go/doc/README.md

Release Notes

The initial and next subdirectories of this directory are for release notes.

For developers

Release notes should be added to next by editing existing files or creating new files. Do not add RELNOTE=yes comments in CLs. Instead, add a file to the CL (or ask the author to do so).

At the end of the development cycle, the files will be merged by being concatenated in sorted order by pathname. Files in the directory matching the glob "*stdlib/*minor" are treated specially. They should be in subdirectories corresponding to standard library package paths, and headings for those package paths will be generated automatically.

Files in this repo's api/next directory must have corresponding files in doc/next/*stdlib/*minor. The files should be in the subdirectory for the package with the new API, and should be named after the issue number of the API proposal. For example, if the directory 6-stdlib/99-minor is present, then an api/next file with the line

pkg net/http, function F #12345

should have a corresponding file named doc/next/6-stdlib/99-minor/net/http/12345.md. At a minimum, that file should contain either a full sentence or a TODO, ideally referring to a person with the responsibility to complete the note.

If your CL addresses an accepted proposal, mention the proposal issue number in your release note in the form /issue/NUMBER. A link to the issue in the text will have this form (see below). If you don't want to mention the issue in the text, add it as a comment:

<!-- go.dev/issue/12345 -->

If an accepted proposal is mentioned in a CL but not in the release notes, it will be flagged as a TODO by the automated tooling. That is true even for proposals that add API.

Use the following forms in your markdown:

[http.Request]                     # symbol documentation; auto-linked as in Go doc strings
[Request]                          # short form, for symbols in the package being documented
[net/http]                         # package link
[#12345](/issue/12345)             # GitHub issues
[CL 6789](/cl/6789)                # Gerrit changelists

To preview next content in merged form using a local instance of the website, run:

go run golang.org/x/website/cmd/golangorg@latest -goroot=..

Then open http://localhost:6060/doc/next. Refresh the page to see your latest edits.

For the release team

The relnote tool, at golang.org/x/build/cmd/relnote, operates on the files in doc/next.

As a release cycle nears completion, run relnote todo to get a list of unfinished release note work.

To prepare the release notes for a release, run relnote generate. That will merge the .md files in next into a single file. Atomically (as close to it as possible) add that file to _content/doc directory of the website repository and remove the doc/next directory in this repository.

To begin the next release development cycle, populate the contents of next with those of initial. From the repo root:

> cd doc
> cp -R initial/ next

Then edit next/1-intro.md to refer to the next version.