, and make your changes as needed. How convenient!

    -   If appropriate, update the "Python Documentation by Version"
        page:

        -   https://www.python.org/doc/versions/

        This lists all releases of Python by version number and links to
        their static (not built daily) online documentation. There's a
        list at the bottom of in-development versions, which is where
        all alphas/betas/RCs should go. And yes you should be able to
        click on the link above then press the shiny, exciting "Edit
        this page" button.

-   Write the announcement on discuss.python.org. This is the fuzzy bit
    because not much can be automated. You can use an earlier
    announcement as a template, but edit it for content!

-   Once the announcement is up on Discourse, send an equivalent to the
    following mailing lists:

    -   python-list@python.org
    -   python-announce@python.org
    -   python-dev@python.org

-   Also post the announcement to the Python Insider blog. To add a new
    entry, go to your Blogger home page, here.

-   Update any release PEPs (e.g. 719) with the release dates.

-   Update the labels on https://github.com/python/cpython/issues:

    -   Flip all the deferred-blocker issues back to release-blocker for
        the next release.
    -   Add version 3.X+1 as when version 3.X enters alpha.
    -   Change non-doc feature requests to version 3.X+1 when version
        3.X enters beta.
    -   Update issues from versions that your release makes unsupported
        to the next supported version.
    -   Review open issues, as this might find lurking showstopper bugs,
        besides reminding people to fix the easy ones they forgot about.

-   You can delete the remote release clone branch from your repo clone.

-   If this is a new branch release, you will need to ensure various
    pieces of the development infrastructure are updated for the new
    branch. These include:

    -   Update the issue tracker for the new branch: add the new version
        to the versions list.
    -   Update the devguide to reflect the new branches and versions.
    -   Create a PR to update the supported releases table on the
        downloads page (see python/pythondotorg#1302).
    -   Ensure buildbots are defined for the new branch (contact Łukasz
        or Zach Ware).
    -   Ensure the various GitHub bots are updated, as needed, for the
        new branch, in particular, make sure backporting to the new
        branch works (contact the core-workflow team).
    -   Review the most recent commit history for the main and new
        release branches to identify and backport any merges that might
        have been made to the main branch during the release engineering
        phase and that should be in the release branch.
    -   Verify that CI is working for new PRs for the main and new
        release branches and that the release branch is properly
        protected (no direct pushes, etc).
    -   Verify that the on-line docs are building properly (this may
        take up to 24 hours for a complete build on the website).

What Next?

-   Verify! Pretend you're a user: download the files from
    www.python.org, and make Python from it. This step is too easy to
    overlook, and on several occasions we've had useless release files.
    Once a general server problem caused mysterious corruption of all
    files; once the source tarball got built incorrectly; more than once
    the file upload process on SF truncated files; and so on.
-   Rejoice. Drink. Be Merry. Write a PEP like this one. Or be like unto
    Guido and take A Vacation.

You've just made a Python release!

Moving to End-of-life

Under current policy, a release branch normally reaches end-of-life
status five years after its initial release. The policy is discussed in
more detail in the Python Developer's Guide. When end-of-life is
reached, there are a number of tasks that need to be performed either
directly by you as release manager or by ensuring someone else does
them. Some of those tasks include:

-   Optionally making a final release to publish any remaining
    unreleased changes.

-   Freeze the state of the release branch by creating a tag of its
    current HEAD and then deleting the branch from the CPython repo. The
    current HEAD should be at or beyond the final security release for
    the branch:

        git fetch upstream
        git tag --sign -m 'Final head of the former 3.3 branch' 3.3 upstream/3.3
        git push upstream refs/tags/3.3

-   If all looks good, delete the branch. This may require the
    assistance of someone with repo administrator privileges:

        git push upstream --delete 3.3  # or perform from GitHub Settings page

-   Remove the release from the list of "Active Python Releases" on the
    Downloads page. To do this, log in to the admin page for python.org,
    navigate to Boxes, and edit the downloads-active-releases entry.
    Strip out the relevant paragraph of HTML for your release. (You'll
    probably have to do the curl -X PURGE trick to purge the cache if
    you want to confirm you made the change correctly.)

-   Add a retired notice to each release page on python.org for the
    retired branch. For example:

    -   https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-337/
    -   https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-336/

-   In the developer's guide, set the branch status to end-of-life and
    update or remove references to the branch elsewhere in the devguide.

-   Retire the release from the issue tracker. Tasks include:

    -   remove version label from list of versions
    -   remove the needs backport to label for the retired version
    -   review and dispose of open issues marked for this branch

-   Announce the branch retirement in the usual places:

    -   discuss.python.org
    -   mailing lists (python-dev, python-list, python-announcements)
    -   Python Dev blog

-   Enjoy your retirement and bask in the glow of a job well done!

Windows Notes

Windows has a MSI installer, various flavors of Windows have "special
limitations", and the Windows installer also packs precompiled "foreign"
binaries (Tcl/Tk, expat, etc).

The installer is tested as part of the Azure Pipeline. In the past,
those steps were performed manually. We're keeping this for posterity.

Concurrent with uploading the installer, the WE installs Python from it
twice: once into the default directory suggested by the installer, and
later into a directory with embedded spaces in its name. For each
installation, the WE runs the full regression suite from a DOS box, and
both with and without -0. For maintenance release, the WE also tests
whether upgrade installations succeed.

The WE also tries every shortcut created under Start -> Menu -> the
Python group. When trying IDLE this way, you need to verify that Help ->
Python Documentation works. When trying pydoc this way (the "Module
Docs" Start menu entry), make sure the "Start Browser" button works, and
make sure you can search for a random module (like "random" <wink>) and
then that the "go to selected" button works.

It's amazing how much can go wrong here -- and even more amazing how
often last-second checkins break one of these things. If you're "the
Windows geek", keep in mind that you're likely the only person routinely
testing on Windows, and that Windows is simply a mess.

Repeat the testing for each target architecture. Try both an Admin and a
plain User (not Power User) account.

Copyright

This document has been placed in the public domain.