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cutting-a-release.md

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How to cut a new release:

Make sure to cut the release when there is time to support it if something goes wrong. As a rule, don't do releases late in the afternoon or on Fridays.

Steps:

  • Merge any outstanding PRs that are ready.
  • Double check that the tests ran (and passed) on the merged commit(s).
  • Pull down the branch that you'll cut the release from locally.
  • Make release notes before bumping the version number:
    • Look at the commits between the last version bump and the current one. Following the template already laid out in docs/releases.rst, write out what each unit of work does.
    • There are three categories that the units of work might fall under:
      • Breaking Changes (only to be added in a major version bump)
      • Bugfixes
      • Features
      • Misc
  • Run $ make docs to view the release notes locally. Make sure everything looks like it should.
  • Once the docs look good, commit the changes.
  • Push the doc changes to master.
  • We use Semantic Versioning for all of our libraries. Decide which bump applies (major, minor, or patch) to the changes that will be relased. Here's a quick cheat sheet:
    • Use a Major version bump when you make incompatible API changes
    • Use a Minor version bump when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner
    • Use a Patch version bump when you make backwards-compatible bug fixes
  • Most repos have a section in the README that describes how to use the make release script. It looks something like this. Follow those instructions.
    • If something goes wrong in the middle, you'll need to:
      • Figure out what went wrong and fix that problem
      • Open up the Makefile, and run the failed command and all subsequent commands manually
  • Test it!
    • Create and activate a new virtualenv
    • $ pip install -U <released_project>
    • Open shell and confirm that the module import works. Check a simple feature and/or new features
  • Make sure the Read The Docs build succeeded. Visit the https://<project name>.readthedocs.io/en/stable/releases.html and make sure your changes are there.
  • Announce to the Gitter channel. Typically this announcement includes a link to the release docs. 🎉