alphagov / release

Helps deploying to GOV.UK

Release

An application to make managing releases to specific environments easier.

Technical documentation

This is a Ruby on Rails app, and should follow our Rails app conventions.

You can use the GOV.UK Docker environment to run the application and its tests with all the necessary dependencies. Follow the usage instructions to get started.

Use GOV.UK Docker to run any commands that follow.

To the run the tests

bundle exec rake

Licence

MIT License

release's Issues

Puppet consistently times out

I almost always get a 504 Gateway Timeout when requesting https://release.publishing.service.gov.uk/applications/puppet.

Only after several refreshes does the page actually load.

A read-only view on the deployed application

In order to reproduce issues from production
As a non-security-cleared developer (who isn't allowed edit access)
I want to know which version of my app is deployed on production

Proposed solution: a read-only role which has access to a read-only HTML view of the app versions (without any of the edit links)

Back fill release requests

Pull existing release requests from the current Google Spreadsheet.

This should email Carl rather than add the request directly to the release calendar.

Allow deleting applications

As a developer, I would like to delete applications from the release list. I may decide that an application I intended to create (and have added to the release app) is no longer required and hence I would like to delete it from the list.

If there are existing releases for this application, they should be retained in the database with corresponding information about what the application was, however the application itself should not appear on the Applications page.

If any new releases are made for that application, it should re-appear on the applications list automatically.

Make sure any colours used are colour blind friendly

Green and red are being used to signify different states in this application.

Make sure that all colours are friendly to users that are colour blind and if not provide alternatives where necessary.

Request/claim a release slot from the app

It would be good to be able to request a release slot from within the Release app.

One possible solution: in the commit log view, display a link to request a release for any tag ahead of the currently released version. This could potentially hook into the release calendar to show available deploy slots and/or to show when a release is scheduled for a given app.

No link back to the application from a release

Once you click into a release for an application (e.g. this one) there is no way to get back to the list of releases for that application short of manually changing the URL or clicking "Applications" and finding the app again.

Don't attempt to show commit history for Private repositories

We have a number of repositories that are on a private github enterprise repository. The release app cannot connect to this github instance and hence cannot use the API to retrieve the commit history.

We should have a per-application flag to turn off the commit-log functionality.

Show a commit log annotated with release tags and deployed-to

It's great that we can see what tag is released where.

Sometimes you want to know if commit X has been deployed. This is really hard to figure out, especially if it is an active repo.

I think we could show a commit log annotated with this information, eg:

Currently Deployed To	SHA	Message	Tag
Preview	a1b2c3	Newer feature	release_1500
	x9c0v9	Bug fix for 1234	release_1499
Production, Staging	g7h6j5	Older feature	release_1498

I think we'd need to use the GitHub API for this.

The list filter doesn’t work for the release app

The JavaScript list filtering works for most apps, but doesn’t work for the release app itself. The reason for this is that it filters on the contents of any column, and so matches the release_xxx tags we record against the apps.

github.com is hardcoded

However, it might now be github.gds...

Showing an application fails if the repo has moved

For example, when we move a repo from alphagov to gds-attic but haven't told release about it yet, the GH api can't find the commits and the show page breaks (see: https://sentry.io/govuk/app-release/issues/343884994/). I thought that GH put redirects in so maybe we need to update the API we use, or maybe we need to be more robust in the face of no commits. Frustratingly once the repo is moved you can't show the app to get the edit link to then update the repo in release.

Links to repos on the /applications page assume being on github.com

Not all apps are on github.com but links to them on the /applications page assume they are:

https://github.com/alphagov/release/blob/master/app/helpers/application_helper.rb#L27

Can this be extended so apps on github.gds can have the right links?

Add a complete list of the deploy history

Optionally filterable by environment.

Release what's currently on preview

Put in a request to release what's currently on preview.

Add error reporting

We should have error reporting if this app is going to be used seriously.

Errbit (if it's ready) or Exception Notifier.

Installation failing due to old version of therubyracer gem

Hi,

This is more of an FYI in case other people have this issue.

Performing a bundle install failed with:

Gem::Ext::BuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    /Users/bensnape/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/bin/ruby -r ./siteconf20150331-70877-1roy5v2.rb extconf.rb
checking for main() in -lobjc... yes
creating Makefile

make "DESTDIR=" clean

make "DESTDIR="
compiling rr.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
rr.cpp:48:1: warning: control reaches end of non-void function [-Wreturn-type]
}
^
1 warning generated.
compiling v8.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_array.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_callbacks.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_context.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_date.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_debug.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_exception.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
v8_exception.cpp:10:16: warning: unused variable 'stack' [-Wunused-variable]
  static void* stack[20];
               ^
1 warning generated.
compiling v8_external.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
v8_external.cpp:10:9: warning: unused variable 'references' [-Wunused-variable]
  VALUE references;
        ^
1 warning generated.
compiling v8_function.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_handle.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_locker.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
v8_locker.cpp:45:5: warning: control reaches end of non-void function [-Wreturn-type]
    }
    ^
v8_locker.cpp:85:5: warning: control reaches end of non-void function [-Wreturn-type]
    }
    ^
2 warnings generated.
compiling v8_message.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_object.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
v8_object.cpp:77:19: warning: unused variable 'proto' [-Wunused-variable]
    Handle<Value> proto(rr_rb2v8(prototype));
                  ^
1 warning generated.
compiling v8_script.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_string.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_template.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_try_catch.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_v8.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
compiling v8_value.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
v8_value.cpp:100:9: warning: unused function 'ToInt32' [-Wunused-function]
  VALUE ToInt32(VALUE self) {
        ^
1 warning generated.
compiling v8_weakref.cpp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-rdynamic'
linking shared-object v8.bundle
clang: error: no such file or directory: '/Users/bensnape/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.4/gems/libv8-3.3.10.4/lib/libv8/build/v8/libv8.a'
make: *** [v8.bundle] Error 1

