Release procedure

Release procedure

Loom typically issues a release every 2 weeks. To create a new release:

1. Designate the new release version number x.y.z according to the semantic versioning standard. (For backward-compatible changes to API, increment x. For backward-compatible changes, increment y. For patches, increment z.)
2. Create a release branch "x.y.z-prerelease", Typically you will branch from the tip of the development branch, but you should branch from an old release if you are creating a patch for that release.
3. Increment the version in "doc/conf.py" and "loomengine/VERSION", update release notes in "doc/releasenotes.rst", and commit changes to the release branch.
4. Ensure that documentation is up to date.
5. Perform all non-functional tests and verify passing.
6. If testing reveals problems, submit changes and repeat tests.
7. Once a release is created, it must not be changed, so be sure that you are ready! To create the release, tag the final commit on the prerelease branch with the release version number (e.g. 0.5.3).
8. Verify a corresponding Docker image is built and published on Dockerhub.
9. Verify that documentation was published to readthedocs.
10. If this release is the highest available version, merge it into master since it is now the latest stable release. (Skip this step if this was a patch release on an older version.)
11. If this release is the highest available version, merge it into development to capture release notes and other changes.
12. If this is a patch to an older version, if it contains bugfixes or other changes that are useful for the development branch, merge those changes into development.