Apache Beam Release Guide

• Introduction
  • Overview
  • Decide to release
  • Checklist to proceed to the next step
• 1. Prepare for the release
  • Accounts
  • One-time setup instructions
    • GPG Key
      • Use preparation_before_release.sh to setup GPG
      • Run all commands manually
    • Access to Apache Nexus repository
    • Submit your GPG public key into MIT PGP Public Key Server
    • Website development setup
    • Register to PyPI
    • Login to DockerHub
  • Create a new version in JIRA
• 2. Create a release branch in apache/beam repository
  • Use cut_release_branch.sh to cut a release branch
  • (Alternative) Run all steps manually
  • Start a snapshot build
    • Run start_snapshot_build.sh to trigger build
    • (Alternative) Do all operations manually
• 3. Verify release branch
  • Run automation script (verify_release_build.sh)
  • Verify the build succeeds
  • (Alternative) Run release build manually (locally)
  • Create release-blocking issues in JIRA
• 4. Triage release-blocking issues in JIRA
  • Review Release Notes in JIRA
  • Review cherry-picks
• 5. Build a release candidate
  • Checklist before proceeding
  • Run build_release_candidate.sh to create a release candidate
    • Tasks you need to do manually
  • (Alternative) Run all steps manually
    • Build and stage Java artifacts with Gradle
    • Stage source release on dist.apache.org
    • Stage python binaries on dist.apache.org
    • Stage SDK images on hub.docker.com
  • Build and stage python wheels
• 6. Prepare documents
  • Update and Verify Javadoc
  • Build the Pydoc API reference
  • Propose pull requests for website updates
  • Blog post
    • Checklist to proceed to the next step
• 7. Vote and validate release candidate
  • Run validation tests
    • Run validations using run_rc_validation.sh
    • Run validations manually
  • Fix any issues
  • Checklist to proceed to the next step
• 8. Finalize the release
  • Deploy artifacts to Maven Central Repository
  • Deploy Python artifacts to PyPI
    • Deploy source release to dist.apache.org
  • Deploy SDK docker images to DockerHub
  • Git tag
  • Merge website pull request
  • Mark the version as released in JIRA
  • Recordkeeping with ASF
  • Checklist to proceed to the next step
• 9. Promote the release
  • Apache mailing lists
  • Social media
  • Checklist to declare the process completed
• Improve the process

Introduction

The Apache Beam project periodically declares and publishes releases. A release is one or more packages of the project artifact(s) that are approved for general public distribution and use. They may come with various degrees of caveat regarding their perceived quality and potential for change, such as “alpha”, “beta”, “incubating”, “stable”, etc.

The Beam community treats releases with great importance. They are a public face of the project and most users interact with the project only through the releases. Releases are signed off by the entire Beam community in a public vote.

Each release is executed by a Release Manager, who is selected among the Beam committers. This document describes the process that the Release Manager follows to perform a release. Any changes to this process should be discussed and adopted on the dev@ mailing list.

Please remember that publishing software has legal consequences. This guide complements the foundation-wide Product Release Policy and Release Distribution Policy.

Overview

The release process consists of several steps:

1. Decide to release
2. Prepare for the release
3. Build a release candidate
4. Vote on the release candidate
5. During vote process, run validation tests
6. If necessary, fix any issues and go back to step 3.
7. Finalize the release
8. Promote the release

Decide to release

Deciding to release and selecting a Release Manager is the first step of the release process. This is a consensus-based decision of the entire community.

Anybody can propose a release on the dev@ mailing list, giving a solid argument and nominating a committer as the Release Manager (including themselves). There’s no formal process, no vote requirements, and no timing requirements. Any objections should be resolved by consensus before starting the release.

In general, the community prefers to have a rotating set of 3-5 Release Managers. Keeping a small core set of managers allows enough people to build expertise in this area and improve processes over time, without Release Managers needing to re-learn the processes for each release. That said, if you are a committer interested in serving the community in this way, please reach out to the community on the dev@ mailing list.

Checklist to proceed to the next step

1. Community agrees to release
2. Community selects a Release Manager

1. Prepare for the release

Before your first release, you should perform one-time configuration steps. This will set up your security keys for signing the release and access to various release repositories.

To prepare for each release, you should audit the project status in the JIRA issue tracker, and do necessary bookkeeping. Finally, you should create a release branch from which individual release candidates will be built.

NOTE: If you are using GitHub two-factor authentication and haven’t configure HTTPS access, please follow the guide to configure command line access.

Accounts

Please have these credentials ready at hand, you will likely need to enter them multiple times:

• GPG pass phrase (see the next section);
• Apache ID and Password;
• GitHub ID and Password.
• DockerHub ID and Password. (You should be a member of maintainer team; email at dev@ if you are not.)

One-time setup instructions

GPG Key

You need to have a GPG key to sign the release artifacts. Please be aware of the ASF-wide release signing guidelines. If you don’t have a GPG key associated with your Apache account, please create one according to the guidelines.

There are 2 ways to configure your GPG key for release, either using release automation script(which is recommended), or running all commands manually.

Use preparation_before_release.sh to setup GPG

• Script: preparation_before_release.sh

• Usage

  ./beam/release/src/main/scripts/preparation_before_release.sh
  

• Tasks included
  1. Help you create a new GPG key if you want.
  2. Configure git user.signingkey with chosen pubkey.

  3. Add chosen pubkey into dev KEYS and release KEYS

     NOTES: Only PMC can write into release repo.

  4. Start GPG agents.

NOTE: When generating the key, please make sure you choose the key type as RSA and RSA (default) and key size as 4096 bit.

Run all commands manually

• Get more entropy for creating a GPG key

  sudo apt-get install rng-tools
  sudo rngd -r /dev/urandom
  

• Create a GPG key

  gpg --full-generate-key
  

• Determine your Apache GPG Key and Key ID, as follows:

  gpg --list-keys
  

  This will list your GPG keys. One of these should reflect your Apache account, for example:

  --------------------------------------------------
  pub   2048R/845E6689 2016-02-23
  uid                  Nomen Nescio <anonymous@apache.org>
  sub   2048R/BA4D50BE 2016-02-23
  

  Here, the key ID is the 8-digit hex string in the pub line: 845E6689.

