Release Minor Candidate

This document goes over steps to run different types of React Native release updates. It is intended audience is for those in relevant release roles.

Pre-requisites

Write access to react-native repository.
Write access to hermes repository.
Your CircleCI personal API token. See here on how to set one.

1. Creating a new release branch

Create the release branch in react-native repo with the appropriate name (usually 0.X-stable).
```
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git checkout -b 0.68-stable
```
Head to the Publish Tag workflow in the Hermes repo. Click the "Run Workflow" button and input the RN stable version you're using (e.g. 0.69.0). You need to have write access to the facebook/hermes repo to do so or ask a Meta employee to help you on this step.

Bump the Hermes version on the release branch using this command:

# Replace <the_hermes_tag> with the tag that will look like 'hermes-2022-02-21-RNv0.68.0-rc1-0172d30ac14e8c936c4fd2c435b799e0009aeb00'
./scripts/bump-hermes-version.js -t <the_hermes_tag>

2. Test the current changes

Before continuing further, follow the testing guide to ensure the release doesn't have any major issues.

3. Kick off the build of 0.{minor}.0-rc.0

git push origin 0.68-stable

# This will walk you through what version you are releasing
./scripts/bump-oss-version.js -v 0.68.0-rc.0 -t <YOUR_CIRCLE_CI_TOKEN>

Once you have run that script, head to CircleCI and you should see under the releases workflow, a prepare-package-for-release job.
CircleCI showing publish release.
This script runs and commits any changes and triggers a deploy job, build_and_publish_npm_package.
Note: Look under "All Branches" to find the publish job. CircleCI does not give a way to search for these jobs.

Once complete you should be able to run npm view react-native and verify next is expected release version.

npm view react-native
...
dist-tags:
latest: 0.65.1            next: 0.66.0-rc.2         nightly: 0.0.0-f617e022c

4. Create a PR of the changelog generator

# Run following with the stable release as base, and your rc.0 version
npx @rnx-kit/rn-changelog-generator --base v[LATEST_STABLE]--compare v[YOUR_RC_0] \
--repo ~/react-native --changelog ~/react-native/CHANGELOG.md > NEW_CHANGES.md

# example against 0.66.4 and 0.67.0-rc.0
npx @rnx-kit/rn-changelog-generator --base v0.66.4 --compare v0.67.0-rc.0 \
--repo ~/react-native --changelog ~/react-native/CHANGELOG.md > NEW_CHANGES.md

Prepend contents of NEW_CHANGES.md to CHANGELOG.md.
Create a pull request of this change to react-native repo and add the Changelog label.

5. Create a GitHub Release

Create a GitHub Release with this template and check "Pre-Release" checkbox.

<!-- Template for pre-release GitHub release -->

- <!-- TODO List out notable picks for this patch -->

---

To test it, run:

<!-- TODO Update with your version -->

npx react-native init RN067RC5 --version 0.67.0-rc.5

---

You can participate in the conversation on the status of this release in the [working group](https://github.com/reactwg/react-native-releases/discussions).

---

To help you upgrade to this version, you can use the [upgrade helper](https://react-native-community.github.io/upgrade-helper/) ⚛️

---

See changes from this release in the [changelog PR](https://github.com/facebook/react-native/labels/%F0%9F%93%9D%20Changelog)

6. Upload prebuilt Hermes binary

In the publish_release CI workflow, the build_hermes_macos step produces a tmp/hermes/output/hermes-runtime-darwin-vx.y.z.tar.gz artifact, for example here are the artifacts for 0.69.0 release. Download it and attach it to the GitHub release.

7. Create a tracking discussion post

Create a "Road to <YOUR_MINOR_VERSION>" discussion post in react-native-releases:

<!-- Template for a new minor release candidate -->
<!-- Title: Road to <YOUR_VERSION> -->

The branch cut has happened.

## Notice

<!-- TODO update the version -->

- [Current release candidate: 0.68.0-rc.0][current-release]
- Have an issue with current release candidate? [File an issue][issue-form] and we will triage.
- Have a pick request for this release? Does it fall under our [pick request qualifications][release-faq]? If so please create a PR against the release branch and comment with the PR link
- If you are release testing, copy and fill a [test checklist](/contributing/release-testing#test-checklist).

#### Highlighted Changes in this release

<!-- Add stand-out changes in this release, and link to changelog PR.  -->

- Checkout this [Changelog PR][changelog-pr]

## [Release Process][release-processes]

#### Checklist

- [ ] [Changelog PR][changelog-pr]
- [ ] Start a Google doc of blog post for release and invite contributors of release highlights to expand
- [ ] Follow up on [release dependencies][release-dependencies]
  > When ready to publish stable
- [ ] Ship changelog
- [ ] Ship blog post
- [ ] Notify `react-native-website` to ship new version

#### Retrospective Topics

<!-- List out pain points, issues to investigate that are not release-blocking to follow up on -->

-

## Release Status

### Tracking 0.67.0-rc.1

#### Blocking issues for releasing 0.67.0-rc.1

-

#### Picks for 0.67.0-rc.1

-

[changelog-pr]: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/labels/%F0%9F%93%9D%20Changelog
[current-release]: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/releases
[changelog-wiki]: https://reactnative.dev/contributing/changelogs-in-pull-requests
[release-dependencies]: https://reactnative.dev/contributing/release-dependencies
[release-faq]: https://reactnative.dev/contributing/release-faq
[issue-form]: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/new?assignees=&labels=Needs%3A+Triage+%3Amag%3A%2Cpre-release&template=release_blocker_form.yml
[releases]: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/releases
[release-processes]: https://reactnative.dev/contributing/overview
[upgrade-helper]: https://reactnative.dev/contributing/updating-upgrade-helper

8. Verify that Upgrade Helper GitHub action has fired

You should see a new publish job complete here.
If not, check out the guide on how to update Upgrade Helper.

9. Broadcast that release candidate is out

React Native Twitter.
Discord #releases-coordination channel.

Pre-requisites​

1. Creating a new release branch​

2. Test the current changes​

3. Kick off the build of 0.{minor}.0-rc.0​

4. Create a PR of the changelog generator​

5. Create a GitHub Release​

6. Upload prebuilt Hermes binary​

7. Create a tracking discussion post​

8. Verify that Upgrade Helper GitHub action has fired​

9. Broadcast that release candidate is out​