HOW_TO_RELEASE.md

Setup

• Create a new branch for this release: git checkout -b releasev0.X.Y
• Update release version in ./docs/whats-new.rst
• Increase release version in ./setup.py
• Create a PR to prepare it, name it with one of the Nature emoji and make sure it was never used before
• Activate RTD build for this branch

Prepare code for release

Deprecation policy

• Check the code for the deprecated decorator and enforce the deprecation policy:
  • If code is marked as deprecated since version = v0.X.Y : do nothing (first version with deprecation warning)
  • If code is marked as deprecated since version = v0.X.Y-1 : do nothing (2nd and last version with deprecation warning)
  • If code is marked as deprecated since version = v0.X.Y-2 : delete code (code will raise an error)
• Update the documentation according to new deprecations

Update static content

• Update CI tests data used by mocked ftp and http servers. Use CLI citests_httpdata_manager:

  cd cli
  ./citests_httpdata_manager -a clear --force --refresh
  ./citests_httpdata_manager -a download
  ./citests_httpdata_manager -a check

• Update list of valid Reference tables from the NVS server
• Update static assets files
• Update the cheatsheet PDF with all new release features

Code clean-up and update

• Run codespell from repo root and fix errors: codespell -q 2
• Run flake8 from repo root and fix errors

Software distribution readiness

• Manually trigger upstream CI tests for the release branch and ensure they are passed
• Update pinned dependencies versions in ./ci/requirements/py*-*-pinned.yml environment files using upstream CI tests information
• Possibly update ./requirements.txt and ./docs/requirements.txt if the oldest dependencies versions were upgraded
• Make sure that all CI tests are passed
• Make sure the documentation for this release branch is built on RTD

Preparation conclusion

• Merge this PR to master
• Update release date in ./docs/whats-new.rst
• Make sure all CI tests are passed and RTD doc is built on the master branch

Publish the release

• Last check the ./setup.py file version of the release and that the documentation is ready
• "Create a new release" on GitHub. Choose a release tag v0.X.Y, fill in the release title and click on the Auto-generate release notes button. Once ready, publish the release. This will trigger the publish Github action that will push the release on Pypi.
• Checkout on Pypi and Conda that the new release is distributed.

CI tests / RTD build results