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Rebase Tor Browser alpha onto Firefox 115.9.0esr

NOTE: All examples in this template reference the rebase from 102.7.0esr to 102.8.0esr

Explanation of Variables
  • $(ESR_VERSION): the Mozilla defined ESR version, used in various places for building tor-browser tags, labels, etc
    • Example: 102.8.0
  • $(ESR_TAG): the Mozilla defined hg (Mercurial) tag associated with $(ESR_VERSION)
    • Example: FIREFOX_102_8_0esr_RELEASE
  • $(ESR_TAG_PREV): the Mozilla defined hg (Mercurial) tag associated with the previous ESR version when rebasing (ie, the ESR version we are rebasing from)
    • Example: FIREFOX_102_7_0esr_BUILD1
  • $(BROWSER_MAJOR): the browser major version
    • Example: 12
  • $(BROWSER_MINOR): the browser minor version
    • Example: either 0 or 5; Alpha's is always (Stable + 5) % 10
  • $(BASE_BROWSER_BRANCH): the full name of the current base-browser branch
    • Example: base-browser-102.8.0esr-12.5-1
  • $(BASE_BROWSER_BRANCH_PREV): the full name of the previous base-browser branch
    • Example: base-browser-102.7.0esr-12.5-1
  • $(TOR_BROWSER_BRANCH): the full name of the current tor-browser branch
    • Example: tor-browser-102.8.0esr-12.5-1
  • $(TOR_BROWSER_BRANCH_PREV): the full name of the previous tor-browser branch
    • Example: tor-browser-102.7.0esr-12.5-1

NOTE: It is assumed that we've already identified the new ESR branch during the tor-browser stable rebase

Bookkeeping

Update Branch Protection Rules

  • In Repository Settings:
    • Remove previous alpha base-browser and tor-browser branch protection rules (this will prevent pushing new changes to the branches being rebased)
    • Create new base-browser and tor-browser branch protection rule:
      • Branch: *-$(ESR_VERSION)esr-$(BROWSER_MAJOR).$(BROWSER_MINOR)-1*
        • Example: *-102.8.0esr-12.5-1*
      • Allowed to merge: Maintainers
      • Allowed to push and merge: Maintainers
      • Allowed to force push: false
      • If you copied and pasted from old rules, double check you didn't add spaces at the end, as GitLab will not trim them!

Create New Branches

  • Find the Firefox mercurial tag $(ESR_TAG)
    • If $(BROWSER_MINOR) is 5, the tag should already exist from the stable release
    • Otherwise:
      • Go to https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-esr$(ESR_MAJOR)/tags
      • Find and inspect the commit tagged with $(ESR_TAG)
        • Tags are in yellow in the Mercurial web UI
      • Find the equivalent commit in https://github.com/mozilla/gecko-dev/commits/esr$(ESR_MAJOR)
        • The tag should be very close to HEAD (usually the second, before a No bug - Tagging $(HG_HASH) with $(ESR_TAG))
        • Notice: GitHub sorts commits by time, you might want to use git log gecko-dev/esr$(ESR_MAJOR) locally, instead
      • Sign/Tag the gecko-dev commit: git tag -as $(ESR_TAG) $(GIT_HASH) -m "Hg tag $(ESR_TAG)"
  • Create new alpha base-browser branch from Firefox mercurial tag
    • Branch name in the form: base-browser-$(ESR_VERSION)esr-$(BROWSER_MAJOR).$(BROWSER_MINOR)-1
    • Example: base-browser-102.8.0esr-12.5-1
  • Create new alpha tor-browser branch from Firefox mercurial tag
    • Branch name in the form: tor-browser-$(ESR_VERSION)esr-$(BROWSER_MAJOR).$(BROWSER_MINOR)-1
    • Example: tor-browser-102.8.0esr-12.5-1
  • Push new base-browser branch to upstream
  • Push new tor-browser branch to upstream

Rebase tor-browser

  • Checkout a new local branch for the tor-browser rebase

    • Example: git branch tor-browser-rebase FIREFOX_102_8_0esr_BUILD1

  • (Optional) base-browser rebase and autosquash

    • NOTE This step may be skipped if the HEAD of the previous base-browser branch is a -buildN tag
    • Cherry-pick the previous base-browser commits up to base-browser's buildN tag onto new base-browser rebase branch
      • Example: git cherry-pick FIREFOX_102_7_0esr_BUILD1..base-browser-102.7.0esr-12.5-1-build1
    • Rebase and autosquash these cherry-picked commits
      • Example: git rebase --autosquash --interactive FIREFOX_102_8_0esr_BUILD1 HEAD
    • Cherry-pick remainder of patches after the buildN tag
      • Example: git cherry-pick base-browser-102.7.0esr-12.5-1-build1..upstream/base-browser-102.7.0esr-12.5-1

