Release 6.0.0 - December 2022

[Wyverald]

Status of Bazel 6.0.0

• Target baseline: 2022-10-24
• Expected release date: 2022-12-19
• List of release blockers

To report a release-blocking bug, please add a comment with the text @bazel-io flag to the issue. A release manager will triage it and add it to the milestone.

Task list:

• Pick release baseline
• Create release candidate
• Check downstream projects
• Create draft release announcement
• Send for review the release announcement PR
• Push the release, notify package maintainers
• Update the documentation
• Push the blog post
• Update the release page

[limdor]

It would be nice if this would go it, I guess it got forgotten #15960

[alexeagle]

FYI @fmeum has one more commit to finish with #10298 and it's quite important to me and @ulfjack that we have symlinks working so that rules_js can support RBE. Will link the remaining PR when we have it.

[Wyverald]

Given the number of release blockers present and the unresolved redness in the downstream pipeline, we'll tentatively push out the branch cut date by two weeks (to 2022-09-26).

[Wyverald]

There are still many release blockers outstanding (most importantly #16124 and #10298), we're going to push the branch cut date by another two weeks (to 2022-10-10).

[meteorcloudy]

We still need more time to finish implementing features (#16124, #11261), fix breakages (#16296) and flip incompatible flags, therefore we are pushing the 6.0 cut by another two weeks (to 2022-10-24).

[meteorcloudy]

Bazel 6.0.0rc1 is now available for those that want to try it out.

You can download it from:
https://releases.bazel.build/6.0.0/rc1/index.html.

Please report regressions to https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues as soon as possible.

For any cherry-pick requests, please send PRs to the release-6.0.0 branch.

[UebelAndre]

Would it be possible to get some resolution for the following PRs to see if we can get that in the 6.0 release?

• Add arguments parameter to RunEnvironmentInfo #16430
• Added run_under_env argument to RunEnvironmentInfo #16540

I can open cherry-pick PRs to that branch if these are merged.

[konste]

@bazel-io flag
Something is wrong with no-jdk Windows binary https://releases.bazel.build/6.0.0/rc1/bazel_nojdk-6.0.0rc1-windows-x86_64.exe
It fails to start with the message FATAL: Failed to find member 'install_base_key' in zip file 'C:\1\bazel.exe'
It worked fine with all pre-release version up to the latest one bazel_nojdk-6.0.0-pre.20221012.2-windows-x86_64.exe

[meteorcloudy]

Would it be possible to get some resolution for the following PRs to see if we can get that in the 6.0 release?

Depending on if we have the capacity, @comius is the reviewer of both PRs, so he'll decide. And if they are not incompatible changes, they can probably wait for 6.x minor releases.

[meteorcloudy]

@konste I'll look into the Windows issue

[fmeum]

@meteorcloudy rules_jni Windows CI builds running against last_green with a local JDK 17 started failing with Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InaccessibleObjectException: Unable to make java.lang.String(byte[],byte) accessible: module java.base does not "opens java.lang" to unnamed module in StringUnsafe on 902a0b5 and last succeeded on 50b87c1. This is interesting since it can only happen if this line isn't executed, that is, if the embedded JRE isn't found. This seems related to #16159 (comment), so it might be that more than just no-jdk builds on Windows may be affected by some kind of install base corruption.

[meteorcloudy]

@konste @fmeum OK, I filed an issue to track this problem.

[gregmagolan]

@meteorcloudy This commit would be useful to cherry pick into 6.0 if possible 4959d34. Fixes a minor annoyance in downstream rule sets. 🙏

[meteorcloudy]

@gregmagolan Can you send a PR to the release-6.0.0 branch?

[Kernald]

@meteorcloudy e7d50fc seems to be required for Android + bzlmod to work fine. Any chance to get it in 6.0.0?

[Wyverald]

@Kernald #16772

[ShreeM01]

Bazel 6.0.0rc2 is now available for those that want to try it out.

You can download it from:
https://releases.bazel.build/6.0.0/rc2/index.html

Please report regressions to https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues as soon as possible.

[vogelsgesang]

Is there already a release announcement draft? The "Create draft release announcement" link seems to not contain anything for Bazel 6, yet

[keertk]

Hi @vogelsgesang yes, there's a draft here. I've fixed the link above too - thanks for flagging!

[purkhusid]

Any chance that dce6ed7 could be cherry picked into 6.0? It fixes #11920 which is a pretty big UX fix

[ShreeM01]

Any chance that dce6ed7 could be cherry picked into 6.0? It fixes #11920 which is a pretty big UX fix

Thanks @purkhusid for bringing it up! Here It is concluded #16821

[keertk]

Bazel 6.0.0rc3 is now available for those that want to try it out.

You can download it from:
https://releases.bazel.build/6.0.0/rc3/index.html

Please report regressions to https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues as soon as possible.

[ShreeM01]

Bazel 6.0.0rc4 is now available for those that want to try it out.

You can download it from:
https://releases.bazel.build/6.0.0/rc4/index.html

Please report regressions to https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues as soon as possible.

[meteorcloudy]

Update: Three regressions are reported for the latest RC: https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/milestone/38
The team is working on fixing them and the 6.0 release will be delayed.

[gregmagolan]

@meteorcloudy I narrowed down another interesting regression in Bazel 6: #16978. I tested as far back as rc1 and it was there in that release.

[ShreeM01]

Bazel 6.0.0rc5 is now available for those that want to try it out.

You can download it from:
https://releases.bazel.build/6.0.0/rc5/index.html

Please report regressions to https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues as soon as possible.

[ShreeM01]

6.0.0 is now out!

@petemounce Could you please update Chocolatey? Thanks!

@excitoon @vbatts Could you please update Scoop & Fedora package with 6.0.0? Thanks!

[Wyverald]

Blog post on standby; will publish when 6.0 docs are pushed

[alexeagle]

Congratulations! Are you going to make a Docker container? bazelbuild/continuous-integration#1060 has been parked for a long time, another major is another chance :)

[meteorcloudy]

The docker container with the latest Bazel version is already published to gcr.io/bazel-public/bazel

[petemounce]

Done; ping for adding to CI cc @meteorcloudy

[ShreeM01]

Done; ping for adding to CI cc @meteorcloudy

Thanks @petemounce!