Steps of the SMQTK Release Process

Three types of releases are expected to occur: - major - minor - patch

See the CONTRIBUTING.md file for information on how to contribute features and patches.

The following process should apply when any release that changes the version number occurs.

Create and merge version update branch

Major and Minor Releases

Major and minor releases may add one or more trivial or non-trivial features and functionalities.

Create a new branch off of the master named something like update-to-v{NEW_VERSION}, where NEW_VERSION is the new X.Y version.
1. Use the scripts/update_release_notes.sh script to update the project version number, create docs/release_notes/v{NEW_VERSION}.rst, and add a new pending release notes stub file.
```
$ ./scripts/update_release_notes.sh minor
```
2. Add a descriptive paragraph under the title section of docs/release_notes/v{NEW_VERSION}.rst summarizing this release.
Push the created branch to the upstream repository, not your fork (this is an exception to the normal forky workflow).
Create a pull/merge request for this branch with release as the merge target. This is to ensure that everything passes CI testing before making the release. If there is an issue, then topic branches should be made and merged into this branch until the issue is resolved.
Get a positive review.
Merge version bump branch into the release branch.
Tag the resulting merge commit. See Tag new version below for how to do this.
As a repository administrator, merge the release branch into master locally and push the updated master to upstream. (Replace “upstream” in the example below with your applicable remote name.)
```
$ git fetch --all
$ git checkout upstream/master
$ git merge --log --no-ff upstream/release
$ git push upstream master
```

Patch Release

A patch release should only contain fixes for bugs or issues with an existing release. No new features or functionality should be introduced in a patch release. As such, patch releases should only ever be based on an existing release point (git tag).

This list assumes we are creating a new patch release off of the latest release version, i.e. off of the release branch. If a patch release for an older release version is being created, see the Patching an Older Release section.

Create a new branch off of the release branch named something like update-to-v{NEW_VERSION}, where NEW_VERSION is the target X.Y.Z, including the bump in the patch (Z) version component.
1. Use the scripts/update_release_notes.sh script to update the project version number, create docs/release_notes/v{NEW_VERSION}.rst, and add a new pending release notes stub file. E.g.
```
$ ./scripts/update_release_notes.sh patch
```
2. Add a descriptive paragraph under the title section of docs/release_notes/v{NEW_VERSION}.rst summarizing this release.
Push the created branch to the upstream repository, not your fork (this is an exception to the normal forky workflow).
Create a pull/merge request for this branch with release as the merge target. This is to ensure that everything passes CI testing before making the release. If there is an issue, then topic branches should be made and merged into this branch until the issue is resolved.
Get a positive review.
Merge the pull/merge request into the release branch.
Tag the resulting merge commit. See Tag new version below for how to do this.
As a repository administrator, merge the release branch into master locally and push the updated master to upstream. (Replace “upstream” with your applicable remote name.)
```
$ git fetch --all
$ git checkout upstream/master
$ git merge --log --no-ff upstream/release
$ git push upstream master
```

Patching an Older Release

When patching a major/minor release that is not the latest pair, a branch needs to be created based on release version being patched to integrate the specific patches into. This branch should be prefixed with release- to denote that it is a release integration branch. Patch topic-branches should be based on this branch. When all fix branches have been integrated, follow the Patch Release section above, replacing release branch references (merge target) to be the release-... integration branch. Step 6 should be to merge this release integration branch into release first, and then release into master, if applicable (some patches may only make sense for specific versions).

Tag new version

Release branches are tagged in order to record where in the git tree a particular release refers to. All release tags should be in the history of the release and master branches (barring exceptional circumstances).

We will prefer to use local git tag commands to create the release version tag, pushing the tag to upstream. The version tag should be applied to the merge commit resulting from the above described update-to-v{NEW_VERSION} topic-branch (“the release”).

See the example commands below, replacing HASH with the appropriate git commit hash, and UPSTREAM with the appropriate remote name. We show using Poetry’s version command to consistently access the current package version.

$ git checkout HASH
# VERSION="v$(poetry version -s)"
$ git tag -a "$VERSION" -F docs/release_notes/"$VERSION".rst
$ git push UPSTREAM "$VERSION"

After creating and pushing a new version tag, a GitHub “release” should be made. Navigate to the releases page on GitHub and click the Draft a new release button in the upper right. The newly added tag should be selected in the “Choose a tag” drop-down. The “Release Title” should be the version tag (i.e. “v#.#.#”). Copy and paste this version’s release notes into the Describe this release text box. Remember to check the This is a pre-release check-box if appropriate. Click the Public release button at the bottom of the page when complete.