Updating to new SDK releases

This page covers the procedures you might not remember to do when a new Dart SDK comes out.

What (not) to do

Obviously, you might to need to update text and examples to reflect the new release. Here's what else you need to do:

• Update the What's new and Language evolution pages
• Update the SDK version in src/_data/pkg-vers.json. The SDK version is visible in https://dart.dev/tools/sdk and used in links to API docs (via {{site.data.pkg-vers.SDK.channel}}. For an example, see PR #2462.

You might also want to do the following:

• Add a banner to point to the release announcement. For an example of adding the banner, see PR #1234.
• If necessary, update the min SDK in examples' pubspec.yaml files.
• Update the Wikipedia page to display the new release number.

Consider NOT updating the following:

• The SDK version used by repo tools. This is controlled by the topmost pubspec.yaml. Unless you're updating the tools, there's no need to update this.

Testing a proposed SDK release

TODO: The following needs to be updated to reflect our move from Travis to GitHub Actions.

The .travis.yml file determines which SDK releases Travis uses to test source code.

Create a PR that changes the dart line in .travis.yml to include the new release. For example, to test the proposed 2.1.0 release, which lives under http://gsdview.appspot.com/dart-archive/channels/stable/raw/2.1.0/sdk/, change dev to stable/raw/2.1.0:

- dart: [stable, dev]
+ dart: [stable, stable/raw/2.1.0]

You could add additional releases, if you like: [stable, dev, stable/raw/2.1.0]

After you've uploaded that change and created the PR, Travis tests it. For an example, see PR #1227.

If you find any issues, download the release locally and fix the issues. Then retest using the same commands Travis uses (which you can find in .travis.yml).