Release v1.0.2

[danehans]

• Introduction
• Prerequisites
• Release Process
• Announce the Release
• Final Steps

Introduction

This document defines the process for releasing Gateway API Inference Extension.

Prerequisites

1. Permissions to push to the Gateway API Inference Extension repository.

2. Set the required environment variables based on the expected release number:

   export MAJOR=0
   export MINOR=1
   export PATCH=0
   export REMOTE=origin

3. If creating a release candidate, set the release candidate number.

   export RC=1

4. Refer to the release-quickstart script for the default image tags used
   by the vLLM deployment manifests. If a newer GPU, CPU, or Simulator
   tag has been published, set the appropriate environment variable or update the script. For example:

   export VLLM_GPU=0.8.5
   export VLLM_CPU=0.9.3
   export VLLM_SIM=0.3.0

Release Process

1. If needed, clone the Gateway API Inference Extension repo.

   git clone -o ${REMOTE} https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension.git

2. If you already have the repo cloned, ensure it’s up-to-date and your local branch is clean.

3. Release Branch Handling:

   • For a Release Candidate:
     Create a new release branch from the main branch. The branch should be named release-${MAJOR}.${MINOR}, for example, release-0.1:

     git checkout -b release-${MAJOR}.${MINOR}

   • For a Major, Minor or Patch Release:
     A release branch should already exist. In this case, check out the existing branch:

     git checkout -b release-${MAJOR}.${MINOR} ${REMOTE}/release-${MAJOR}.${MINOR}

4. Update release-specific content, generate release artifacts, and stage the changes.

   make release

5. Sign, commit, and push the changes to the Gateway API Inference Extension repo.

   For a release candidate:

   git commit -s -m "Updates artifacts for v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.${PATCH}-rc.${RC} release"

   For a major, minor or patch release:

   git commit -s -m "Updates artifacts for v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.${PATCH} release"

6. Push your release branch to the Gateway API Inference Extension remote.

   git push ${REMOTE} release-${MAJOR}.${MINOR}

7. Tag the head of your release branch with the number.

   For a release candidate:

   git tag -s -a v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.${PATCH}-rc.${RC} -m 'Gateway API Inference Extension v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.${PATCH}-rc.${RC} Release Candidate'

   For a major, minor or patch release:

   git tag -s -a v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.${PATCH} -m 'Gateway API Inference Extension v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.${PATCH} Release'

   Note: A PGP key must be registered to your GitHub account.

8. Push the tag to the Gateway API Inference Extension repo.

   For a release candidate:

   git push ${REMOTE} v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.${PATCH}-rc.${RC}

   For a major, minor or patch release:

   git push ${REMOTE} v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.${PATCH}

9. Pushing the tag triggers Prow to build and publish the container image to the staging registry.

10. Submit a PR against k8s.io to add the staging image tag and SHA to k8s-staging-gateway-api-inference-extension/images.yaml. This will
    promote the image to the production registry, e.g. registry.k8s.io/gateway-api-inference-extension/epp:v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.${PATCH}.
    Note: Add a link to this issue when the PR is merged.

11. Test the steps in the tagged quickstart guide after the PR merges, for example: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension/blob/v0.1.0-rc.1/pkg/README.md.

12. Create a new release:

    1. Choose the tag that you created for the release.
    2. Use the tag as the release title, i.e. v0.1.0 refer to previous release for the content of the release body.
    3. Click "Generate release notes" and preview the release body.
    4. Click "Attach binaries by dropping them here or selecting them." and add the contents of the artifacts directory generated from make release.
    5. If this is a release candidate, select the "This is a pre-release" checkbox.

13. If you find any bugs in this process, create an issue.

Announce the Release

Use the following steps to announce the release.

1. Send an announcement email to wg-serving@kubernetes.io and dev@kubernetes.io with the subject:

   [ANNOUNCE] Gateway API Inference Extension v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.${PATCH} is released

2. Add a link to the release announcement in this issue.

Final Steps

1. Update docs in the main branch.
2. Close this issue.

[danehans]

Waiting for #1725 to merge before proceeding.