HOW to release a version

In this section I will describe the procedure to make a release (create a new version of the code and publish it), and the management commands that we use for that (git, flit, etc).

Let us assume that we want to implement a new feature. Say that we are going to create a replacement for the ccs program. The following is an overview of the necessary steps to make the release:

1. Create a feature branch:

   git flow feature start own-ccs
   

2. (Hopefully not very) long cycles of double loop TDD to implement the feature (see Testing).

3. When the feature is ready, ensure that the tests pass:

   tox
   

4. Finish the branch:

   git flow feature finish own-ccs
   

   as a result you will land in the develop branch.

5. Merge the new feature into master:

   git checkout master
   git merge develop
   

6. Fix whatever is needed in the documentation. At the very minimum, think at least about these docs:

   • CHANGELOG.rst

   • docs/roadmap.rst

7. Set the new version:

   bump2version "part"
   

   where part is one of: patch, minor or major. For instance:

   bump2version minor
   

   to increase the minor digit of the version. Versions are:

   major.minor.patch
   

   such that in, eg:

   1.0.2
   

   major is 1, minor is 0 and patch is 2.

8. Upload the changes to the repo:

   git push
   

   this will trigger the pipelines in gitlab and update the docs in readthedocs.

9. Publish the code in PyPI:

   flit publish
   

10. Merge the changes into develop and keep working:

    git checkout develop
    git merge master
    

The above steps are only an minimal example. Probably a release is made of many features.