  Now, add your Apache GPG key to the Beam’s KEYS file both in dev and release repositories at dist.apache.org. Follow the instructions listed at the top of these files. (Note: Only PMC members have write access to the release repository. If you end up getting 403 errors ask on the mailing list for assistance.)

• Configure git to use this key when signing code by giving it your key ID, as follows:

  git config --global user.signingkey 845E6689
  

  You may drop the --global option if you’d prefer to use this key for the current repository only.

• Start GPG agent in order to unlock your GPG key

  eval $(gpg-agent --daemon --no-grab --write-env-file $HOME/.gpg-agent-info)
  export GPG_TTY=$(tty)
  export GPG_AGENT_INFO
  

Access to Apache Nexus repository

Configure access to the Apache Nexus repository, which enables final deployment of releases to the Maven Central Repository.

1. You log in with your Apache account.
2. Confirm you have appropriate access by finding org.apache.beam under Staging Profiles.
3. Navigate to your Profile (top right dropdown menu of the page).
4. Choose User Token from the dropdown, then click Access User Token. Copy a snippet of the Maven XML configuration block.

5. Insert this snippet twice into your global Maven settings.xml file, typically ${HOME}/.m2/settings.xml. The end result should look like this, where TOKEN_NAME and TOKEN_PASSWORD are your secret tokens:

    <!-- make sure you have the root `settings node: -->
    <settings>
      <servers>
        <server>
          <id>apache.releases.https</id>
          <username>TOKEN_NAME</username>
          <password>TOKEN_PASSWORD</password>
        </server>
        <server>
          <id>apache.snapshots.https</id>
          <username>TOKEN_NAME</username>
          <password>TOKEN_PASSWORD</password>
        </server>
      </servers>
    </settings> __NOTE__: make sure the XML you end up with matches the structure above.
   

Submit your GPG public key into MIT PGP Public Key Server

In order to make yourself have right permission to stage java artifacts in Apache Nexus staging repository, please submit your GPG public key into MIT PGP Public Key Server.

If MIT doesn’t work for you (it probably won’t, it’s slow, returns 502 a lot, Nexus might error out not being able to find the keys), use a keyserver at ubuntu.com instead: http://keyserver.ubuntu.com/.

Website development setup

Updating the Beam website requires submitting PRs to both the main apache/beam repo and the apache/beam-site repo. The first contains reference manuals generated from SDK code, while the second updates the current release version number.

You should already have setup a local clone of apache/beam. Setting up a clone of apache/beam-site is similar:

$ git clone -b release-docs https://github.com/apache/beam-site.git
$ cd beam-site
$ git remote add <GitHub_user> git@github.com:<GitHub_user>/beam-site.git
$ git fetch --all
$ git checkout -b <my-branch> origin/release-docs

Further instructions on website development on apache/beam is here. Background information about how the website is updated can be found in Beam-Site Automation Reliability.

Register to PyPI

Release manager needs to have an account with PyPI. If you need one, register at PyPI. You also need to be a maintainer (or an owner) of the apache-beam package in order to push a new release. Ask on the mailing list for assistance.

Login to DockerHub

Run following command manually. It will ask you to input your DockerHub ID and password if authorization info cannot be found from ~/.docker/config.json file.

docker login docker.io

After successful login, authorization info will be stored at ~/.docker/config.json file. For example,

"https://index.docker.io/v1/": {
   "auth": "aGFubmFoamlhbmc6cmtkdGpmZ2hrMTIxMw=="
}

Release managers should have push permission; please ask for help at dev@.

From: Release Manager
To: dev@beam.apache.org
Subject: DockerHub Push Permission

Hi DockerHub Admins

I need push permission to proceed with release, can you please add me to maintainer team?
My docker hub ID is: xxx

Thanks,
Release Manager

Create a new version in JIRA

When contributors resolve an issue in JIRA, they are tagging it with a release that will contain their changes. With the release currently underway, new issues should be resolved against a subsequent future release. Therefore, you should create a release item for this subsequent release, as follows:

Attention: Only PMC has permission to perform this. If you are not a PMC, please ask for help in dev@ mailing list.

1. In JIRA, navigate to Beam > Administration > Versions.
2. Add a new release. Choose the next minor version number after the version currently underway, select the release cut date (today’s date) as the Start Date, and choose Add.
3. At the end of the release, go to the same page and mark the recently released version as released. Use the ... menu and choose Release.

2. Create a release branch in apache/beam repository

Attention: Only committer has permission to create release branch in apache/beam.

Release candidates are built from a release branch. As a final step in preparation for the release, you should create the release branch, push it to the Apache code repository, and update version information on the original branch.

There are 2 ways to cut a release branch: either running automation script(recommended), or running all commands manually.

Use cut_release_branch.sh to cut a release branch

• Script: cut_release_branch.sh

• Usage

  # Cut a release branch
  ./beam/release/src/main/scripts/cut_release_branch.sh \
  --release=${RELEASE_VERSION} \
  --next_release=${NEXT_VERSION}
    
  # Show help page
  ./beam/release/src/main/scripts/cut_release_branch.sh -h
  

• The script will:
  1. Create release-${RELEASE_VERSION} branch locally.

  2. Change and commit dev versoin number in master branch:

     BeamModulePlugin.groovy, gradle.properties, version.py

  3. Change and commit version number in release branch:

     version.py, build.gradle, gradle.properties

(Alternative) Run all steps manually

• Checkout working branch

  Check out the version of the codebase from which you start the release. For a new minor or major release, this may be HEAD of the master branch. To build a hotfix/incremental release, instead of the master branch, use the release tag of the release being patched. (Please make sure your cloned repository is up-to-date before starting.)

  git checkout <master branch OR release tag>
  

  NOTE: If you are doing an incremental/hotfix release (e.g. 2.5.1), please check out the previous release tag, rather than the master branch.

• Set up environment variables

  Set up a few environment variables to simplify Maven commands that follow. (We use bash Unix syntax in this guide.)

  RELEASE=2.5.0
  NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH=2.6.0
  BRANCH=release-${RELEASE}
  

  Version represents the release currently underway, while next version specifies the anticipated next version to be released from that branch. Normally, 1.2.0 is followed by 1.3.0, while 1.2.3 is followed by 1.2.4.

