Releasing an astroid version

So, you want to release the X.Y.Z version of astroid ?

Releasing a major or minor version

Before releasing a major or minor version check if there are any unreleased commits on the maintenance branch. If so, release a last patch release first. See Releasing a patch version.

  • Preview the changelog that will be generated from the news fragments in doc/whatsnew/fragments/ with towncrier build --draft.
  • Install the release dependencies: pip3 install -r requirements_minimal.txt
  • Bump the version and release by using tbump X.Y.0 --no-push --no-tag. (For example: tbump 2.4.0 --no-push --no-tag)
  • Check the commit created with git show amend the commit if required.
  • Move the main branch up to a dev version with tbump:
tbump X.Y+1.0-dev0 --no-tag --no-push  # You can interrupt after the first step
git commit -am "Upgrade the version to x.y+1.0-dev0 following x.y.0 release"

For example:

tbump 2.5.0-dev0 --no-tag --no-push
git commit -am "Upgrade the version to 2.5.0-dev0 following 2.4.0 release"

Check the commit and then push to a release branch:

  • tbump will have created a new What's New in astroid X.Y+1 document. Add it to doc/whatsnew/X/index.rst. Commit that with git commit -a --amend.
  • Open a merge request with the two commits (no one can push directly on main)
  • After the merge, recover the merged commits on main and tag the first one (the version should be X.Y.Z) as vX.Y.Z (For example: v2.4.0)
  • Push the tag.
  • Release the version on GitHub with the same name as the tag and copy and paste the appropriate changelog in the description. This triggers the PyPI release.
  • Create a maintenance/X.Y.x (For example: maintenance/2.4.x from the v2.4.0 tag.) based on the tag from the release. The maintenance branch are protected you won't be able to fix it after the fact if you create it from main.
  • Update the branch protection rule so it covers the new maintenance branch: in Settings → Branches, change the pattern of the maintenance/X.Y-1.* rule to maintenance/X.Y.*. (For example: maintenance/2.3.* becomes maintenance/2.4.*.) This also unprotects the old branch so it can be deleted.
  • Delete the maintenance/X.Y-1.x branch. (For example: maintenance/2.3.x)
  • Rename the backport maintenance/X.Y-1.x label to backport maintenance/X.Y.x. (For example: backport maintenance/2.3.x becomes backport maintenance/2.4.x.) Renaming keeps the label attached to the issues and pull requests that already carry it.

Backporting a fix from main to the maintenance branch

Whenever a PR on main should be released in a patch release on the current maintenance branch:

  • Label the PR with backport maintenance/X.Y-1.x. (For example backport maintenance/2.3.x)
  • Squash the PR before merging (alternatively rebase if there's a single commit)
  • (If the automated cherry-pick has conflicts)
    • Add a Needs backport label and do it manually.
    • You might alternatively also:
      • Cherry-pick the changes that create the conflict if it's not a new feature before doing the original PR cherry-pick manually.
      • Decide to wait for the next minor to release the PR
      • In any case upgrade the milestones in the original PR and newly cherry-picked PR to match reality.
  • Release a patch version

Releasing a patch version

We release patch versions when a crash or a bug is fixed on the main branch and has been cherry-picked on the maintenance branch. Below, we will be releasing X.Y-1.Z (where X.Y is the version under development on main.)

  • Branch release/X.Y-1.Z off of maintenance/X.Y.x
  • Preview the changelog that will be generated from the news fragments in doc/whatsnew/fragments/ with towncrier build --draft. The patch release notes are added to the existing doc/whatsnew/X/X.Y-1/index.rst document.
  • Install the release dependencies: pip3 install -r requirements_minimal.txt
  • Bump the version and release by using tbump X.Y-1.Z --no-tag --no-push. (For example: tbump 2.3.5 --no-tag --no-push. We're not ready to tag before code review.)
  • Check the result visually with git show.
  • Open a merge request against maintenance/X.Y-1.x to run the CI tests for this branch.
  • Consider copying the changelog into the body of the PR to examine the rendered markdown.
  • Wait for an approval. Avoid using a merge commit. Avoid deleting the maintenance branch.
  • Checkout maintenance/X.Y.x and fast-forward to the new commit.
  • Create and push the tag: git tag vX.Y-1.Z && git push --tags
  • Release the version on GitHub with the same name as the tag and copy and paste the appropriate changelog in the description. This triggers the PyPI release.
  • Freeze the main branch.
  • Branch post-X.Y-1.Z from main.
  • git merge maintenance/X.Y-1.x: this should have the changelog for X.Y-1.Z+1 (For example v2.3.6). This merge is required so pre-commit autoupdate works for pylint.
  • Fix version conflicts properly, meaning preserve the version numbers of the form X.Y.0-devZ (For example: 2.4.0-dev6).
  • Open a merge request against main. Ensure a merge commit is used, because pre-commit needs the patch release tag to be in the main branch history to consider the patch release as the latest version, and this won't be the case with rebase or squash. You can defend against trigger-happy future selves by enabling auto-merge with the merge commit strategy.
  • Wait for approval. Again, use a merge commit.
  • Unblock the main branch.
  • Close the milestone and open a new patch-release milestone.

Milestone handling

We move issues that were not done to the next milestone and block releases only if there are any open issues labelled as blocker.