Release Policy ============== Once or twice a month, a new release is cut off of the master branch and is assigned a 0.X.Y version number, where X is incremented each time a release contains breaking changes, such as changed options or added/removed features, and Y is incremented if a release contains only bugfixes and other minor changes. Releases are tagged on the master branch and will not be maintained separately. The goal of releases is to provide Linux distributions with something to package. If you want the newest features, just use the master branch. We try our best to keep it deployable at all times. Releases other than the latest release are unsupported and unmaintained. Release procedure ----------------- While on master: - Update the `RELEASE_NOTES` file. - Update the `VERSION` file. - Update `DOCS/client-api-changes.rst` and `DOCS/interface-changes.rst` (in particular, update the last version numbers if necessary) - Commit changes. - Create signed tag v0.X.Y. - Add -UNKNOWN suffix to version in `VERSION` file. - Commit changes, push branch and tag to GitHub. - Create a new GitHub release using the content of `RELEASE_NOTES` related to the new version. Release notes template ---------------------- Here is a template that can be used for writing the `RELEASE_NOTES` file. ```markdown Release 0.X.Y ============= Features -------- New ~~~ - List of new features Removed ~~~~~~~ - List of removed features Deprecated ~~~~~~~~~~ - List of deprecated features Behavior -------- - List of user-visible changes in behavior Options and Commands -------------------- Added ~~~~~ - List of added options and commands Changed ~~~~~~~ - List of changed options and commands Renamed ~~~~~~~ - List of renamed options and commands Deprecated ~~~~~~~~~~ - List of deprecated options and commands Removed ~~~~~~~ - List of removed options and commands Fixes and Minor Enhancements ---------------------------- - List of fixes and minor enhancements This listing is not complete. There are many more bug fixes and changes. The complete change log can be viewed by running `git log ..` in the git repository. ``` Note that the "Release 0.X.Y" title should be removed when creating a new GitHub release. When creating a new point release its changes should be added on top of the `RELEASE_NOTES` file (with the appropriate title) so that all the changes in the current 0.X branch will be included. This way the `RELEASE_NOTES` file can be used by distributors as changelog for point releases too.