  NOTE: Only if you are doing an incremental/hotfix release (e.g. 2.5.1), please check out the previous release tag, before running the following instructions:

  BASE_RELEASE=2.5.0
  RELEASE=2.5.1
  NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH=2.6.0
  git checkout tags/${BASE_RELEASE}
  

• Create release branch locally

  git branch ${BRANCH}
  

• Update version files in the master branch.

  # Now change the version in existing gradle files, and Python files
  sed -i -e "s/'${RELEASE}'/'${NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH}'/g" build_rules.gradle
  sed -i -e "s/${RELEASE}/${NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH}/g" gradle.properties
  sed -i -e "s/${RELEASE}/${NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH}/g" sdks/python/apache_beam/version.py
    
  # Save changes in master branch
  git add gradle.properties build_rules.gradle sdks/python/apache_beam/version.py
  git commit -m "Moving to ${NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH}-SNAPSHOT on master branch."
  

• Check out the release branch.

  git checkout ${BRANCH}
  

• Update version files in release branch

  DEV=${RELEASE}.dev
  sed -i -e "s/${DEV}/${RELEASE}/g" sdks/python/apache_beam/version.py
  sed -i -e "s/${DEV}/${RELEASE}/g" gradle.properties
  sed -i -e "s/'beam-master-.*'/'beam-${RELEASE}'/g" runners/google-cloud-dataflow-java/build.gradle
  

Start a snapshot build

Start a build of the nightly snapshot against master branch. Some processes, including our archetype tests, rely on having a live SNAPSHOT of the current version from the master branch. Once the release branch is cut, these SNAPSHOT versions are no longer found, so builds will be broken until a new snapshot is available.

There are 2 ways to trigger a nightly build, either using automation script(recommended), or perform all operations manually.

Run start_snapshot_build.sh to trigger build

• Script: start_snapshot_build.sh

• Usage

  ./beam/release/src/main/scripts/start_snapshot_build.sh
  

• The script will:
  1. Install hub with your agreement.
  2. Touch an empty txt file and commit changes into ${your remote beam repo}/snapshot_build
  3. Use hub to create a PR against apache:master, which triggers a Jenkins job to build snapshot.
• Tasks you need to do manually to verify the SNAPSHOT build
  1. Check whether the Jenkins job gets triggered. If not, please comment Run Gradle Publish into the generated PR.
  2. After verifying build succeeded, you need to close PR manually.

(Alternative) Do all operations manually

• Find one PR against apache:master in beam.
• Comment Run Gradle Publish in this pull request to trigger build.
• Verify that build succeeds.

3. Verify release branch

After the release branch is cut you need to make sure it builds and has no significant issues that would block the creation of the release candidate. There are 2 ways to perform this verification, either running automation script(recommended), or running all commands manually.

Run automation script (verify_release_build.sh)

• Script: verify_release_build.sh

• Usage
  1. Create a personal access token from your Github account. See instruction here. It’ll be used by the script for accessing Github API.
  2. Update required configurations listed in RELEASE_BUILD_CONFIGS in script.config
  3. Then run

     cd beam/release/src/main/scripts && ./verify_release_build.sh
     

  4. Trigger beam_Release_Gradle_Build and all PostCommit Jenkins jobs from PR (which is created by previous step). To do so, only add one trigger phrase per comment. See JOB_TRIGGER_PHRASES in verify_release_build.sh for full list of phrases.
• Tasks included in the script
  1. Installs hub with your agreement and setup local git repo;
  2. Create a test PR against release branch;

Jenkins job beam_Release_Gradle_Build basically run ./gradlew build -PisRelease. This only verifies that everything builds with unit tests passing.

Verify the build succeeds

• Tasks you need to do manually to verify the build succeed:
  1. Check the build result.
  2. If build failed, scan log will contain all failures.
  3. You should stabilize the release branch until release build succeeded.
  4. The script will output a set of Jenkins phrases to enter in the created PR.

There are some projects that don’t produce the artifacts, e.g. beam-test-tools, you may be able to ignore failures there.

To triage the failures and narrow things down you may want to look at settings.gradle and run the build only for the projects you’re interested at the moment, e.g. ./gradlew :runners:java-fn-execution.

(Alternative) Run release build manually (locally)

• Pre-installation for python build

  1. Install pip

      curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py
      python get-pip.py
     

  2. Install virtualenv

      pip install --upgrade virtualenv
     

  3. Cython

      sudo pip install cython
      sudo apt-get install gcc
      sudo apt-get install python-dev
      sudo apt-get install python3-dev
      sudo apt-get install python3.5-dev
      sudo apt-get install python3.6-dev
      sudo apt-get install python3.7-dev
     

• Run gradle release build

  1. Clean current workspace

      git clean -fdx 
      ./gradlew clean
     

  2. Unlock the secret key

      gpg --output ~/doc.sig --sign ~/.bashrc
     

  3. Run build command

     ./gradlew build -PisRelease --no-parallel --scan --stacktrace --continue
     

     To speed things up locally you might want to omit --no-parallel. You can also omit --continue if you want build fails after the first error instead of continuing, it may be easier and faster to find environment issues this way without having to wait until the full build completes.

Create release-blocking issues in JIRA

The verify_release_build.sh script may include failing or flaky tests. For each of the failing tests create a JIRA with the following properties:

• Issue Type: Bug

• Summary: Name of failing gradle task and name of failing test (where applicable) in form of :MyGradleProject:SomeGradleTask NameOfFailedTest: Short description of failure

• Priority: Major

• Component: “test-failures”

• Fix Version: Release number of verified release branch

• Description: Description of failure

4. Triage release-blocking issues in JIRA

There could be outstanding release-blocking issues, which should be triaged before proceeding to build a release candidate. We track them by assigning a specific Fix version field even before the issue resolved.

The list of release-blocking issues is available at the version status page. Triage each unresolved issue with one of the following resolutions:

The release manager should triage what does and does not block a release. An issue should not block the release if the problem exists in the current released version or is a bug in new functionality that does not exist in the current released version. It should be a blocker if the bug is a regression between the currently released version and the release in progress and has no easy workaround.

For all JIRA issues:

• If the issue has been resolved and JIRA was not updated, resolve it accordingly.

For JIRA issues with type “Bug” or labeled “flaky”:

• If the issue is a known continuously failing test, it is not acceptable to defer this until the next release. Please work with the Beam community to resolve the issue.
• If the issue is a known flaky test, make an attempt to delegate a fix. However, if the issue may take too long to fix (to the discretion of the release manager):
  • Delegate manual testing of the flaky issue to ensure no release blocking issues.
  • Update the Fix Version field to the version of the next release. Please consider discussing this with stakeholders and the dev@ mailing list, as appropriate.

For all other JIRA issues:

• If the issue has not been resolved and it is acceptable to defer this until the next release, update the Fix Version field to the new version you just created. Please consider discussing this with stakeholders and the dev@ mailing list, as appropriate.
• If the issue has not been resolved and it is not acceptable to release until it is fixed, the release cannot proceed. Instead, work with the Beam community to resolve the issue.

If there is a bug found in the RC creation process/tools, those issues should be considered high priority and fixed in 7 days.

Review Release Notes in JIRA

JIRA automatically generates Release Notes based on the Fix Version field applied to issues. Release Notes are intended for Beam users (not Beam committers/contributors). You should ensure that Release Notes are informative and useful.

Open the release notes from the version status page by choosing the release underway and clicking Release Notes.

You should verify that the issues listed automatically by JIRA are appropriate to appear in the Release Notes. Specifically, issues should:

• Be appropriately classified as Bug, New Feature, Improvement, etc.
• Represent noteworthy user-facing changes, such as new functionality, backward-incompatible API changes, or performance improvements.
• Have occurred since the previous release; an issue that was introduced and fixed between releases should not appear in the Release Notes.
• Have an issue title that makes sense when read on its own.

Adjust any of the above properties to the improve clarity and presentation of the Release Notes.

Review cherry-picks

Check if there are outstanding cherry-picks into the release branch, e.g. for 2.14.0. Make sure they have blocker JIRAs attached and are OK to get into the release by checking with community if needed.

5. Build a release candidate

Checklist before proceeding

• Release Manager’s GPG key is published to dist.apache.org;
• Release Manager’s GPG key is configured in git configuration;
• Release Manager has org.apache.beam listed under Staging Profiles in Nexus;
• Release Manager’s Nexus User Token is configured in settings.xml;
• JIRA release item for the subsequent release has been created;
• All test failures from branch verification have associated JIRA issues;
• There are no release blocking JIRA issues;
• Release Notes in JIRA have been audited and adjusted;
• Combined javadoc has the appropriate contents;
• Release branch has been created;
• There are no open pull requests to release branch;
• Originating branch has the version information updated to the new version;
• Nightly snapshot is in progress (do revisit it continually);

The core of the release process is the build-vote-fix cycle. Each cycle produces one release candidate. The Release Manager repeats this cycle until the community approves one release candidate, which is then finalized.

For this step, we recommend you using automation script to create a RC, but you still can perform all steps manually if you want.

Run build_release_candidate.sh to create a release candidate

• Script: build_release_candidate.sh

• Usage

  ./beam/release/src/main/scripts/build_release_candidate.sh
  

• The script will:

  1. Run gradle release to create rc tag and push source release into github repo.

  2. Run gradle publish to push java artifacts into Maven staging repo.

     NOTE: In order to public staging artifacts, you need to goto the staging repo to close the staging repository on Apache Nexus. When prompted for a description, enter “Apache Beam, version X, release candidate Y”.

  3. Stage source release into dist.apache.org dev repo.
  4. Stage,sign and hash python binaries into dist.apache.ord dev repo python dir
  5. Stage SDK docker images to https://hub.docker.com/u/apachebeam.
  6. Create a PR to update beam and beam-site, changes includes:
     • Copy python doc into beam-site
     • Copy java doc into beam-site
     • Update release version into _config.yml.

Tasks you need to do manually

1. Add new release into website/src/get-started/downloads.md.
2. Update last release download links in website/src/get-started/downloads.md.
3. Update website/src/.htaccess to redirect to the new version.
4. Build and stage python wheels.

(Alternative) Run all steps manually

Build and stage Java artifacts with Gradle

Set up a few environment variables to simplify the commands that follow. These identify the release candidate being built, and the branch where you will stage files. Start with RC_NUM equal to 1 and increment it for each candidate.

RC_NUM=1

Make sure your git config will maintain your account:

git config credential.helper store

Use Gradle release plugin to build the release artifacts, and push code and release tag to the origin repository (this would be the Apache Beam repo):

./gradlew release -Prelease.newVersion=${RELEASE}-SNAPSHOT \
              -Prelease.releaseVersion=${RELEASE}-RC${RC_NUM} \
              -Prelease.useAutomaticVersion=true --info --no-daemon

Use Gradle publish plugin to stage these artifacts on the Apache Nexus repository, as follows:

./gradlew publish -PisRelease --no-parallel --no-daemon

Review all staged artifacts. They should contain all relevant parts for each module, including pom.xml, jar, test jar, javadoc, etc. Artifact names should follow the existing format in which artifact name mirrors directory structure, e.g., beam-sdks-java-io-kafka. Carefully review any new artifacts.

Close the staging repository on Apache Nexus. When prompted for a description, enter “Apache Beam, version X, release candidate Y”.

Stage source release on dist.apache.org

Attention: Only committer has permissions to perform following steps.

Copy the source release to the dev repository of dist.apache.org.

1. If you have not already, check out the Beam section of the dev repository on dist.apache.org via Subversion. In a fresh directory:

    svn co https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/beam
   

2. Make a directory for the new release:

    mkdir beam/${RELEASE}
    cd beam/${RELEASE}
   

3. Download source zip from GitHub:

   wget https://github.com/apache/beam/archive/release-${RELEASE}.zip \ -O apache-beam-${RELEASE}-source-release.zip

4. Create hashes and sign the source distribution:

    gpg --armor --detach-sig apache-beam-${RELEASE}-source-release.zip
    sha512sum apache-beam-${RELEASE}-source-release.zip > apache-beam-${RELEASE}-source-release.zip.sha512
   

5. Add and commit all the files.

    svn add beam/${RELEASE}
    svn commit
   

6. Verify that files are present.

Stage python binaries on dist.apache.org

Build python binaries in release branch in sdks/python dir.

python setup.py sdist --format=zip
cd dist
cp apache-beam-${RELEASE}.zip staging/apache-beam-${RELEASE}-python.zip
cd staging

Create hashes and sign the binaries

gpg --armor --detach-sig apache-beam-${RELEASE}-python.zip
sha512sum apache-beam-${RELEASE}-python.zip > apache-beam-${RELEASE}-python.zip.sha512

Staging binaries

svn co https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/beam
cd beam/${RELEASE}
svn add *
svn commit

Verify that files are present.

