--- stage: Release group: Release info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/technical-writing/#assignments --- # Release fields The following fields are available when you create or edit a release. ## Title The release title can be customized using the **Release title** field when creating or editing a release. If no title is provided, the release's tag name is used instead. ## Tag name The release tag name should include the release version. GitLab uses [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/) for our releases, and we recommend you do too. Use `(Major).(Minor).(Patch)`, as detailed in the [GitLab Policy for Versioning](../../../policy/maintenance.md#versioning). For example, for GitLab version `10.5.7`: - `10` represents the major version. The major release was `10.0.0`, but often referred to as `10.0`. - `5` represents the minor version. The minor release was `10.5.0`, but often referred to as `10.5`. - `7` represents the patch number. Any part of the version number can be multiple digits, for example, `13.10.11`. ## Release notes description Every release has a description. You can add any text you like, but we recommend including a changelog to describe the content of your release. This helps users quickly scan the differences between each release you publish. [Git's tagging messages](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Tagging) can be included in Release note descriptions by selecting **Include tag message in the release notes**. Description supports [Markdown](../../markdown.md). ## Release assets A release contains the following types of assets: - [Source code](#source-code) - [Link](#links) ### Source code GitLab automatically generates `zip`, `tar.gz`, `tar.bz2`, and `tar` archived source code from the given Git tag. These are read-only assets. ### Links A link is any URL which can point to whatever you like: documentation, built binaries, or other related materials. These can be both internal or external links from your GitLab instance. Each link as an asset has the following attributes: | Attribute | Description | Required | |-------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------| | `name` | The name of the link. | Yes | | `url` | The URL to download a file. | Yes | | `filepath` | The redirect link to the `url`. See [this section](#permanent-links-to-release-assets) for more information. | No | | `link_type` | The content kind of what users can download via `url`. See [this section](#link-types) for more information. | No | #### Permanent link to latest release > [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/16821) in GitLab 14.9. Latest release page is accessible through a permanent URL. GitLab redirects to the latest release page URL when it is visited. The format of the URL is: ```plaintext https://host/namespace/project/-/releases/permalink/latest ``` We also support, suffix path carry forward on the redirect to the latest release. Example if release `v14.8.0-ee` is the latest release and has a readable link `https://host/namespace/project/-/releases/v14.8.0-ee#release` then it can be addressed as `https://host/namespace/project/-/releases/permalink/latest#release`. Refer [permanent links to latest release assets](#permanent-links-to-latest-release-assets) section to understand more about the suffix path carry forward usage. ##### Sorting preferences By default, GitLab fetches the release using `released_at` time. The use of the query parameter `?order_by=released_at` is optional, and support for `?order_by=semver` is tracked [in this issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/352945). #### Permanent links to release assets The assets associated with a release are accessible through a permanent URL. GitLab always redirects this URL to the actual asset location, so even if the assets move to a different location, you can continue to use the same URL. This is defined during [link creation](../../../api/releases/links.md#create-a-release-link) or [updating](../../../api/releases/links.md#update-a-release-link) using the `filepath` API attribute. The format of the URL is: ```plaintext https://host/namespace/project/-/releases/:release/downloads/:filepath ``` If you have an asset for the `v11.9.0-rc2` release in the `gitlab-org` namespace and `gitlab-runner` project on `gitlab.com`, for example: ```json { "name": "linux amd64", "filepath": "/binaries/gitlab-runner-linux-amd64", "url": "https://gitlab-runner-downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/v11.9.0-rc2/binaries/gitlab-runner-linux-amd64", "link_type": "other" } ``` This asset has a direct link of: ```plaintext https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-runner/-/releases/v11.9.0-rc2/downloads/binaries/gitlab-runner-linux-amd64 ``` The physical location of the asset can change at any time and the direct link remains unchanged. #### Permanent links to latest release assets > [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/16821) in GitLab 14.9. The `filepath` from [permanent links to release assets](#permanent-links-to-release-assets) can be used in combination with [permanent link to the latest release](#permanent-link-to-latest-release). It is useful when we want to link a permanent URL to download an asset from the *latest release*. The format of the URL is: ```plaintext https://host/namespace/project/-/releases/permalink/latest/downloads/:filepath ``` If you have an asset with [`filepath`](../../../api/releases/links.md#create-a-release-link) for the `v11.9.0-rc2` latest release in