Release

A Release is the atomic unit of deployment consisting of a Build and a set of Environment Variables.

A Release is created every time you create a new Build or change the App's Environment.

Promoting a Release will begin a rolling deployment that will continue until the new Release is active on all Processes or has been completely rolled back.

Command Line Interface

Creating a Release

On Build Creation

    $ convox build -a myapp
    Packaging source... OK
    Uploading source... OK
    Starting build... OK
    ...
    Build: BABCDEFGHI
    Release: RBCDEFGHIJ

On Environment Change

    $ convox env set FOO=bar -a myapp
    Setting FOO... OK
    Release: RCDEFGHIJK

Listing Releases

    $ convox releases -a myapp
    ID          STATUS  BUILD       CREATED        DESCRIPTION
    RCDEFGHIJK          BABCDEFGHI  1 minute ago   env add:FOO
    RBCDEFGHIJ  active  BABCDEFGHI  5 minutes ago  build 0a1b2c3d4e5f my commit message

Getting Information about a Release

    $ convox releases info RCDEFGHIJK -a myapp
    Id           RCDEFGHIJK
    Build        BABCDEFGHI
    Created      2019-01-01:00:00:00Z
    Description  env add:FOO
    Env          FOO=bar

Creating a Custom Release

The convox releases create-from command allows you to create a new release by combining the build from one release with the environment variables from another release. This provides flexibility in managing deployments by letting you mix and match builds and environments from different releases.

Basic Usage

Create a new release using build from one release and environment from another:

    $ convox releases create-from --build-from=RXXXXXXXXXXX --env-from=RYYYYYYYYYY -a myapp
    Creating release... OK
    Release: RNEWRELEASE

With Auto-Promotion

Create and automatically promote the new release:

    $ convox releases create-from --build-from=RXXXXXXXXXXX --env-from=RYYYYYYYYYY -a myapp --promote
    Creating release... OK
    Release: RNEWRELEASE
    Promoting RNEWRELEASE... OK

Using Active Release Components

Use the currently active release's build with environment from a specific release:

    $ convox releases create-from --use-active-release-build --env-from=RYYYYYYYYYY -a myapp
    Creating release... OK
    Release: RNEWRELEASE

Use the currently active release's environment with build from a specific release:

    $ convox releases create-from --build-from=RXXXXXXXXXXX --use-active-release-env -a myapp
    Creating release... OK
    Release: RNEWRELEASE

Available Flags for create-from

Flag	Description
`--app` / `-a`	Specify the target application
`--build-from`	Release ID to use as the build source
`--env-from`	Release ID to use as the environment source
`--promote`	Automatically promote the new release after creation
`--rack` / `-r`	Specify the target rack
`--use-active-release-build`	Use the currently active release's build
`--use-active-release-env`	Use the currently active release's environment

Common Use Cases

Rollback with updated environment: Use a previous stable build with current environment variables
Environment promotion: Apply production environment settings to a development build
Selective updates: Update only the build or only the environment without affecting the other
Release composition: Create custom release combinations for testing or deployment strategies

Example Workflow

List available releases to identify source releases:

    $ convox releases -a myapp
    ID          STATUS  BUILD       CREATED        DESCRIPTION
    RCDEFGHIJK          BABCDEFGHI  1 minute ago   env add:FOO
    RBCDEFGHIJ  active  BABCDEFGHI  5 minutes ago  build 0a1b2c3d4e5f
    RABCDEFGHI          AABCDEFGHI  1 hour ago     build 1b2c3d4e5f6g

Create a new release combining specific build and environment:

    $ convox releases create-from --build-from=RABCDEFGHI --env-from=RCDEFGHIJK -a myapp
    Creating release... OK
    Release: RDEFGHIJKL

Verify the new release was created:

    $ convox releases -a myapp
    ID          STATUS  BUILD       CREATED        DESCRIPTION
    RDEFGHIJKL          AABCDEFGHI  5 seconds ago  created-from
    RCDEFGHIJK          BABCDEFGHI  2 minutes ago  env add:FOO
    RBCDEFGHIJ  active  BABCDEFGHI  6 minutes ago  build 0a1b2c3d4e5f

Promote if not using the --promote flag:

    $ convox releases promote RDEFGHIJKL -a myapp

Promoting a Release

    $ convox releases promote RCDEFGHIJK -a myapp
    Promoting RCDEFGHIJK...
    2019-01-01T00:00:49Z system/k8s/atom/app Status: Running => Pending
    2019-01-01T00:00:51Z system/k8s/web Scaled up replica set web-745f845dc to 1
    2019-01-01T00:00:51Z system/k8s/web-745f845dc Created pod: web-745f845dc-rzl2q
    2019-01-01T00:00:51Z system/k8s/web-745f845dc-rzl2q Successfully assigned convox-myapp/web-745f845dc-rzl2q to instance-0a1b2c3d4e5f
    2019-01-01T00:00:51Z system/k8s/web-745f845dc-rzl2q Pulling image "registry.host/convox/myapp:web.BABCDEFGHI"
    2019-01-01T00:00:53Z system/k8s/atom/app Status: Pending => Updating
    2019-01-01T00:00:55Z system/k8s/web-745f845dc-rzl2q Successfully pulled image "registry.host/convox/myapp:web.BABCDEFGHI"
    2019-01-01T00:00:56Z system/k8s/web-745f845dc-rzl2q Created container main
    2019-01-01T00:00:56Z system/k8s/web-745f845dc-rzl2q Started container main
    OK

Getting the Manifest for a Release

    $ convox releases manifest RCDEFGHIJK -a myapp
    services:
      web:
        build: .
        command: bin/web
        port: 5000

Rolling Back to a Previous Release

    $ convox releases rollback RBCDEFGHIJ -a myapp
    Rolling back to RBCDEFGHIJ... OK, RDEFGHIJKL
    2019-01-01T00:00:49Z system/k8s/atom/app Status: Running => Pending
    2019-01-01T00:00:51Z system/k8s/web Scaled up replica set web-32f41a279 to 1
    2019-01-01T00:00:51Z system/k8s/web-32f41a279 Created pod: web-32f41a279-rzl2q
    2019-01-01T00:00:51Z system/k8s/web-32f41a279-rzl2q Successfully assigned convox-myapp/web-32f41a279-rzl2q to instance-0a1b2c3d4e5f
    2019-01-01T00:00:51Z system/k8s/web-32f41a279-rzl2q Pulling image "registry.host/convox/myapp:web.BABCDEFGHI"
    2019-01-01T00:00:53Z system/k8s/atom/app Status: Pending => Updating
    2019-01-01T00:00:55Z system/k8s/web-32f41a279-rzl2q Successfully pulled image "registry.host/convox/myapp:web.BABCDEFGHI"
    2019-01-01T00:00:56Z system/k8s/web-32f41a279-rzl2q Created container main
    2019-01-01T00:00:56Z system/k8s/web-745f845dc-rzl2q Started container main
    OK

Rolling back to a previous Release makes a copy of the that Release and promotes the copy.