Release Process

This chapter covers how RedCouch releases are built, published, and verified. It serves as the maintainer runbook for cutting releases.

Distribution Channels

GitHub Releases is the primary distribution channel. Users download pre-built module binaries. crates.io publication is optional and not required.

Release Artifacts

Each release produces artifacts for all supported platforms:

Each artifact is packaged as a .tar.gz archive with a matching .tar.gz.sha256 checksum file.

Cutting a Release (Maintainer Runbook)

Pre-release checklist

• Latest main commit passes CI (check, test, clippy, fmt, doc)
• Version in Cargo.toml is updated to the new version
• cargo check succeeds (updates Cargo.lock)
• CHANGELOG or release notes are prepared (GitHub auto-generates from PR titles)

Steps

1. Verify CI is green on the latest main commit:

   # Check CI status on GitHub, or run locally:
   cargo check --all-targets
   cargo test
   cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings
   cargo fmt --check
   RUSTDOCFLAGS="-D warnings" cargo doc --no-deps
   

2. Set the version in Cargo.toml and commit:

   # Edit Cargo.toml: version = "0.2.0"
   cargo check  # Updates Cargo.lock
   git add Cargo.toml Cargo.lock
   git commit -m "chore: bump version to 0.2.0"
   git push origin main
   

3. Create and push the tag (must match Cargo.toml version):

   git tag v0.2.0
   git push origin v0.2.0
   

4. The release workflow runs automatically (.github/workflows/release.yml):

   Job	What it does	Failure behavior
   validate-tag	Confirms tag version matches Cargo.toml	Fails fast — prevents mismatched releases
   test	Runs cargo test, clippy, fmt	Blocks build and publish
   build	Cross-compiles for all 4 targets	Blocks publish
   publish-github	Creates GitHub Release with artifacts	—
   publish-crate	Publishes to crates.io (if enabled)	Non-blocking — GitHub Release still succeeds

5. Verify the release at https://github.com/fcenedes/RedCouch/releases:

   • All 4 target archives present
   • SHA-256 checksum files present
   • Release notes auto-generated

What the workflow does NOT do

• It does not deploy the module to any running Redis instance.
• It does not publish to crates.io unless PUBLISH_CRATE is explicitly enabled (see below).
• It does not run integration tests or benchmarks — only unit tests, clippy, and fmt.

crates.io Publication (Optional)

crates.io publication is policy-gated and disabled by default. To enable:

1. Set repository variable PUBLISH_CRATE to true in GitHub Settings → Variables.
2. Add a CARGO_REGISTRY_TOKEN secret with a valid crates.io API token.
3. The publish-crate job runs automatically after a successful GitHub Release.

This gate exists because crates.io publication is irreversible — once a version is published, it cannot be unpublished (only yanked).

CI Pipeline

The CI workflow (.github/workflows/ci.yml) runs on every push to main and on pull requests:

All checks must pass before a PR can be merged.

Verification Commands

# Build check
cargo check --all-targets

# Unit/protocol tests (221 tests — no Redis required)
cargo test

# Integration tests (requires Redis 8+ with module loaded)
cd tests/integration && bash run_e2e.sh

# Benchmark suite
cd benchmarks && bash run_benchmarks.sh

# Stress/soak validation
cd benchmarks && bash run_stress_soak.sh

# Cross-system comparison (requires Docker)
bash benchmarks/run_cross_system.sh