Releasing a pylint version#

So, you want to release the X.Y.Z version of pylint ?

Releasing a major or minor version#

Before releasing a major or minor version check if there are any unreleased commits on the maintenance branch. If so, release a last patch release first. See Releasing a patch version.

  • Write the Summary -- Release highlights in doc/whatsnew and upgrade the release date.

  • Remove the empty changelog for the last unreleased patch version X.Y-1.Z'. (For example: v2.3.5)

  • Check the result of git diff vX.Y-1.Z' doc/whatsnew. (For example: git diff v2.3.4 doc/whatsnew)

  • Install the release dependencies: pip3 install -r requirements_test.txt

  • Bump the version and release by using tbump X.Y.0 --no-push --no-tag. (For example: tbump 2.4.0 --no-push --no-tag)

  • Check the commit created with git show amend the commit if required.

  • Create a new What's new in Pylint X.Y+1 document. Add it to doc/index.rst. Take a look at the examples from doc/whatsnew. Commit that with git commit -am "wip".

  • Move the main branch up to a dev version with tbump:

tbump X.Y+1.0-dev0 --no-tag --no-push  # You can interrupt after the first step
git commit -am "Upgrade the version to x.y+1.0-dev0 following x.y.0 release"

For example:

tbump 2.5.0-dev0 --no-tag --no-push
git commit -am "Upgrade the version to 2.5.0-dev0 following 2.4.0 release"

Check the commit, fixup the 'wip' commit with the what's new then push to a release branch

  • Open a merge request with the two commits (no one can push directly on main)

  • After the merge, recover the merged commits on main and tag the first one (the version should be X.Y.Z) as vX.Y.Z (For example: v2.4.0)

  • Push the tag.

  • Release the version on GitHub with the same name as the tag and copy and paste the appropriate changelog in the description. This triggers the PyPI release.

  • Delete the maintenance/X.Y-1.x branch. (For example: maintenance/2.3.x)

  • Create a maintenance/X.Y.x (For example: maintenance/2.4.x from the v2.4.0 tag.)

  • Close the current milestone and create the new ones (For example: close 2.4.0, create 2.4.1 and 2.6.0)

Backporting a fix from main to the maintenance branch#

Whenever a commit on main should be released in a patch release on the current maintenance branch we cherry-pick the commit from main.

  • During the merge request on main, make sure that the changelog is for the patch version X.Y-1.Z'. (For example: v2.3.5)

  • After the PR is merged on main cherry-pick the commits on the maintenance/X.Y.x branch (For example: from maintenance/2.4.x cherry-pick a commit from main)

  • Remove the "need backport" label from cherry-picked issues

  • Release a patch version

Releasing a patch version#

We release patch versions when a crash or a bug is fixed on the main branch and has been cherry-picked on the maintenance branch.

  • Check the result of git diff vX.Y-1.Z-1 doc/whatsnew. (For example: git diff v2.3.4 doc/whatsnew)

  • Install the release dependencies: pip3 install -r requirements_test.txt

  • Bump the version and release by using tbump X.Y-1.Z --no-push. (For example: tbump 2.3.5 --no-push)

  • Check the result visually with git show.

  • Open a merge request to run the CI tests for this branch

  • Create and push the tag.

  • Release the version on GitHub with the same name as the tag and copy and paste the appropriate changelog in the description. This triggers the PyPI release.

  • Merge the maintenance/X.Y.x branch on the main branch. The main branch should have the changelog for X.Y-1.Z+1 (For example v2.3.6). This merge is required so pre-commit autoupdate works for pylint.

  • Fix version conflicts properly, or bump the version to X.Y.0-devZ (For example: 2.4.0-dev6) before pushing on the main branch

  • Close the current milestone and create the new one (For example: close 2.3.5, create 2.3.6)

Milestone handling#

We move issues that were not done to the next milestone and block releases only if there are any open issues labelled as blocker.