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-rw-r--r--doc/development/README.md2
-rw-r--r--doc/development/changelog.md185
-rw-r--r--doc/development/post_deployment_migrations.md75
-rw-r--r--doc/development/testing.md36
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diff --git a/doc/development/README.md b/doc/development/README.md
index 14d6f08e43a..bf1f054b7d5 100644
--- a/doc/development/README.md
+++ b/doc/development/README.md
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
## Process
+- [Generate a changelog entry with `bin/changelog`](changelog.md)
- [Code review guidelines](code_review.md) for reviewing code and having code reviewed.
- [Merge request performance guidelines](merge_request_performance_guidelines.md)
for ensuring merge requests do not negatively impact GitLab performance
@@ -41,6 +42,7 @@
- [What requires downtime?](what_requires_downtime.md)
- [Adding database indexes](adding_database_indexes.md)
+- [Post Deployment Migrations](post_deployment_migrations.md)
## Compliance
diff --git a/doc/development/changelog.md b/doc/development/changelog.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6a97fae9cac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/development/changelog.md
@@ -0,0 +1,185 @@
+# Generate a changelog entry
+
+This guide contains instructions for generating a changelog entry data file, as
+well as information and history about our changelog process.
+
+## Overview
+
+Each bullet point, or **entry**, in our [`CHANGELOG.md`][changelog.md] file is
+generated from a single data file in the [`changelogs/unreleased/`][unreleased]
+(or corresponding EE) folder. The file is expected to be a [YAML] file in the
+following format:
+
+```yaml
+---
+title: "Going through change[log]s"
+merge_request: 1972
+author: Ozzy Osbourne
+```
+
+The `merge_request` value is a reference to a merge request that adds this
+entry, and the `author` key is used to give attribution to community
+contributors. Both are optional.
+
+Community contributors and core team members are encouraged to add their name to
+the `author` field. GitLab team members should not.
+
+If you're working on the GitLab EE repository, the entry will be added to
+`changelogs/unreleased-ee/` instead.
+
+[changelog.md]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md
+[unreleased]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/tree/master/changelogs/
+[YAML]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML
+
+## Instructions
+
+A `bin/changelog` script is available to generate the changelog entry file
+automatically.
+
+Its simplest usage is to provide the value for `title`:
+
+```text
+$ bin/changelog 'Hey DZ, I added a feature to GitLab!'
+create changelogs/unreleased/my-feature.yml
+---
+title: Hey DZ, I added a feature to GitLab!
+merge_request:
+author:
+```
+
+The entry filename is based on the name of the current Git branch. If you run
+the command above on a branch called `feature/hey-dz`, it will generate a
+`changelogs/unreleased/feature-hey-dz.yml` file.
+
+### Arguments
+
+| Argument | Shorthand | Purpose |
+| ----------------- | --------- | --------------------------------------------- |
+| `--amend` | | Amend the previous commit |
+| `--force` | `-f` | Overwrite an existing entry |
+| `--merge-request` | `-m` | Merge Request ID |
+| `--dry-run` | `-n` | Don't actually write anything, just print |
+| `--git-username` | `-u` | Use Git user.name configuration as the author |
+| `--help` | `-h` | Print help message |
+
+#### `--amend`
+
+You can pass the **`--amend`** argument to automatically stage the generated
+file and amend it to the previous commit.
+
+If you use **`--amend`** and don't provide a title, it will automatically use
+the "subject" of the previous commit, which is the first line of the commit
+message:
+
+```text
+$ git show --oneline
+ab88683 Added an awesome new feature to GitLab
+
+$ bin/changelog --amend
+create changelogs/unreleased/feature-hey-dz.yml
+---
+title: Added an awesome new feature to GitLab
+merge_request:
+author:
+```
+
+#### `--force` or `-f`
+
+Use **`--force`** or **`-f`** to overwrite an existing changelog entry if it
+already exists.
+
+```text
+$ bin/changelog 'Hey DZ, I added a feature to GitLab!'
+error changelogs/unreleased/feature-hey-dz.yml already exists! Use `--force` to overwrite.
+
+$ bin/changelog 'Hey DZ, I added a feature to GitLab!' --force
+create changelogs/unreleased/feature-hey-dz.yml
+---
+title: Hey DZ, I added a feature to GitLab!
+merge_request: 1983
+author:
+```
+
+#### `--merge-request` or `-m`
+
+Use the **`--merge-request`** or **`-m`** argument to provide the
+`merge_request` value:
+
+```text
+$ bin/changelog 'Hey DZ, I added a feature to GitLab!' -m 1983
+create changelogs/unreleased/feature-hey-dz.yml
+---
+title: Hey DZ, I added a feature to GitLab!
+merge_request: 1983
+author:
+```
+
+#### `--dry-run` or `-n`
+
+Use the **`--dry-run`** or **`-n`** argument to prevent actually writing or
+committing anything:
+
+```text
+$ bin/changelog --amend --dry-run
+create changelogs/unreleased/feature-hey-dz.yml
+---
+title: Added an awesome new feature to GitLab
+merge_request:
+author:
+
+$ ls changelogs/unreleased/
+```
+
+#### `--git-username` or `-u`
+
+Use the **`--git-username`** or **`-u`** argument to automatically fill in the
+`author` value with your configured Git `user.name` value:
+
+```text
+$ git config user.name
+Jane Doe
+
+$ bin/changelog --u 'Hey DZ, I added a feature to GitLab!'
+create changelogs/unreleased/feature-hey-dz.yml
+---
+title: Hey DZ, I added a feature to GitLab!
