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

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.

  1. Create a new branch off of the release branch named something like release-patch-{NEW_VERSION}.
  • Increment patch value in VERSION file.
  • Rename the docs/release_notes/pending_patch.rst file to docs/release_notes/v{VERSION}.rst, matching the value in the VERSION file. Add a descriptive paragraph under the title section summarizing this release.
  • Add new release notes RST file reference to docs/release_notes.rst.
  1. Tag branch (see Tag new version below ).
  2. Merge version bump branch into release and master branches.

Major and Minor Releases

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

  1. Create a new branch off of the master or release named something like release-[major,minor]-{NEW_VERSION}.
  1. Increment patch value in VERSION file.
  2. Rename the docs/release_notes/pending_release.rst file to docs/release_notes/v{VERSION}.rst, matching the value in the VERSION file. Add a descriptive paragraph under the title section summarizing this release.
  3. Add new release notes RST file reference to docs/release_notes.rst.
  1. Create a pull/merge request for this branch with master as the merge target. This is to ensure that everything passes CI testing before making the release. If there is an issue then branches should be made and merged into this branch until the issue is resolved.
  2. Tag branch (see Tag new version below).
  3. Reset the release branch (–hard) to point to the new branch/tag.
  4. Merge version bump branch into the master branch.

Tag new version

Release branches should be tagged in order to record where in the git tree a particular release refers to. The branch off of master or release is usually the target of such tags.

Currently the From GitHub method is preferred as it creates a “verified” release.

From GitHub

Navigate to the releases page on GitHub and click the Draft a new release button in upper right.

Fill in the new version in the Tag version text box (e.g. v#.#.#) and use the same string in the Release title text box. The “@” target should be the release branch created above.

Copy and past 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.

From Git on the Command Line

Create a new git tag using the new version number (format: v<MAJOR.<MINOR>.<PATCH>) on the merge commit for the version update branch merger:

$ git tag -a -m "[Major|Minor|Patch] release v#.#.#"

Push this new tag to GitHub (assuming origin remote points to SMQTK on GitHub:

$ git push origin v#.#.#

To add the release notes to GitHub, navigate to the tags page on GitHub and click on the “Add release notes” link for the new release tag. Copy and paste this version’s release notes into the description field and the version number should be used as the release title.

Create new version release to PYPI

Make sure the source is checked out on the newest version tag, the repo is clean (no uncommited files/edits), and the build and dist directories are removed:

$ git check <VERSION_TAG>
$ rm -r dist python/smqtk.egg-info

Create the build and dist files for the current version with the following command(s) from the source tree root directory:

$ python setup.py sdist

Make sure your $HOME/.pypirc file is up-to-date and includes the following section with your username/password:

[pypi]
username = <username>
password = <password>

Make sure the twine python package is installed and is up-to-date and then upload dist packages created with:

$ twine upload dist/*