dangerzone/RELEASE.md

Release instructions

This section documents the release process. Unless you're a dangerzone developer making a release, you'll probably never need to follow it.

Pre-release

Before making a release, all of these should be complete:

• Update version in pyproject.toml

• Update share/version.txt

• Update the "Version" field in install/linux/dangerzone.spec

• Update version and download links in README.md, and screenshot if necessary

• CHANGELOG.md should be updated to include a list of all major changes since the last release

• Copy the entirety of these instructions onto a new issue and call it QA and Release version <VERSION>

• Create a PGP-signed git tag for the version, e.g. for dangerzone v0.1.0, the is created with:

  git tag -s v0.1.0
  git push origin v0.1.0
  

  Note: release candidates are suffixed by -rcX.

Large Document Testing

Parallel to the QA process, the release candidate should be put through the large document tests in a dedicated machine to run overnight.

Follow the instructions in docs/developer/TESTING.md to run the tests.

These tests will identify any regressions or progression in terms of document coverage.

QA

To ensure that new releases do not introduce regressions, and support existing and newer platforms, we have to do the following:

• In .circleci/config.yml, add new platforms and remove obsolete platforms
• Bump the Python dependencies using poetry lock
• Make sure that the tip of the main branch passes the CI tests.
• Make sure that the Apple account has a valid application password and has agreed to the latest Apple terms (see macOS release section).
• Create a test build in Windows and make sure it works:
  • Check if the suggested Python version is still supported.
  • Create a new development environment with Poetry.
  • Build the container image and ensure the development environment uses the new image.
  • Run the Dangerzone tests.
  • Build and run the Dangerzone .exe
  • Test some QA scenarios (see Scenarios below).
• Create a test build in macOS (Intel CPU) and make sure it works:
  • Check if the suggested Python version is still supported.
  • Create a new development environment with Poetry.
  • Build the container image and ensure the development environment uses the new image.
  • Run the Dangerzone tests.
  • Create and run an app bundle.
  • Test some QA scenarios (see Scenarios below).
• Create a test build in macOS (M1/2 CPU) and make sure it works:
  • Check if the suggested Python version is still supported.
  • Create a new development environment with Poetry.
  • Build the container image and ensure the development environment uses the new image.
  • Run the Dangerzone tests.
  • Create and run an app bundle.
  • Test some QA scenarios (see Scenarios below).
• Create a test build in the most recent Ubuntu LTS platform (Ubuntu 22.04 as of writing this) and make sure it works:
  • Create a new development environment with Poetry.
  • Build the container image and ensure the development environment uses the new image.
  • Run the Dangerzone tests.
  • Create a .deb package and install it system-wide.
  • Test some QA scenarios (see Scenarios below).
• Create a test build in the most recent Fedora platform (Fedora 39 as of writing this) and make sure it works:
  • Create a new development environment with Poetry.
  • Build the container image and ensure the development environment uses the new image.
  • Run the Dangerzone tests.
  • Create an .rpm package and install it system-wide.
  • Test some QA scenarios (see Scenarios below).
• Create a test build in the most recent Qubes Fedora template (Fedora 38 as of writing this) and make sure it works:
  • Create a new development environment with Poetry.
  • Run the Dangerzone tests.
  • Create a Qubes .rpm package and install it system-wide.
  • Ensure that the Dangerzone application appears in the "Applications" tab.
  • Test some QA scenarios (see Scenarios below) and make sure they spawn disposable qubes.

Scenarios

1. Dangerzone correctly identifies that Docker/Podman is not installed

(Only for MacOS / Windows)

Temporarily hide the Docker/Podman binaries, e.g., rename the docker / podman binaries to something else. Then run Dangerzone. Dangerzone should prompt the user to install Docker/Podman.

2. Dangerzone correctly identifies that Docker is not running

(Only for MacOS / Windows)

Stop the Docker Desktop application. Then run Dangerzone. Dangerzone should prompt the user to start Docker Desktop.

3. Dangerzone successfully installs the container image

(Not for Qubes)

Remove the Dangerzone container image from Docker/Podman. Then run Dangerzone. Danerzone should install the container image successfully.

4. Dangerzone retains the settings of previous runs

Run Dangerzone and make some changes in the settings (e.g., change the OCR language, toggle whether to open the document after conversion, etc.). Restart Dangerzone. Dangerzone should show the settings that the user chose.

