release.md

Checklist for Releasing a Python Project

Joseph P. Vantassel, jpvantassel.com

General Procedure

1. Commit last code change to dev branch.
2. Check GitHub README.md. Check to ensure new features are included in the projects description. Consider adding new interesting figures.
3. Check all examples provided in the repository. This should include re-running all example notebooks and recreating all figures presented in the repositories README.md.
4. Check the version number has been appropriately incremented. Note that the version number should be "single-sourced" throughout the entire package.
5. Commit any changes, note then as having been completed in preparation for release.
6. Run tests locally using tox, this should result in a sucessful test. If any of the tests fail, make the appropriate changes and repeat the steps listed above to confirm the changes to fix the broken test did not have any adverse effects.
7. Push code following successful local test.
8. Confirm CircleCI build was successful. Make any changes necessary to ensure successful CircleCI build and repeat the steps listed above.
9. Open pull request from dev to main GitHub branch.
10. Wait for LGTM, CircleCI, and Codecov to comment on pull request.
11. Fix any issues and repeat the procedure above. If several issues are raised prefer to delay the pull request rather than pushing ahead. Once the issues have been fixed repeat the process above.
12. Close pull request to merge dev into main.
13. Change local branch to main and publish package to PyPI. Remember to git pull on your local machine in ensure main is consistent with the remote branch.
14. Add annotated git tag with version number and push to GitHub. Making a tag is useful for posterity as well as easily creating a formal release.
15. Make formal release on GitHub using the created tag. In the release notes describe what changes have been made using a short bulleted list.