Release notes for 7.1.x are missing

[janpio]

7.1.1, 7.1.2, 7.1.3 and 7.1.4 were released, but the release notes in master were not updated.

The release note exist in the release branch: https://github.com/apache/cordova-android/blob/7.1.x/RELEASENOTES.md

[brody4hire]

That is because 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 7.1.3, and 7.1.4 are not part of master.

If we release 8.0.0 according to https://github.com/apache/cordova-coho/blob/master/docs/platforms-release-process.md then we should see all changes for 8.0.0 in RELEASENOTES.md.

I hope this makes sense.

[janpio]

Does that make sense to you? It feels like a missing thing in the release docs to me.

How do e.g. bugfixes from the release branch make its way back to master? Only on the next major or minor release that also merges back the release notes?

[brody4hire]

We generally do not commit any bug fix onto a release branch such as 7.1.x before we commit it onto master.

According to the release process we update RELEASENOTES.md from the changes on the branch that we release. So all changes in master that have not been released should make it into RELEASENOTES.md when we make a release.

This is how our development works. If it does not make sense then please request clarification via Slack or dev forum. I am pretty busy with some bug fixes and fallen behind on my own commitments.

[erisu]

Per documentation:

Special Case 1: Release notes in release branch for patch release

If you have prepared the release notes in your release branch for a patch release, you will have to cherry-pick the RELEASENOTES only into your master branch as well (stage only the appropriate chunk).

git checkout master
git checkout -p RELEASENOTES_COMMIT_SHA_HASH

For iOS, you may have to cherry-pick the commit for Added X.Y.Z to CDVAvailability.h (via coho) into the master branch as well.

The bolded line states that master should contain the release notes from the release branch by cherry picking them.

https://github.com/apache/cordova-coho/blob/master/docs/platforms-release-process.md#special-case-1-release-notes-in-release-branch-for-patch-release

[janpio]

Yeah, I think the way @brodybits reads this is that this should happen when you do the next release from master - which I agree is one possible interpretation of how it is written.

But I think it was probably meant like you interpret it: After having added the release notes to the release branch, also cherry pick them over to master and then continue with the release in the release bracnh.

Does this make sense? If so, we should probably clarify this section to make this clearer.

I think in general, users would expect the release notes in master to always contain all releases, because this is where you go to learn more about the releases - not in the release branch (which 95% of users probably don't even know about - which is totally fine).