+merge_request:
+author: Jane Doe
+```
+
+## History and Reasoning
+
+Our `CHANGELOG` file was previously updated manually by each contributor that
+felt their change warranted an entry. When two merge requests added their own
+entries at the same spot in the list, it created a merge conflict in one as soon
+as the other was merged. When we had dozens of merge requests fighting for the
+same changelog entry location, this quickly became a major source of merge
+conflicts and delays in development.
+
+This led us to a [boring solution] of "add your entry in a random location in
+the list." This actually worked pretty well as we got further along in each
+monthly release cycle, but at the start of a new cycle, when a new version
+section was added and there were fewer places to "randomly" add an entry, the
+conflicts became a problem again until we had a sufficient number of entries.
+
+On top of all this, it created an entirely different headache for [release managers]
+when they cherry-picked a commit into a stable branch for a patch release. If
+the commit included an entry in the `CHANGELOG`, it would include the entire
+changelog for the latest version in `master`, so the release manager would have
+to manually remove the later entries. They often would have had to do this
+multiple times per patch release. This was compounded when we had to release
+multiple patches at once due to a security issue.
+
+We needed to automate all of this manual work. So we [started brainstorming].
+After much discussion we settled on the current solution of one file per entry,
+and then compiling the entries into the overall `CHANGELOG.md` file during the
+[release process].
+
+[boring solution]: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/#boring-solutions
+[release managers]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-tools/blob/master/doc/release-manager.md
+[started brainstorming]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/17826
+[release process]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-tools
+
+---
+
+[Return to Development documentation](README.md)
diff --git a/doc/development/post_deployment_migrations.md b/doc/development/post_deployment_migrations.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cfc91539bee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/development/post_deployment_migrations.md
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+# Post Deployment Migrations
+
+Post deployment migrations are regular Rails migrations that can optionally be
+executed after a deployment. By default these migrations are executed alongside
+the other migrations. To skip these migrations you will have to set the
+environment variable `SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS` to a non-empty value
+when running `rake db:migrate`.
+
+For example, this would run all migrations including any post deployment
+migrations:
+
+```bash
+bundle exec rake db:migrate
+```
+
+This however will skip post deployment migrations:
+
+```bash
+SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS=true bundle exec rake db:migrate
+```
+
+## Deployment Integration
+
+Say you're using Chef for deploying new versions of GitLab and you'd like to run
+post deployment migrations after deploying a new version. Let's assume you
+normally use the command `chef-client` to do so. To make use of this feature
+you'd have to run this command as follows:
+
+```bash
+SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS=true sudo chef-client
+```
+
+Once all servers have been updated you can run `chef-client` again on a single
+server _without_ the environment variable.
+
+The process is similar for other deployment techniques: first you would deploy
+with the environment variable set, then you'll essentially re-deploy a single
+server but with the variable _unset_.
+
+## Creating Migrations
+
+To create a post deployment migration you can use the following Rails generator:
+
+```bash
+bundle exec rails g post_deployment_migration migration_name_here
+```
+
+This will generate the migration file in `db/post_migrate`. These migrations
+behave exactly like regular Rails migrations.
+
+## Use Cases
+
+Post deployment migrations can be used to perform migrations that mutate state
+that an existing version of GitLab depends on. For example, say you want to
+remove a column from a table. This requires downtime as a GitLab instance
+depends on this column being present while it's running. Normally you'd follow
+these steps in such a case:
+
+1. Stop the GitLab instance
+2. Run the migration removing the column
+3. Start the GitLab instance again
+
+Using post deployment migrations we can instead follow these steps:
+
+1. Deploy a new version of GitLab while ignoring post deployment migrations
+2. Re-run `rake db:migrate` but without the environment variable set
+
+Here we don't need any downtime as the migration takes place _after_ a new
+version (which doesn't depend on the column anymore) has been deployed.
+
+Some other examples where these migrations are useful:
+
+* Cleaning up data generated due to a bug in GitLab
+* Removing tables
+* Migrating jobs from one Sidekiq queue to another
diff --git a/doc/development/testing.md b/doc/development/testing.md
index 8e91ac5e3ba..b0b26ccf57a 100644
--- a/doc/development/testing.md
+++ b/doc/development/testing.md
@@ -132,6 +132,42 @@ Adding new Spinach scenarios is acceptable _only if_ the new scenario requires
no more than one new `step` definition. If more than that is required, the
test should be re-implemented using RSpec instead.
+## Testing Rake Tasks
+
+To make testing Rake tasks a little easier, there is a helper that can be included
+in lieu of the standard Spec helper. Instead of `require 'spec_helper'`, use
+`require 'rake_helper'`. The helper includes `spec_helper` for you, and configures
+a few other things to make testing Rake tasks easier.
+
+At a minimum, requiring the Rake helper will redirect `stdout`, include the
+runtime task helpers, and include the `RakeHelpers` Spec support module.
+
+The `RakeHelpers` module exposes a `run_rake_task(<task>)` method to make
+executing tasks simple. See `spec/support/rake_helpers.rb` for all available
+methods.
+
+Example:
+
+```ruby
+require 'rake_helper'
+
+describe 'gitlab:shell rake tasks' do
+ before do
+ Rake.application.rake_require 'tasks/gitlab/shell'
+
+ stub_warn_user_is_not_gitlab
+ end
+
+ describe 'install task' do
+ it 'invokes create_hooks task' do
+ expect(Rake::Task['gitlab:shell:create_hooks']).to receive(:invoke)
+
+ run_rake_task('gitlab:shell:install')
+ end
+ end
+end
+```
+
---
[Return to Development documentation](README.md)