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Breaking Changes
This document describes QMK's Breaking Change process. A Breaking Change is any change which modifies how QMK behaves in a way that in incompatible or potentially dangerous. We limit these changes so that users can have confidence that updating their QMK tree will not break their keymaps.
This also includes any keyboard moves within the repository.
The breaking change period is when we will merge PR's that change QMK in dangerous or unexpected ways. There is a built-in period of testing so we are confident that any problems caused are rare or unable to be predicted.
What has been included in past Breaking Changes?
- 2022 Nov 26
- 2022 Aug 27
- 2022 May 28
- 2022 Feb 26
- 2021 Nov 27
- 2021 Aug 28
- 2021 May 29
- 2021 Feb 27
- 2020 Nov 28
- 2020 Aug 29
- 2020 May 30
- 2020 Feb 29
- 2019 Aug 30
When is the next Breaking Change?
The next Breaking Change is scheduled for February 26, 2023.
Important Dates
- 2022 Nov 26 -
develop
is tagged with a new release version. Each push tomaster
is subsequently merged todevelop
by GitHub actions. - 2023 Jan 29 -
develop
closed to new PR's. - 2023 Jan 29 - Call for testers.
- 2023 Feb 12 - Last day for merges -- after this point
develop
is locked for testing and accepts only bugfixes - 2023 Feb 19 -
develop
is locked, only critical bugfix PR's merged. - 2023 Feb 24 -
master
is locked, no PR's merged. - 2023 Feb 26 - Merge
develop
tomaster
. - 2023 Feb 26 -
master
is unlocked. PR's can be merged again.
What changes will be included?
To see a list of breaking change candidates you can look at the breaking_change
label. New changes might be added between now and when develop
is closed, and a PR with that label applied is not guaranteed to be merged.
If you want your breaking change to be included in this round you need to create a PR with the breaking_change
label and have it accepted before develop
closes. After develop
closes no new breaking changes will be accepted.
Criteria for acceptance:
- The PR is complete and ready to merge
- The PR has a ChangeLog file describing the changes under
<qmk_firmware>/docs/Changelog/20221126
.- This should be in Markdown format, with a name in the format
PR12345.md
, substituting the digits for your PR's ID. - One strong recommendation that the ChangeLog document matches the PR description on GitHub, so as to ensure traceability.
- This should be in Markdown format, with a name in the format
Checklists
This section documents various processes we use when running the Breaking Changes process.
4 Weeks Before Merge
develop
is now closed to new PR's, only fixes for current PR's may be merged- Post call for testers: message
@Breaking Changes Updates
on#qmk_firmware
in Discord:@Breaking Changes Updates -- Hey folks, last day for functional PRs to be raised against qmk_firmware for this breaking changes cycle is today.
2 Weeks Before Merge
develop
is now closed to existing PR merges, only bugfixes for previous merges may be included- Post call for testers: message
@Breaking Changes Updates
on#qmk_firmware
in Discord.@Breaking Changes Updates -- Hey folks, last day for functional PRs to be merged into qmk_firmware for this breaking changes cycle is today. After that, we're handling bugfixes only.
1 Week Before Merge
develop
is now closed to PR merges, only critical bugfixes may be included- Announce that master will be closed from <2 Days Before> to -- message
@Breaking Changes Updates
on#qmk_firmware
in Discord:@Breaking Changes Updates -- Hey folks, last day for functional PRs to be merged into qmk_firmware for this breaking changes cycle is today. After that, we're handling bugfixes only.
2 Days Before Merge
master
is now closed to PR merges- Announce that master is closed for 2 days
@Breaking Changes Updates -- Hey folks, the master branch of qmk_firmware is now locked for the next couple of days while we prepare to merge the newest batch of changes from develop.
Day Of Merge
qmk_firmware
git commandsgit checkout develop
git pull --ff-only
- Edit
readme.md
- Remove the notes about
develop
- Remove the notes about
- Roll up the ChangeLog into one file.
git commit -m 'Merge point for <DATE> Breaking Change'
git push upstream develop
- GitHub Actions
- Create a PR for
develop
- Turn off 'Automatically delete head branches' for the repository -- confirm with @qmk/directors that it is done before continuing
- Create a PR for
qmk_firmware
git commandsgit checkout master
git pull --ff-only
git merge --no-ff develop
git tag <next_version>
# Prevent the breakpoint tag from confusing version incrementinggit push upstream <next_version>
git push upstream master
Post-merge operations
Updating the develop
branch
This happens immediately after the previous develop
branch is merged to master
.
-
qmk_firmware
git commandsgit checkout master
git pull --ff-only
git checkout develop
git pull --ff-only
git merge --no-ff master
- Edit
readme.md
- Add a big notice at the top that this is a testing branch. See previous revisions of the
develop
branch. - Include a link to this document
- Add a big notice at the top that this is a testing branch. See previous revisions of the
git commit -m 'Branch point for <DATE> Breaking Change'
git tag breakpoint_<YYYY>_<MM>_<DD>
git push upstream breakpoint_<YYYY>_<MM>_<DD>
-
All submodules under
lib
now need to be checked against their QMK-based forks:git submodule foreach git log -n1
- Validate each submodule SHA1 matches the qmk fork, e.g. for ChibiOS:
- Go to qmk/ChibiOS
- Compare the commit hash in the above output to the commit hash in the repository
- If there's a mismatch, that repository needs to have its
master
branch updated to match (otherwise Configurator won't work):cd lib/chibios
git fetch --all
git checkout master
git reset --hard <commit hash>
git push origin master --force-with-lease
-
Announce that both
master
anddevelop
are now unlocked -- message@Breaking Changes Updates
on#qmk_firmware
in Discord:@Breaking Changes Updates -- Hey folks, develop has now been merged into master -- newest batch of changes are now available for everyone to use!
-
(Optional) update ChibiOS + ChibiOS-Contrib on
develop
Set up Discord events for the next cycle
- Update this file with the new dates:
docs/breaking_changes.md
- Create Events on the QMK Discord - "Somewhere Else" => "GitHub":
- Event #1:
Field Value Topic Last develop
functionality PRs to be raisedStart Date ((5 weeks before merge)), 12:00am End Date ((4 weeks before merge)), 12:00am Description This is the last window for functional PRs to be raised against develop
for the current breaking changes cycle. After ((4 weeks before merge)), any new PRs targetingdevelop
will be deferred to the next cycle. - Event #2:
Field Value Topic Last develop
functionality PRs to be mergedStart Date ((4 weeks before merge)), 12:00am End Date ((2 weeks before merge)), 12:00am Description This is the last window for functional PRs to be merged into develop
for the current breaking changes cycle. After ((2 weeks before merge)), only bugfix PRs targetingdevelop
will be considered for merge. - Event #3:
Field Value Topic develop
closed for mergesStart Date ((2 weeks before merge)), 12:00am End Date ((day of merge)), 12:00am Description This is the deadline for functionality bugfix PRs to be merged into develop
for the current breaking changes cycle. After ((1 week before merge)), only critical bugfix PRs targetingdevelop
will be considered for merge. - Event #4:
Field Value Topic master
closed for mergesStart Date ((2 days before merge)), 12:00am End Date ((day of merge)), 12:00am Description This is the period that no PRs are to be merged to master
, so that the merge ofdevelop
intomaster
is stable. - Event #5:
Field Value Topic develop
merges tomaster
Start Date ((day of merge)), 12:00am End Date ((day of merge)), 11:45pm Description At some point, QMK will merge develop
intomaster
and everyone will be able to reap the benefits of the newest batch of functionality.
- Event #1: