Release process#

Before initiating the release process, please ensure the version number in src/__init__.py is correct and the format conforms to semantic versioning. If the version needs to be corrected/bumped then open a PR for the change and merge into develop before going any further.

The release process has the following key steps:

  • Create a new release branch from the tag of the latest release named release/<version> where <version> is the version number of the new release

  • Create a new branch from the baseline branch (e.g., 2.0.x) named dev/<version> where <version> is the version number of the new release

  • Opening a PR to merge dev/<version> onto release/<version>. This will automatically run all conda/pip build tests via Azure Pipelines prior to allowing to merge the PR. This will trigger automatic upload of artifacts (conda and pip packages) from Azure DevOps. At this stage, it is recommended that the pip package build is checked using PyPI test to ensure all metadata presents correctly. This is important as package versions in PyPI proper are immutable.

  • If everything passes and looks okay, merge the PR using a merge commit (not squashing). This will trigger the release pipeline which will:

    • Tag the release commit with version number as specified in src/__init__.py

    • Create a release on GitHub for the new version, please check the documentation for details

    • Pre-fill the GitHub release title and description, including the changelog based on commits since the last release. Please note this can be manually edited to be more succinct afterwards

    • Attach build artifacts (conda and pip packages) to GitHub release

    • Upload build artifacts to conda/PyPI using anaconda upload and flit publish, respectively

  • Remove any test versions for pip from PyPI test

  • Merge release/<version> back onto the baseline branch from which dev/<version> was branched

  • IMPORTANT: Update version in src/__init__.py on the baseline branch (1.0.x) to be the next minor version release (if the last release was 1.0.1, the next version should be 1.0.2)