  • tor-browser rebase and autosquash

    • Note the current git hash of HEAD for tor-browser rebase+autosquash step: git rev-parse HEAD
    • Cherry-pick the appropriate previous tor-browser branch's commit range up to the last tor-browser buildN tag
      • Example: git cherry-pick base-browser-102.7.0esr-12.5-1-build1..tor-browser-102.7.0esr-12.5-1-build1
      • Example (if separate base-browser rebase was skipped): git cherry-pick FIREFOX_102_7_0esr_BUILD1..tor-browser-102.7.0esr-12.5-1-build1
    • Rebase and autosquash ONLY these newly cherry-picked commits using the commit noted previously: git rebase --autosquash --interactive $(PREV_HEAD)
      • Example: git rebase --autosquash --interactive FIREFOX_102_8_0esr_RELEASE
    • (Optional) Patch reordering
      • NOTE: We typically want to do this after new features or bug fix commits which are not !fixups to an existing commit have been merged and are just sitting at the end of the commit history
      • Relocate new base-browser patches in the patch-set to enforce this rough thematic ordering:
        • MOZILLA BACKPORTS - official Firefox patches we have backported to our ESR branch: Android-specific security updates, critical bug fixes, worthwhile features, etc
        • MOZILLA REVERTS - revert commits of official Firefox patches
        • UPLIFT CANDIDATES - patches which stand on their own and should be uplifted to mozilla-central
        • BUILD CONFIGURATION - tools/scripts, gitlab templates, etc
        • BROWSER CONFIGURATION - branding, mozconfigs, preference overrides, etc
        • SECURITY PATCHES - security improvements, hardening, etc
        • PRIVACY PATCHES - fingerprinting, linkability, proxy bypass, etc
        • FEATURES - new functionality: updater, UX, letterboxing, security level, add-on
      • Relocate new tor-browser patches in the patch-set to enforce this rough thematic ordering:
        • BUILD CONFIGURATION - tools/scripts, gitlab templates, etc
        • BROWSER CONFIGURATION - branding, mozconfigs, preference overrides, etc
        • UPDATER PATCHES - updater tweaks, signing keys, etc
        • SECURITY PATCHES - non tor-dependent security improvements, hardening, etc
        • PRIVACY PATCHES - non tor-dependent fingerprinting, linkability, proxy bypass, etc
        • FEAURES - non tor-dependent features
        • TOR INTEGRATION - legacy tor-launcher/torbutton, tor modules, bootstrapping, etc
        • TOR SECURITY PATCHES - tor-specific security improvements
        • TOR PRIVACY PATCHES - tor-specific privacy improvements
        • TOR FEATURES - new tor-specific functionality: manual, onion-location, onion service client auth, etc
    • Cherry-pick remainder of patches after the last tor-browser buildN tag
      • Example: git cherry-pick tor-browser-102.7.0esr-12.5-1-build1..upstream/tor-browser-102.7.0esr-12.5-1
    • Rebase and autosquash again, this time replacing all fixup and squash commands with pick. The goal here is to have all of the fixup and squash commits beside the commit which they modify, but kept un-squashed for easy debugging/bisecting.
      • Example: git rebase --autosquash --interactive FIREFOX_102_8_0esr_RELEASE

  • Compare patch sets to ensure nothing weird happened during conflict resolution:

    • diff of diffs:
      • Do the diff between current_patchset.diff and rebased_patchset.diff with your preferred difftool and look at differences on lines that starts with + or -
      • git diff $(ESR_TAG_PREV)..$(BROWSER_BRANCH_PREV) > current_patchset.diff
      • git diff $(ESR_TAG)..$(BROWSER_BRANCH) > rebased_patchset.diff
      • diff current_patchset.diff and rebased_patchset.diff
        • If everything went correctly, the only lines which should differ should be the lines starting with index abc123...def456 (unless the previous base-browser branch includes changes not included in the previous tor-browser branch)
    • rangediff: git range-diff $(ESR_TAG_PREV)..$(TOR_BROWSER_BRANCH_PREV) $(ESR_TAG)..HEAD
      • Example: git range-dif FIREFOX_102_7_0esr_BUILD1..upstream/tor-browser-102.7.0esr-12.5-1 FIREFOX_102_8_0esr_BUILD1..HEAD

  • Open MR for the tor-browser rebase

  • Merge

  • Update and push base-browser branch

    • Reset the new base-browser branch to the appropriate commit in this new tor-browser branch
    • Push these commits to upstream

  • Set $(TOR_BROWSER_BRANCH) as the default GitLab branch

    • Go to Repository Settings
    • Expand Branch defaults
    • Set the branch and leave the Auto-close checkbox unchecked
    • Save changes

Sign and Tag

  • Sign/Tag HEAD of the merged tor-browser branch:
    • Tag: tor-browser-$(ESR_VERSION)esr-$(BROWSER_MAJOR).$(BROWSER_MINOR)-1-build1
    • Message: Tagging build1 for $(ESR_VERSION)esr-based alpha
    • Push tag to upstream
  • Sign/Tag HEAD of the merged base-browser branch:
    • Tag: base-browser-$(ESR_VERSION)esr-$(BROWSER_MAJOR).$(BROWSER_MINOR)-1-build1
    • Message: Tagging build1 for $(ESR_VERSION)esr-based alpha
    • Push tag to upstream
  • Update tor-browser-build's main (no MR required, you can just push it if you have the permissions)
    • Update projects/firefox/config
      • Update firefox_platform_version
      • Set browser_build to 1 (to prevent failures in alpha testbuilds)
    • Update projects/geckoview/config
      • Update geckoview_version
      • Set browser_build to 1