Release process

Shipping a new version

1. Update version in /VERSION, bin/elixir and bin/elixir.bat

2. Ensure /CHANGELOG.md is updated, versioned and add the current date

3. Update "Compatibility and Deprecations" if a new OTP version is supported

4. Commit changes above with title "Release vVERSION", generate a new tag, and push it (if doing multiple releases in a series, make sure all GitHub Actions for the previous release have finished)

5. Wait until GitHub Actions publish artifacts to the draft release and the CI is green

6. Copy the relevant bits from /CHANGELOG.md to the GitHub release and publish it (link to the announcement if there is one)

7. Update _data/elixir-versions.yml (except for RCs) in elixir-lang/elixir-lang.github.com

Creating a new vMAJOR.MINOR branch (before first rc)

In the new branch

1. Comment out CANONICAL= in /Makefile

2. Update tables in /SECURITY.md and "Compatibility and Deprecations"

3. Commit "Branch out vMAJOR.MINOR"

Back in main

1. Bump /VERSION file, bin/elixir and bin/elixir.bat

2. Start new /CHANGELOG.md

3. Update tables in /SECURITY.md and in "Compatibility and Deprecations"

4. Commit "Start vMAJOR.MINOR+1"

Changing supported Erlang/OTP versions

1. Update the table in Compatibility and Deprecations

2. Update otp_release checks in /Makefile and /lib/elixir/src/elixir.erl

3. Update relevant CI workflows in /.github/workflows/*.yml

4. Remove otp_release version checks that are no longer needed