Stage SDK images on hub.docker.com

• Build Python images and push to DockerHub.

./gradlew :sdks:python:container:buildAll -Pdocker-tag=${RELEASE}_rc{RC_NUM}

PYTHON_VER=("python2.7" "python3.5" "python3.6" "python3.7")
for ver in "${PYTHON_VER[@]}"; do
   docker push apachebeam/${ver}_sdk:${RELEASE}_rc{RC_NUM} &
done

• Build Java images and push to DockerHub.

./gradlew :sdks:java:container:dockerPush -Pdocker-tag=${RELEASE}_rc{RC_NUM}

• Build Go images and push to DockerHub.

./gradlew :sdks:go:container:dockerPush -Pdocker-tag=${RELEASE}_rc{RC_NUM}

Clean up images from local

for ver in "${PYTHON_VER[@]}"; do
   docker rmi -f apachebeam/${ver}_sdk:${RELEASE}_rc{RC_NUM}
done
docker rmi -f apachebeam/java_sdk:${RELEASE}_rc{RC_NUM}
docker rmi -f apachebeam/go_sdk:${RELEASE}_rc{RC_NUM}

How to find images:

1. Visit https://hub.docker.com/u/apachebeam
2. Visit each repository and navigate to tags tab.
3. Verify images are pushed with tags: ${RELEASE}_rc{RC_NUM}

Build and stage python wheels

There is a wrapper repo beam-wheels to help build python wheels.

If you are interested in how it works, please refer to the structure section.

Please follow the user guide to build python wheels.

Once all python wheels have been staged dist.apache.org, please run ./sign_hash_python_wheels.sh to sign and hash python wheels.

6. Prepare documents

Update and Verify Javadoc

The build with -PisRelease creates the combined Javadoc for the release in sdks/java/javadoc.

The file sdks/java/javadoc/build.gradle contains a list of modules to include in and exclude, plus a list of offline URLs that populate links from Beam’s Javadoc to the Javadoc for other modules that Beam depends on.

• Confirm that new modules added since the last release have been added to the inclusion list as appropriate.

• Confirm that the excluded package list is up to date.

• Verify the version numbers for offline links match the versions used by Beam. If the version number has changed, download a new version of the corresponding <module>-docs/package-list file.

Build the Pydoc API reference

Make sure you have tox installed:

pip install tox

Create the Python SDK documentation using sphinx by running a helper script.

cd sdks/python && tox -e docs

By default the Pydoc is generated in sdks/python/target/docs/_build. Let ${PYDOC_ROOT} be the absolute path to _build.

Propose pull requests for website updates

Beam publishes API reference manuals for each release on the website. For Java and Python SDKs, that’s Javadoc and PyDoc, respectively. The final step of building the candidate is to propose website pull requests that update these manuals.

Merge the pull requests only after finalizing the release. To avoid invalid redirects for the ‘current’ version, merge these PRs in the order listed. Once the PR is merged, the new contents will get picked up automatically and served to the Beam website, usually within an hour.

PR 1: apache/beam-site

This pull request is against the apache/beam-site repo, on the release-docs branch.

• Add the new Javadoc to SDK API Reference page page, as follows:
  • Unpack the Maven artifact org.apache.beam:beam-sdks-java-javadoc into some temporary location. Call this ${JAVADOC_TMP}.
  • Copy the generated Javadoc into the website repository: cp -r ${JAVADOC_TMP} javadoc/${RELEASE}.
• Add the new Pydoc to SDK API Reference page page, as follows:
  • Copy the generated Pydoc into the website repository: cp -r ${PYDOC_ROOT} pydoc/${RELEASE}.
  • Remove .doctrees directory.
• Stage files using: git add --all javadoc/ pydoc/.

PR 2: apache/beam

This pull request is against the apache/beam repo, on the master branch.

• Update the release_latest version flag in /website/_config.yml, and list the new release in /website/src/get-started/downloads.md, linking to the source code download and the Release Notes in JIRA.
• Update the RedirectMatch rule in /website/src/.htaccess to point to the new release. See file history for examples.

Blog post

Write a blog post similar to https://beam.apache.org/blog/2019/08/22/beam-2.15.0.html

Tip: Use git log to find contributors to the releases. (e.g: git log --pretty='%aN' ^v2.10.0 v2.11.0 | sort | uniq). Make sure to clean it up, as there may be duplicate or incorrect user names.

NOTE: Make sure to include any breaking changes, even to @Experimental features, all major features and bug fixes, and all known issues.

Template:

    We are happy to present the new {$RELEASE_VERSION} release of Beam. This release includes both improvements and new functionality.
    See the [download page](/get-started/downloads/{$DOWNLOAD_ANCHOR}) for this release.<!--more-->
    For more information on changes in {$RELEASE_VERSION}, check out the
    [detailed release notes]({$JIRA_RELEASE_NOTES}).

    ## Highlights

     * New highly anticipated feature X added to Python SDK ([BEAM-X](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-X)).
     * New highly anticipated feature Y added to JavaSDK ([BEAM-Y](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-Y)).

    {$TOPICS e.g.:}
    ### I/Os
    * Support for X source added (Java) ([BEAM-X](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-X)).
    {$TOPICS}

    ### New Features / Improvements

    * X feature added (Python) ([BEAM-X](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-X)).
    * Y feature added (Java) [BEAM-Y](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-Y).

    ### Breaking Changes

    * X behavior was changed ([BEAM-X](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-X)).
    * Y behavior was changed ([BEAM-Y](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-X)).

