A release of Iris is a tag on the SciTools/Iris Github repository.
The summary below is of the main areas that constitute the release. The final section details the iris_development_releases_steps
to take.
Ensure that any behaviour which has been deprecated for the correct number of previous releases is now finally changed. More detail, including the correct number of releases, is in iris_development_deprecations
.
Once the features intended for the release are on master, a release branch should be created, in the SciTools/Iris repository. This will have the name:
v{major release number}.{minor release number}.x
for example:
v1.9.x
This branch shall be used to finalise the release details in preparation for the release candidate.
Prior to a release, a release candidate tag may be created, marked as a pre-release in github, with a tag ending with rc
followed by a number, e.g.:
v1.9.0rc1
If created, the pre-release shall be available for a minimum of two weeks prior to the release being cut. However a 4 week period should be the goal to allow user groups to be notified of the existence of the pre-release and encouraged to test the functionality.
A pre-release is expected for a major or minor release, but not for a point release.
If new features are required for a release after a release candidate has been cut, a new pre-release shall be issued first.
The documentation should include all of the what's new entries for the release. This content should be reviewed and adapted as required.
Steps to achieve this can be found in the iris_development_releases_steps
.
The final steps are to change the version string in the source of Iris.__init__.py
and include the release date in the relevant what's new page within the documentation.
Once all checks are complete, the release is cut by the creation of a new tag in the SciTools Iris repository.
Once a release is cut, the Iris feedstock for the conda recipe must be updated to build the latest release of Iris and push this artefact to conda forge.
After the release is cut, the changes shall be merged back onto the Scitools/iris master branch.
To achieve this, first cut a local branch from the release branch, {release}.x
. Next add a commit changing the release string to match the release string on scitools/master. This branch can now be proposed as a pull request to master. This work flow ensures that the commit identifiers are consistent between the .x
branch and master
.
Bug fixes may be implemented and targeted as the .x
branch. These should lead to a new point release, another tag. For example, a fix for a problem with 1.9.0 will be merged into 1.9.x, and then released by tagging 1.9.1.
New features shall not be included in a point release, these are for bug fixes.
A point release does not require a release candidate, but the rest of the release process is to be followed, including the merge back of changes into master
.
These steps assume a release for v1.9
is to be created
- Create the branch
1.9.x
on the main repo, not in a forked repo, for the release candidate or release. The only exception is for a point/bugfix release as it should already exist Update the what's new for the release:
- Copy
docs/iris/src/whatsnew/latest.rst
to a file namedv1.9.rst
- Delete the
docs/iris/src/whatsnew/latest.rst
file so it will not cause an issue in the build - In
v1.9.rst
update the page title (first line of the file) to show the date and version in the format ofv1.9 (DD MMM YYYY)
. For examplev1.9 (03 Aug 2020)
- Review the file for correctness
- Work with the development team to create a 'highlights' section at the top of the file, providing extra detail on notable changes
- Add
v1.9.rst
to git and commit all changes, including removal oflatest.rst
- Copy
- Update the what's new index
docs/iris/src/whatsnew/index.rst
- Temporarily remove reference to
latest.rst
- Add a reference to
v1.9.rst
to the top of the list
- Temporarily remove reference to
- Update the
Iris.__init__.py
version string, to1.9.0
- Check your changes by building the documentation and viewing the changes
- Once all the above steps are complete, the release is cut, using the
Draft a new release
button on the Iris release page
- Check the documentation has built on Read The Docs. The build is triggered by any commit to master. Additionally check that the versions available in the pop out menu in the bottom left corner include the new release version. If it is not present you will need to configure the versions available in the admin dashboard in Read The Docs
- Copy
docs/iris/src/whatsnew/latest.rst.template
todocs/iris/src/whatsnew/latest.rst
. This will reset the file with theunreleased
heading and placeholders for the what's new headings - Add back in the reference to
latest.rst
to the what's new indexdocs/iris/src/whatsnew/index.rst
- Update
Iris.__init__.py
version string to show as1.10.dev0
- Merge back to master