the `gitlab-org` namespace and `gitlab-runner` project on `gitlab.com`, for example: ```json { "name": "linux amd64", "filepath": "/binaries/gitlab-runner-linux-amd64", "url": "https://gitlab-runner-downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/v11.9.0-rc2/binaries/gitlab-runner-linux-amd64", "link_type": "other" } ``` This asset has a direct link of: ```plaintext https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-runner/-/releases/permalink/latest/downloads/binaries/gitlab-runner-linux-amd64 ``` #### Link Types > [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/207257) in GitLab 13.1. The four types of links are "Runbook," "Package," "Image," and "Other." The `link_type` parameter accepts one of the following four values: - `runbook` - `package` - `image` - `other` (default) This field has no effect on the URL and it's only used for visual purposes in the Releases page of your project. #### Use a generic package for attaching binaries You can use [generic packages](../../packages/generic_packages/index.md) to store any artifacts from a release or tag pipeline, that can also be used for attaching binary files to an individual release entry. You basically need to: 1. [Push the artifacts to the Generic Package Registry](../../packages/generic_packages/index.md#publish-a-package-file). 1. [Attach the package link to the release](#links). The following example generates release assets, publishes them as a generic package, and then creates a release: ```yaml stages: - build - upload - release variables: # Package version can only contain numbers (0-9), and dots (.). # Must be in the format of X.Y.Z, i.e. should match /\A\d+\.\d+\.\d+\z/ regular expresion. # See https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/packages/generic_packages/#publish-a-package-file PACKAGE_VERSION: "1.2.3" DARWIN_AMD64_BINARY: "myawesomerelease-darwin-amd64-${PACKAGE_VERSION}" LINUX_AMD64_BINARY: "myawesomerelease-linux-amd64-${PACKAGE_VERSION}" PACKAGE_REGISTRY_URL: "${CI_API_V4_URL}/projects/${CI_PROJECT_ID}/packages/generic/myawesomerelease/${PACKAGE_VERSION}" build: stage: build image: alpine:latest rules: - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG script: - mkdir bin - echo "Mock binary for ${DARWIN_AMD64_BINARY}" > bin/${DARWIN_AMD64_BINARY} - echo "Mock binary for ${LINUX_AMD64_BINARY}" > bin/${LINUX_AMD64_BINARY} artifacts: paths: - bin/ upload: stage: upload image: curlimages/curl:latest rules: - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG script: - | curl --header "JOB-TOKEN: ${CI_JOB_TOKEN}" --upload-file bin/${DARWIN_AMD64_BINARY} "${PACKAGE_REGISTRY_URL}/${DARWIN_AMD64_BINARY}" - | curl --header "JOB-TOKEN: ${CI_JOB_TOKEN}" --upload-file bin/${LINUX_AMD64_BINARY} "${PACKAGE_REGISTRY_URL}/${LINUX_AMD64_BINARY}" release: # Caution, as of 2021-02-02 these assets links require a login, see: # https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/299384 stage: release image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-cli:latest rules: - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG script: - | release-cli create --name "Release $CI_COMMIT_TAG" --tag-name $CI_COMMIT_TAG \ --assets-link "{\"name\":\"${DARWIN_AMD64_BINARY}\",\"url\":\"${PACKAGE_REGISTRY_URL}/${DARWIN_AMD64_BINARY}\"}" \ --assets-link "{\"name\":\"${LINUX_AMD64_BINARY}\",\"url\":\"${PACKAGE_REGISTRY_URL}/${LINUX_AMD64_BINARY}\"}" ``` PowerShell users may need to escape the double quote `"` inside a JSON string with a `` ` `` (back tick) for `--assets-link` and `ConvertTo-Json` before passing on to the `release-cli`. For example: ```yaml release: script: - $env:asset = "{`"name`":`"MyFooAsset`",`"url`":`"https://gitlab.com/upack/artifacts/download/$env:UPACK_GROUP/$env:UPACK_NAME/$($env:GitVersion_SemVer)?contentOnly=zip`"}" - $env:assetjson = $env:asset | ConvertTo-Json - release-cli create --name $CI_COMMIT_TAG --description "Release $CI_COMMIT_TAG" --ref $CI_COMMIT_TAG --tag-name $CI_COMMIT_TAG --assets-link=$env:assetjson ``` NOTE: Directly attaching [job artifacts](../../../ci/pipelines/job_artifacts.md) links to a release is not recommended, because artifacts are ephemeral and are used to pass data in the same pipeline. This means there's a risk that they could either expire or someone might manually delete them. ### Number of new and total features **(FREE SAAS)** > [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/235618) in GitLab 13.5. On [GitLab.com](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/releases), you can view the number of new and total features in the project. ![Feature count](img/feature_count_v14_6.png "Number of features in a release") The totals are displayed on [shields](https://shields.io/) and are generated per release by [a Rake task in the `www-gitlab-com` repository](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/-/blob/master/lib/tasks/update_gitlab_project_releases_page.rake). | Item | Formula | |------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | `New features` | Total count of release posts across all tiers for a single release in the project. | | `Total features` | Total count of release posts in reverse order for all releases in the project. | The counts are also shown by license tier. | Item | Formula | |------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | `New features` | Total count of release posts across a single tier for a single release in the project. | | `Total features` | Total count of release posts across a single tier in reverse order for all releases in the project. |