    ### Deprecations

    * X behavior is deprecated and will be removed in X versions ([BEAM-X](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-X)).

    ### Bugfixes

    * Fixed X (Python) ([BEAM-Y](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-X)).
    * Fixed Y (Java) ([BEAM-Y](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-Y)).

    ### Known Issues

    * {$KNOWN_ISSUE_1}
    * {$KNOWN_ISSUE_2}


    ## List of Contributors

    According to git shortlog, the following people contributed to the 2.XX.0 release. Thank you to all contributors!

    ${CONTRIBUTORS}

Checklist to proceed to the next step

1. Maven artifacts deployed to the staging repository of repository.apache.org
2. Source distribution deployed to the dev repository of dist.apache.org
3. Website pull request proposed to list the release, publish the Java API reference manual, and publish the Python API reference manual.
4. Docker images are published to DockerHub with tags: {RELEASE}_rc{RC_NUM}.

You can (optionally) also do additional verification by:

1. Check that Python zip file contains the README.md, NOTICE, and LICENSE files.
2. Check hashes (e.g. md5sum -c *.md5 and sha1sum -c *.sha1)
3. Check signatures (e.g. gpg --verify apache-beam-1.2.3-python.zip.asc apache-beam-1.2.3-python.zip)
4. grep for legal headers in each file.
5. Run all jenkins suites and include links to passing tests in the voting email. (Select “Run with parameters”)
6. Pull docker images to make sure they are pullable.

   docker pull {image_name}
   docker pull apachebeam/python3.5_sdk:2.16.0_rc1
   

7. Vote and validate release candidate

Once you have built and individually reviewed the release candidate, please share it for the community-wide review. Please review foundation-wide voting guidelines for more information.

Start the review-and-vote thread on the dev@ mailing list. Here’s an email template; please adjust as you see fit.

From: Release Manager
To: dev@beam.apache.org
Subject: [VOTE] Release 1.2.3, release candidate #3

Hi everyone,
Please review and vote on the release candidate #3 for the version 1.2.3, as follows:
[ ] +1, Approve the release
[ ] -1, Do not approve the release (please provide specific comments)


The complete staging area is available for your review, which includes:
* JIRA release notes [1],
* the official Apache source release to be deployed to dist.apache.org [2], which is signed with the key with fingerprint FFFFFFFF [3],
* all artifacts to be deployed to the Maven Central Repository [4],
* source code tag "v1.2.3-RC3" [5],
* website pull request listing the release [6], publishing the API reference manual [7], and the blog post [8].
* Java artifacts were built with Maven MAVEN_VERSION and OpenJDK/Oracle JDK JDK_VERSION.
* Python artifacts are deployed along with the source release to the dist.apache.org [2].
* Validation sheet with a tab for 1.2.3 release to help with validation [9].
* Docker images puhlished to Docker Hub [10].

The vote will be open for at least 72 hours. It is adopted by majority approval, with at least 3 PMC affirmative votes.

Thanks,
Release Manager

[1] https://jira.apache.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=...
[2] https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/beam/1.2.3/
[3] https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/beam/KEYS
[4] https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachebeam-NNNN/
[5] https://github.com/apache/beam/tree/v1.2.3-RC3
[6] https://github.com/apache/beam/pull/...
[7] https://github.com/apache/beam-site/pull/...
[8] https://github.com/apache/beam/pull/...
[9] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qk-N5vjXvbcEk68GjbkSZTR8AGqyNUM-oLFo_ZXBpJw/edit#gid=...
[10] https://hub.docker.com/u/apachebeam

If there are any issues found in the release candidate, reply on the vote thread to cancel the vote. There’s no need to wait 72 hours. Proceed to the Fix Issues step below and address the problem. However, some issues don’t require cancellation. For example, if an issue is found in the website pull request, just correct it on the spot and the vote can continue as-is.

If there are no issues, reply on the vote thread to close the voting. Then, tally the votes in a separate email. Here’s an email template; please adjust as you see fit.

From: Release Manager
To: dev@beam.apache.org
Subject: [RESULT] [VOTE] Release 1.2.3, release candidate #3

I'm happy to announce that we have unanimously approved this release.

There are XXX approving votes, XXX of which are binding:
* approver 1
* approver 2
* approver 3
* approver 4

There are no disapproving votes.

Thanks everyone!

Run validation tests

All tests listed in this spreadsheet

Since there are a bunch of tests, we recommend you running validations using automation script. In case of script failure, you can still run all of them manually.

Run validations using run_rc_validation.sh

• Script: run_rc_validation.sh

• Usage
  1. First update required configurations listed in RC_VALIDATE_CONFIGS in script.config
  2. Then run

      cd beam/release/src/main/scripts && ./run_rc_validation.sh
     

• Tasks included
  1. Run Java quickstart with Direct Runner, Apex local runner, Flink local runner, Spark local runner and Dataflow runner.
  2. Run Java Mobile Games(UserScore, HourlyTeamScore, Leaderboard) with Dataflow runner.
  3. Create a PR to trigger python validation job, including
     • Python quickstart in batch and streaming mode with direct runner and Dataflow runner.
     • Python Mobile Games(UserScore, HourlyTeamScore) with direct runner and Dataflow runner.
  4. Run Python Streaming MobileGames, includes
     • Start a new terminal to run Java Pubsub injector.
     • Start a new terminal to run python LeaderBoard with Direct Runner.
     • Start a new terminal to run python LeaderBoard with Dataflow Runner.
     • Start a new terminal to run python GameStats with Direct Runner.
     • Start a new terminal to run python GameStats with Dataflow Runner.
• Tasks you need to do manually
  1. Check whether validations succeed by following console output instructions.
  2. Terminate streaming jobs and java injector.
  3. Sign up spreadsheet.
  4. Vote in the release thread.

Run validations manually

Note: -Prepourl and -Pver can be found in the RC vote email sent by Release Manager.

