Onionbalance development

Onionbalance development guidelines and workflow are listed here.

Release procedure

Release cycle workflow.

Version update

Set the version number:

ONIONBALANCE_VERSION=0.2.4

Register the changes

Update the ChangeLog:

$EDITOR ChangeLog

Commit and tag:

git diff # review
git commit -a -m "Feat: Onionbalance $ONIONBALANCE_VERSION"
git tag -s $ONIONBALANCE_VERSION -m "Onionbalance $ONIONBALANCE_VERSION"

Push changes and tags. Example:

git push origin        && git push upstream
git push origin --tags && git push upstream --tags

Once a tag is pushed, a GitLab release is created.

Build packages

Build the Python package:

make build-python-package

Install this package in a fresh virtual machine. Example:

sudo apt-get install -y python3-pip tor
pip install --break-system-packages \
  dist/onionbalance-$ONIONBALANCE_VERSION-*.whl

Then test it:

$HOME/.local/bin/onionbalance --version
$HOME/.local/bin/onionbalance-config --no-interactive

If the package worked, upload it to the Test PyPI instance:

make upload-python-test-package

Install again the test package, by fetching it from Test PyPI, and in another fresh virtual machine:

sudo apt-get install -y python3-pip tor
pip install -i https://pypi.org/simple/ \
            --extra-index-url https://test.pypi.org/simple \
            --break-system-packages \
            onionbalance==$ONIONBALANCE_VERSION

Do the tests again in this new installation. If the the package works as expected, upload it to PyPI:

make upload-python-package

Finally, install the package one more time, but now fetching it from PyPI, and in yet another fresh virtual machine:

sudo apt-get install -y python3-pip tor
pip install --break-system-packages \
  onionbalance==$ONIONBALANCE_VERSION

Do the tests once more, in this new installation.

Announcement

Announce the new release:

• Post a message to the Tor Forum, using the onion-services-announce tag.
• Send a message to the tor-announce mailing list ONLY in special cases, like important security issues (severity HIGH or CRITICAL).

Template:

Subject: [RELEASE] Onionbalance [security] release $ONIONBALANCE_VERSION

Greetings,

We just released [Onionbalance][] $ONIONBALANCE_VERSION, a descriptor publisher
and load balancer for Onion Services.

[This release fixes a security issue. Please upgrade as soon as possible!]

[Onionbalance]: https://onionservices.torproject.org/apps/web/onionbalance

# ChangeLog

$CHANGELOG