make failed, exit code 2

Gem files will remain installed in /Users/bensnape/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.4/gems/therubyracer-0.10.2 for inspection.
Results logged to /Users/bensnape/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.4/extensions/x86_64-darwin-13/2.1.0/therubyracer-0.10.2/gem_make.out
An error occurred while installing therubyracer (0.10.2), and Bundler cannot continue.
Make sure that `gem install therubyracer -v '0.10.2'` succeeds before bundling.

Trying to manually install therubyracer did not work. I also tried various flags e.g. gem install therubyracer -v '0.10.2' -- --with-system-v8 with no luck.

Updating the Gemfile to use version 0.12.1 fixed the issue.

FWIW: I'm using OSX and the version of Ruby that you mandate (2.1.4).

It's trivial, but ping me if you'd like to see a PR.

Record the Jenkins user who ran a deploy task

@KushalP suggested recording who ran a given deploy. This seems like it might be nice to have.

There are a few things worth thinking about:

• we probably can't automatically map the Jenkins username to their user in the release app/signon
• If you have access to the authentication token, it would be easy to fake this (or anything else). Having said that, you would probably also have free access to the release app's database anyway.

Flakey test: `show when format is json`.

show when format is json should return a successful response flakes.

E.g.

Run options: --seed 56721

# Running:

..E

Error:
ApplicationsControllerTest#test_: GET show when format is json should return a successful response. :
RuntimeError: Neutered Exception ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid: Validation failed: Name has already been taken
    test/functional/applications_controller_test.rb:175:in `block (3 levels) in <class:ApplicationsControllerTest>'
    test/functional/applications_controller_test.rb:185:in `block in create_test_from_should_hash'

rails test test/functional/applications_controller_test.rb:178

Show the current Preview version on the Applications page.

The Applications page currently shows the versions in Staging and Production. It would be nice if it also showed the current version deployed to Preview (this already exists in the DB) so that I can be reminded what version may be deployed next.

Show git diff of current and previous

Show the diff between previous and current release tags.

Integrate with @gds_badger

As a deploying user, when I have finished a release I should be able to tweet about it from the @gds_badger account, so I can be more awesome with the Internets.

Use k8s API as source of truth for release/rollout info

We currently notify release of new deployments via a request sent when the image tag is updated. This doesn’t technically the release has deployed successfully. We could look at using the information from the k8s to show upto deployment information.

Moved from https://trello.com/c/fhugMzeP

Fill in all currently released versions

We should finish making the app the canonical list of deployed versions by copying any missing entries from the Application Versions spreadsheet.

Expose diffs between versions in different environments.

It would be great if there was a button I could click on which would show me the github diff between the version deployed in the Preview environment and that deployed in Production (also between Staging and Production) so that I may know what the differences I will be deploying are.

Hook up GDS SSO

We have a user auth system already implemented. Use it!

Show code diff between released

As a deployer,
I would like to easily access a diff between versions deployed in each environment
So that I can see the changes I might be making as part of a deploy

Open source this repo

Having successfully made omniauth-gds open source, I'd like to get this open source too.

I don't believe there are any secrets contained in this repo, or it's history. The secret token used for signing tokens is overwritten on deploy.

Changes from another repo are rejected

Repos in github.com are now backed up to GitHub Enterprise. If github.com is down, deploys will come from GHE. (Doc on process currently here: https://sites.google.com/a/digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/wiki/projects-and-processes/gov-uk/ops-manual/deployment-while-github-com-not-available)

The change is posted to the release app which rejects it with a 422 because the application has the same name.

It would be good if the release app could handle this.

Display an application’s “in sync” status on its page

On an individual application’s page, I would like it to be obvious whether the staging and production versions are the same, like it is in the application list.

Misleading commit ordering

The commits on a given release's page are in commit-date order, but the releases are tagged to merge commits.

This can mean that a commit can appear below a release tag that it wasn't included in, if it was committed earlier than that release but merged later.

For example, in this list, commit 1905d6e0f appears to be part of release_4242, but is actually part of the most recent merge which doesn't yet have a tag.

Ideally we'd want to be able to properly group commits under their relevant merge commits to give a clearer idea of what changes will go out with a given release tag.

Add a banner that indicates if it's not the canonical instance

The govuk_select_organisation script deliberately doesn't switch the release app between staging and production because this would be very confusing when you're deploying.

It feels like a nice failsafe/courtesy to make it very obvious when you are on anything but the canonical instance.

I think the app has access to $ORGANISATION, so it could use that.