• Java Quickstart Validation

  Direct Runner:

  ./gradlew :runners:direct-java:runQuickstartJavaDirect \
  -Prepourl=https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachebeam-${KEY} \
  -Pver=${RELEASE_VERSION}
  

  Apex Local Runner

  ./gradlew :runners:apex:runQuickstartJavaApex \
  -Prepourl=https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachebeam${KEY} \
  -Pver=${RELEASE_VERSION}
  

  Flink Local Runner

  ./gradlew :runners:flink:1.9:runQuickstartJavaFlinkLocal \
  -Prepourl=https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachebeam-${KEY} \
  -Pver=${RELEASE_VERSION}
  

  Spark Local Runner

  ./gradlew :runners:spark:runQuickstartJavaSpark \
  -Prepourl=https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachebeam-${KEY} \
  -Pver=${RELEASE_VERSION}
  

  Dataflow Runner

  ./gradlew :runners:google-cloud-dataflow-java:runQuickstartJavaDataflow \
  -Prepourl=https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachebeam-${KEY} \
  -Pver=${RELEASE_VERSION} \
  -PgcpProject=${YOUR_GCP_PROJECT} \
  -PgcsBucket=${YOUR_GCP_BUCKET}
  

• Java Mobile Game(UserScore, HourlyTeamScore, Leaderboard)

  Pre-request

  • Create your own BigQuery dataset

    bq mk --project=${YOUR_GCP_PROJECT} ${YOUR_DATASET}
    

  • Create yout PubSub topic

    gcloud alpha pubsub topics create --project=${YOUR_GCP_PROJECT} ${YOUR_PROJECT_PUBSUB_TOPIC} 
    

  • Setup your service account

    Goto IAM console in your project to create a service account as project owner

    Run

    gcloud iam service-accounts keys create ${YOUR_KEY_JSON} --iam-account ${YOUR_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME}@${YOUR_PROJECT_NAME}
    export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=${PATH_TO_YOUR_KEY_JSON} 
    

    Run

    ./gradlew :runners:google-cloud-dataflow-java:runMobileGamingJavaDataflow \
     -Prepourl=https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachebeam-${KEY} \ 
     -Pver=${RELEASE_VERSION} \
     -PgcpProject=${YOUR_GCP_PROJECT} \
     -PgcsBucket=${YOUR_GCP_BUCKET} \
     -PbqDataset=${YOUR_DATASET} -PpubsubTopic=${YOUR_PROJECT_PUBSUB_TOPIC}
    

• Python Quickstart(batch & streaming), MobileGame(UserScore, HourlyTeamScore)

  Create a new PR in apache/beam

  In comment area, type in Run Python ReleaseCandidate

• Python Leaderboard & GameStats

  • Get staging RC wget https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/beam/2.5.0/*

  • Verify the hashes

    sha512sum -c apache-beam-2.5.0-python.zip.sha512
    sha512sum -c apache-beam-2.5.0-source-release.zip.sha512
    

  • Build SDK

    sudo apt-get install unzip
    unzip apache-beam-2.5.0-source-release.zip
    python setup.py sdist
    

  • Setup virtualenv

    pip install --upgrade pip
    pip install --upgrade setuptools
    pip install --upgrade virtualenv
    virtualenv beam_env
     . beam_env/bin/activate
    

  • Install SDK

    pip install dist/apache-beam-2.5.0.tar.gz
    pip install dist/apache-beam-2.5.0.tar.gz[gcp]
    

  • Setup GCP

    Please repeat following steps for every following test.

    bq rm -rf --project=${YOUR_PROJECT} ${USER}_test
    bq mk --project=${YOUR_PROJECT} ${USER}_test
    gsutil rm -rf ${YOUR_GS_STORAGE]
    gsutil mb -p ${YOUR_PROJECT} ${YOUR_GS_STORAGE}
    gcloud alpha pubsub topics create --project=${YOUR_PROJECT} ${YOUR_PUBSUB_TOPIC}
    

    Setup your service account as described in Java Mobile Game section above.

    Produce data by using java injector:

    • Configure your ~/.m2/settings.xml as following:

      <settings>
        <profiles>
          <profile>
            <id>release-repo</id>
            <activation>
              <activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
            </activation>
            <repositories>
              <repository>
                <id>Release 2.4.0 RC3</id>
                <name>Release 2.4.0 RC3</name>
                <url>https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachebeam-1031/</url>
              </repository>
            </repositories>
          </profile>
        </profiles>
      </settings>
      

      Note: You can found the latest id, name and url for one RC in the vote email thread sent out by Release Manager.

    • Run

      mvn archetype:generate \
            -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.beam \
            -DarchetypeArtifactId=beam-sdks-java-maven-archetypes-examples \
            -DarchetypeVersion=${RELEASE_VERSION} \
            -DgroupId=org.example \
            -DartifactId=word-count-beam \
            -Dversion="0.1" \
            -Dpackage=org.apache.beam.examples \
            -DinteractiveMode=false
            -DarchetypeCatalog=internal
                  
      mvn compile exec:java -Dexec.mainClass=org.apache.beam.examples.complete.game.injector.Injector \
        -Dexec.args="${YOUR_PROJECT} ${YOUR_PUBSUB_TOPIC} none"
      

  • Run Leaderboard with Direct Runner

    python -m apache_beam.examples.complete.game.leader_board \
    --project=${YOUR_PROJECT} \
    --topic projects/${YOUR_PROJECT}/topics/${YOUR_PUBSUB_TOPIC} \
    --dataset ${USER}_test
    

    Inspect results:

    • Check whether there is any error messages in console.
    • Goto your BigQuery console and check whether your ${USER}_test has leader_board_users and leader_board_teams table.
    • bq head -n 10 ${USER}_test.leader_board_users
    • bq head -n 10 ${USER}_test.leader_board_teams
  • Run Leaderboard with Dataflow Runner

    python -m apache_beam.examples.complete.game.leader_board \ 
    --project=${YOUR_PROJECT} \ 
    --topic projects/${YOUR_PROJECT}/topics/${YOUR_PUBSUB_TOPIC} \ 
    --dataset ${USER}_test \ 
    --runner DataflowRunner \ 
    --temp_location=${YOUR_GS_BUCKET}/temp/ \ 
    --sdk_location dist/*
    

    Inspect results:

