For each version, there is a raw version and a tag version:
- The **raw version** is the version number. For instance, `15.2.8`.
- The **tag version** is the raw version prefixed with `v`. For instance, `v15.2.8`.
To release a new version of GitLab Shell and have that version available to the
Rails application:
1. Create a merge request to update the [`CHANGELOG`](CHANGELOG) with the
**tag version** and the [`VERSION`](VERSION) file with the **raw version**.
2. Ask a maintainer to review and merge the merge request. If you're already a
maintainer, second maintainer review is not required.
3. Add a new git tag with the **tag version**.
4. Update `GITLAB_SHELL_VERSION` in the Rails application to the **raw
version**. (Note: this can be done as a separate MR to that, or in and MR
that will make use of the latest GitLab Shell changes.)
## Security releases
GitLab Shell is included in the packages we create for GitLab, and each version of GitLab specifies the version of GitLab Shell it uses in the `GITLAB_SHELL_VERSION` file, so security fixes in GitLab Shell are tightly coupled to the [GitLab security release](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/workflow/#security-issues) workflow.
For a security fix in GitLab Shell, two sets of merge requests are required:
* The fix itself, in the `gitlab-org/security/gitlab-shell` repository and its backports to the previous versions of GitLab Shell
* Merge requests to change the versions of GitLab Shell included in the GitLab security release, in the `gitlab-org/security/gitlab` repository
The first step could be to create a merge request with a fix targeting `main` in `gitlab-org/security/gitlab-shell`. When the merge request is approved by maintainers, backports targeting previous 3 versions of GitLab Shell must be created. The stable branches for those versions may not exist, feel free to ask a maintainer to create ones. The stable branches must be created out of the GitLab Shell tags/version used by the 3 previous GitLab releases. In order to find out the GitLab Shell version that is used on a particular GitLab stable release, the following steps may be helpful:
```shell
git fetch security 13-9-stable-ee
git show refs/remotes/security/13-9-stable-ee:GITLAB_SHELL_VERSION
```
These steps display the version that is used by `13.9` version of GitLab.
Close to the GitLab security release, a maintainer should merge the fix and backports and cut all the necessary GitLab Shell versions. This allows bumping the `GITLAB_SHELL_VERSION` for `gitlab-org/security/gitlab`. The GitLab merge request will be handled by the general GitLab security release process.
Once the security release is done, a GitLab Shell maintainer is responsible for syncing tags and `main` to the `gitlab-org/gitlab-shell` repository.
