DRAFT FOR REVIEW
The Release-Guidelines.md file will be created from the below after the review.
Releasing an API step by step
- Create a GitHub issue defining the scope of the targeted API release. Descriptive information in this issue can be reused in the changelog/release notes. All discussions wrt to this release shall be handled through this issue.
- Create the API release tracker for the target API version as describer here: API release tracking process.
- On the main branch, develop the API scope in a "work-in-progress mode" (API version = wip and version in URL is vwip).
- during development and test, make sure to create and record the required release assets according to the API-Readiness-Checklist file
- Once the required stability is reached, create the "release PR" (see details here: CreatethereleasePR
Manage the "release PR" approval, merge the approved "release PR" and create the release
- An API release is created using the GitHub release feature.
- The release name shall be the same as the release tag and shall have the following format: rx.y
- The x.y number shall follow the release numbering scheme: APIreleasenumbering
- Outside the project the release name shall be the API name (for definition see API versioning#APIname) combined with the release number e.g. qod rx.y
Repeat step 3, 4 and 5 for
- alpha releases up to the M3 milestone: rx.1 through rx.m (with first alpha release: r0.1)
- release-candidates between the M3 and the M4 milestone: rx.m+1 through rx.n
- finishing with the public-release for inclusion in the meta-release: rx.n+1
- maintenance-releases (for MINOR and PATCH updates) after public release: rx.n+2 and up
- next release (for MAJOR updates): same as above, starting at rx+1.0