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.
- 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
The next Breaking Change is scheduled for May 28, 2022.
- 2022 Feb 26 -
develop
is tagged with a new release version. Each push tomaster
is subsequently merged todevelop
by GitHub actions. - 2022 Apr 31 -
develop
closed to new PR's. - 2022 Apr 31 - Call for testers.
- 2022 May 14 - Last day for merges -- after this point
develop
is locked for testing and accepts only bugfixes - 2022 May 26 -
master
is locked, no PR's merged. - 2022 May 28 - Merge
develop
tomaster
. - 2022 May 28 -
master
is unlocked. PR's can be merged again.
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/20220226
.- 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
This section documents various processes we use when running the Breaking Changes process.
This happens immediately after the previous develop
branch is merged.
qmk_firmware
git commands-
git checkout master
-
git pull --ff-only
-
git checkout -b develop
- Edit
readme.md
- Add a big notice at the top that this is a testing branch.
- Include a link to this document
-
git commit -m 'Branch point for <DATE> Breaking Change'
-
git tag breakpoint_<YYYY>_<MM>_<DD>
-
git tag <next_version>
# Prevent the breakpoint tag from confusing version incrementing -
git push upstream develop
-
git push --tags
-
develop
is now closed to new PR's, only fixes for current PR's may be merged- Post call for testers
- Discord
- GitHub PR
- https://reddit.com/r/olkb
develop
is now closed to existing PR merges, only bugfixes for previous merges may be included- Post call for testers
- Discord
- GitHub PR
- https://reddit.com/r/olkb
- Announce that master will be closed from <2 Days Before> to
- Discord
- GitHub PR
- https://reddit.com/r/olkb
- Announce that master is closed for 2 days
- Discord
- GitHub PR
- https://reddit.com/r/olkb
qmk_firmware
git commands-
git 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 commands-
git checkout master
-
git pull --ff-only
-
git merge --no-ff develop
-
git push upstream master
-
- (Optional) update ChibiOS + ChibiOS-Contrib on
develop