5. Dangerzone reports failed conversions

Run Dangerzone and convert the tests/test_docs/sample_bad_pdf.pdf document. Dangerzone should fail gracefully, by reporting that the operation failed, and showing the last error message.

(Only for Qubes) The only message that the user should see is: "The document format is not supported", without any untrusted strings.

6. Dangerzone succeeds in converting multiple documents

Run Dangerzone against a list of documents, and tick all options. Ensure that:

• Conversions take place sequentially.
• Attempting to close the window while converting asks the user if they want to abort the conversions.
• Conversions are completed successfully.
• Conversions show individual progress in real-time (double-check for Qubes).
• (Only for Linux) The resulting files open with the PDF viewer of our choice.
• OCR seems to have detected characters in the PDF files.
• The resulting files have been saved with the proper suffix, in the proper location.
• The original files have been saved in the unsafe/ directory.

7. Dangerzone CLI succeeds in converting multiple documents

(Only for Windows and Linux)

Run Dangerzone CLI against a list of documents. Ensure that conversions happen sequentially, are completed successfully, and we see their progress.

8. Dangerzone can open a document for conversion via right-click -> "Open With"

(Only for Windows, MacOS and Qubes)

Go to a directory with office documents, right-click on one, and click on "Open With". We should be able to open the file with Dangerzone, and then convert it.

9. Dangerzone shows helpful errors for setup issues on Qubes

(Only for Qubes)

Check what errors does Dangerzone throw in the following scenarios. The errors should point the user to the Qubes notifications in the top-right corner:

1. The dz-dvm template does not exist. We can trigger this scenario by temporarily renaming this template.
2. The Dangerzone RPC policy does not exist. We can trigger this scenario by temporarily renaming the dz.Convert policy.
3. The dz-dvm disposable Qube cannot start due to insufficient resources. We can trigger this scenario by temporarily increasing the minimum required RAM of the dz-dvm template to more than the available amount.

10. Updating Dangerzone handles external state correctly.

(Applies to Linux/Windows/MacOS. For MacOS/Windows, it requires an installer for the new version)

Install the previous version of Dangerzone system-wide:

• For MacOS/Windows, use the version from the website.
• For Linux, uninstall Dangerzone from your test environment, and install the previous version using our installation instructions. Also, keep in mind the following:
  • In order to run commands as root, execute into the container as root with podman exec -it -u root <container ID> bash.
  • If you encounter a GPG error, run the dirmngr command to create the necessary directories.

Open the Dangerzone application and enable some non-default settings. Close the Dangerzone application and get the container image for that version. For example:

$ podman images dangerzone.rocks/dangerzone:latest
REPOSITORY                   TAG         IMAGE ID      CREATED       SIZE
dangerzone.rocks/dangerzone  latest      <image ID>    <date>        <size>

(use docker on Windows/MacOS)

Install the new version of Dangerzone system-wide. For Linux, copy the package back into the container. Open the Dangerzone application and make sure that the previously enabled settings still show up. Also, ensure that Dangerzone reports that the new image has been installed, and verify that it's different from the old one by doing:

$ podman images dangerzone.rocks/dangerzone:latest
REPOSITORY                   TAG         IMAGE ID        CREATED       SIZE
dangerzone.rocks/dangerzone  latest      <different ID>  <newer date>  <different size>

Release

Important

Because we don't have reproducible builds yet, building the Dangerzone container image in various platforms would lead to different container image IDs / hashes, due to different timestamps. To avoid this issue, we should build the final container image for x86_64 architectures on one platform, and then copy it to the rest of the platforms, before creating our .deb / .rpm / .msi / app bundles.

macOS Release

Initial Setup

• Build machine must have:
  • Apple-trusted Developer ID Application: Freedom of the Press Foundation (94ZZGGGJ3W) code-signing certificates installed
• Apple account must have:
  • A valid application password for notarytool in the Keychain. You can verify this by running: xcrun notarytool history --apple-id "<email>" --keychain-profile "dz-notarytool-release-key". If you don't find it, you can add it to the Keychain by running xcrun notarytool store-credentials dz-notarytool-release-key --apple-id <email> --team-id <team ID> with the respective email and team ID (the latter can be obtained here)
  • Agreed to any new terms and conditions. You can find those if you visit https://developer.apple.com and login with the proper Apple ID.

Releasing and Signing

• Verify and checkout the git tag for this release
• Run poetry install
• Run poetry run ./install/macos/build-app.py; this will make dist/Dangerzone.app
• Run poetry run ./install/macos/build-app.py --only-codesign; this will make dist/Dangerzone.dmg
  • You need to run this command as the account that has access to the code signing certificate
  • You must run this command from the MacOS UI, from a terminal application.
• Notarize it: xcrun notarytool submit --apple-id "<email>" --keychain-profile "dz-notarytool-release-key" dist/Dangerzone.dmg
  • In the end you'll get a REQUEST_UUID, which identifies the submission. Keep it to check on its status.
  • You need to change the <email> in the above command with the email associated with the Apple Developer ID.
  • This command assumes that you have created, and stored in the Keychain, an application password associated with your Apple Developer ID, which will be used specifically for notarytool.
• Wait for it to get approved, check status with: xcrun notarytool info <REQUEST_UUID> --apple-id "<email>" --keychain-profile "dz-notarytool-release-key"
  • If it gets rejected, you should be able to see why with the same command (or use the log option for a more verbose JSON output)
  • You will also receive an update in your email.
• After it's approved, staple the ticket: xcrun stapler staple dist/Dangerzone.dmg

This process ends up with the final file:

dist/Dangerzone.dmg

Rename Dangerzone.dmg to Dangerzone-$VERSION.dmg.

Windows Release

The Windows release is performed in a Windows 11 virtual machine as opposed to a physical one.

Initial Setup

• Download a VirtualBox VM image for Windows from here: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/virtual-machines/ and import it into VirtualBox. Also install the Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack.
• Install updates
• Install git for Windows from https://git-scm.com/download/win, and clone the dangerzone repo
• Follow the Windows build instructions in BUILD.md, except:
  • Don't install Docker Desktop (it won't work without nested virtualization)
  • Install the Windows SDK from here: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/windows-sdk/ and add C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\ClickOnce\SignTool to the path (you'll need it for signtool.exe)
  • You'll also need the Windows codesigning certificate installed on the VM

Releasing and Signing

• Verify and checkout the git tag for this release
• Run poetry install
• Copy the container image into the VM

  Important

  Instead of running python .\install\windows\build-image.py in the VM, run the build image script on the host (making sure to build for linux/amd64). Copy share/container.tar.gz and share/image-id.txt from the host into the share folder in the VM

• Run poetry run .\install\windows\build-app.bat
• When you're done you will have dist\Dangerzone.msi

Rename Dangerzone.msi to Dangerzone-$VERSION.msi.

Linux release

Debian/Ubuntu

Because the Debian packages do not contain compiled Python code for a specific Python version, we can create a single Debian package and use it for all of our Debian-based distros.

Create a Debian Bookworm development environment. You can follow the instructions in our build section, or create your own locally with:

./dev_scripts/env.py --distro debian --version bookworm build-dev
./dev_scripts/env.py --distro debian --version bookworm run --dev bash
cd dangerzone

Build the latest container:

python3 ./install/common/build-image.py

Create a .deb:

./install/linux/build-deb.py

Publish the .deb under ./deb_dist to the freedomofpress/apt-tools-prod repo, by sending a PR. Follow the instructions in that repo on how to do so.

Fedora

NOTE: This procedure will have to be done for every supported Fedora version.

In this section, we'll use Fedora 39 as an example.

Create a Fedora development environment. You can follow the instructions in our build section, or create your own locally with:

./dev_scripts/env.py --distro fedora --version 39 build-dev
./dev_scripts/env.py --distro fedora --version 39 run --dev bash
cd dangerzone

Build the latest container:

python3 ./install/common/build-image.py

Create a .rpm:

./install/linux/build-rpm.py

Publish the .rpm under ./dist to the freedomofpress/yum-tools-prod repo, by sending a PR. Follow the instructions in that repo on how to do so.

Qubes

Create a .rpm for Qubes:

./install/linux/build-rpm.py --qubes

and similarly publish it to the freedomofpress/yum-tools-prod repo.

Publishing the Release

To publish the release:

• Create a new release on GitHub, put the changelog in the description of the release, and upload the macOS and Windows installers

  • You can use ./dev_scripts/upload-asset.py, if you want to upload an asset using an access token.

• Upload the container.tar.gz i686 image that was created in the previous step

  Important: Make sure that it's the same container image as the ones that are shipped in other platforms (see our Pre-release section)

• Update the Installing Dangerzone page

• Update the Dangerzone website to link to the new installers

• Update the brew cask release of Dangerzone with a PR like this one

• Toot release announcement on our mastodon account @dangerzone@fosstodon.org