Releases and updates
How a new Formlander version reaches your server, what the version tags mean, and how to run release candidates or pin a version.
Formlander ships on a weekly train. New work runs as a release candidate for a week before your server gets it.
The weekly train
Section titled “The weekly train”Every Monday at 04:17 UTC:
- The candidate that ran for 6 days or more becomes the stable release.
v3.8.0-rc.2becomesv3.8.0, from the same commit. - When there are new changes, they become the next candidate:
v3.9.0-rc.1.
A candidate that changes nothing you can see, such as docs or build settings, stays a candidate. When a candidate needs a fix, the next candidate replaces it and waits its own 6 days.
Your server updates each night at 05:30 UTC, after a backup of its database. A new release reaches it at the first update after the release is out.
Version names
Section titled “Version names”| Version | What it is |
|---|---|
v3.8.0-rc.1, v3.8.0-rc.2 |
Release candidates of 3.8.0. The number after rc. counts them. |
v3.8.0 |
The stable release, from the commit of the last candidate. |
Each version is a Docker image with the same name, without the v: karloscodes/formlander:3.8.0-rc.2. More tags move with the train:
| Image tag | Holds | Who follows it |
|---|---|---|
latest |
The newest stable release | Every install, unless you change it |
v3, v3.8 |
The newest stable release of that major or minor version | Servers pinned to a major or minor version |
rc |
The newest release candidate | Servers that run candidates |
Candidates show as pre-releases on the releases page.
Run the release candidates
Section titled “Run the release candidates”To get each candidate the night after it comes out, point the server at rc. Run this from your computer, with the Chasen CLI logged in to the server (chasen add server [email protected]):
chasen deploy karloscodes/formlander:rc --auto-updateThe domain, the data, and the settings stay. Formlander updates to the newest candidate now, and each night after that.
To go back to the stable releases:
chasen deploy karloscodes/formlander:latest --auto-updateThe install line also puts the server back on latest.
Pin a version
Section titled “Pin a version”To stay on one version, deploy it and turn off the nightly update:
chasen deploy karloscodes/formlander:3.7.0 --no-auto-updateTo roll back the last update, chasen -a formlander rollback is faster. It keeps the version before on the server.