    • Goto your Dataflow job console and check whether there is any error.
    • Goto your BigQuery console and check whether your ${USER}_test has leader_board_users and leader_board_teams table.
    • bq head -n 10 ${USER}_test.leader_board_users
    • bq head -n 10 ${USER}_test.leader_board_teams
  • Run GameStats with Direct Runner

    python -m apache_beam.examples.complete.game.game_stats \
    --project=${YOUR_PROJECT} \
    --topic projects/${YOUR_PROJECT}/topics/${YOUR_PUBSUB_TOPIC} \
    --dataset ${USER}_test \
    --fixed_window_duration ${SOME_SMALL_DURATION}
    

    Inspect results:

    • Check whether there is any error messages in console.
    • Goto your BigQuery console and check whether your ${USER}_test has game_stats_teams and game_stats_sessions table.
    • bq head -n 10 ${USER}_test.game_stats_teams
    • bq head -n 10 ${USER}_test.game_stats_sessions
  • Run GameStats with Dataflow Runner

    python -m apache_beam.examples.complete.game.game_stats \ 
    --project=${YOUR_PROJECT} \ 
    --topic projects/${YOUR_PROJECT}/topics/${YOUR_PUBSUB_TOPIC} \ 
    --dataset ${USER}_test \ 
    --runner DataflowRunner \ 
    --temp_location=${YOUR_GS_BUCKET}/temp/ \ 
    --sdk_location dist/* \
    --fixed_window_duration ${SOME_SMALL_DURATION}
    

    Inspect results:

    • Goto your Dataflow job console and check whether there is any error.
    • Goto your BigQuery console and check whether your ${USER}_test has game_stats_teams and game_stats_sessions table.
    • bq head -n 10 ${USER}_test.game_stats_teams
    • bq head -n 10 ${USER}_test.game_stats_sessions

Fix any issues

Any issues identified during the community review and vote should be fixed in this step. Additionally, any JIRA issues created from the initial branch verification should be fixed.

Code changes should be proposed as standard pull requests to the master branch and reviewed using the normal contributing process. Then, relevant changes should be cherry-picked into the release branch. The cherry-pick commits should then be proposed as the pull requests against the release branch, again reviewed and merged using the normal contributing process.

Once all issues have been resolved, you should go back and build a new release candidate with these changes.

Checklist to proceed to the next step

1. Issues identified during vote have been resolved, with fixes committed to the release branch.
2. All issues tagged with Fix-Version for the current release should be closed.
3. Community votes to release the proposed candidate, with at least three approving PMC votes

8. Finalize the release

Once the release candidate has been reviewed and approved by the community, the release should be finalized. This involves the final deployment of the release candidate to the release repositories, merging of the website changes, etc.

Deploy artifacts to Maven Central Repository

Use the Apache Nexus repository to release the staged binary artifacts to the Maven Central repository. In the Staging Repositories section, find the relevant release candidate orgapachebeam-XXX entry and click Release. Drop all other release candidates that are not being released. NOTE: If you are using GitHub two-factor authentication and haven’t configure HTTPS access, please follow the guide to configure command line access.

Deploy Python artifacts to PyPI

1. Download everything from https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/beam/2.14.0/python/ ;
2. Keep only things that you see in https://pypi.org/project/apache-beam/#files , e.g. .zip, .whl, delete the .asc, .sha512;
3. Upload the new release twine upload * from the directory with the .zip and .whl files;

Deploy source release to dist.apache.org

Copy the source release from the dev repository to the release repository at dist.apache.org using Subversion.

Move last release artifacts from dist.apache.org to archive.apache.org using Subversion. Then update download address for last release version, example PR.

NOTE: Only PMC members have permissions to do it, ping dev@ for assitance;

Make sure the download address for last release version is upldaed, example PR.

Deploy SDK docker images to DockerHub

TODO(hannahjiang): change link to master branch after #9560 is merged.

• Script: publish_docker_images.sh
• Usage

  ./beam/release/src/main/scripts/publish_docker_images.sh
  

  Verify that:

• Images are published at DockerHub with tags {RELEASE} and latest.
• Images with latest tag are pointing to current release by confirming
  1. Digest of the image with latest tag is the same as the one with {RELEASE} tag.

Git tag

Create and push a new signed tag for the released version by copying the tag for the final release candidate, as follows:

VERSION_TAG="v${RELEASE}"
git tag -s "$VERSION_TAG" "$RC_TAG"
git push github "$VERSION_TAG"

Merge website pull request

Merge the website pull request to list the release, publish the Python API reference manual, and the Java API reference manual created earlier.

Mark the version as released in JIRA

In JIRA, inside version management, hover over the current release and a settings menu will appear. Click Release, and select today’s date.

NOTE: Only PMC members have permissions to do it, ping dev@ for assitance;

Recordkeeping with ASF

Use reporter.apache.org to seed the information about the release into future project reports.

NOTE: Only PMC members have permissions to do it, ping dev@ for assitance;

Checklist to proceed to the next step

• Maven artifacts released and indexed in the Maven Central Repository
• Source distribution available in the release repository of dist.apache.org
• Source distribution removed from the dev repository of dist.apache.org
• Website pull request to list the release and publish the API reference manual merged
• Release tagged in the source code repository
• Release version finalized in JIRA. (Note: Not all committers have administrator access to JIRA. If you end up getting permissions errors ask on the mailing list for assistance.)
• Release version is listed at reporter.apache.org

9. Promote the release

Once the release has been finalized, the last step of the process is to promote the release within the project and beyond.

Apache mailing lists

Announce on the dev@ mailing list that the release has been finished.

Announce on the release on the user@ mailing list, listing major improvements and contributions.

Announce the release on the announce@apache.org mailing list. NOTE: This can only be done from @apache.org email address.

Social media

Tweet, post on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other platforms. Ask other contributors to do the same.

Also, update the Wikipedia article on Apache Beam.

Checklist to declare the process completed

1. Release announced on the user@ mailing list.
2. Blog post published, if applicable.
3. Release recorded in reporter.apache.org.
4. Release announced on social media.
5. Completion declared on the dev@ mailing list.
6. Update Wikipedia Apache Beam article.

Improve the process

It is important that we improve the release processes over time. Once you’ve finished the release, please take a step back and look what areas of this process and be improved. Perhaps some part of the process can be simplified. Perhaps parts of this guide can be clarified.

If we have specific ideas, please start a discussion on the dev@ mailing list and/or propose a pull request to update this guide. Thanks!