Release Procedure

These notes enumerate the steps required every time we release a new version of Arbor.

Pre-release

Update tags/versions and test

  1. Check if some files are up to date

    • README.md, ATTRIBUTIONS.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, CHANGELOG.md. For autogenerated CHANGELOG, see below.

    • Verify MANIFEST.in (required for PyPI sdist).

    • Double-check that all examples/tutorials/etc are covered by CI.

    • Check Python/pip/PyPi metadata and scripts, e.g., pyproject.toml.

  2. Create new temp-branch ending in -rc. E.g. v0.9.0-rc

  3. Bump the VERSION file:

  4. Create a draft PR. Tag and push with -rc. E.g. v0.9.0-rc

    • on cmdline: git tag -a TAGNAME

    • git push upstream refs/tags/TAGNAME

    • Githubs autogenerated release notes can only be generated on a tag. Use this -rc tag to do so, and add the commit to the draft PR. Ensure Github takes the previous release as base.

  5. Run and pass all tests.

    • They should run automatically based on the draft PR. Pushing the tag kicks of cibuildwheel.

    • In case you want to test ciwheel.yml manually on your local repo origin, push to a branch called ciwheel, e.g. git push origin HEAD:ciwheel.

      • ciwheel.yml pushes automatically to test.pypi.org. This only passes if run as a branch of the main arbor-sim repo (as that’s where the PyPI secret lives). On your own repo, the upload will fail (the rest should pass). If you want to test uploading, then force push to the _upstream_ ciwheel branch, e.g. git push upstream HEAD:ciwheel --force.

    • If you want to test the PyPI submission (consider asking other OS-users):

      python -m venv env && source env/bin/activate
pip install numpy
pip install -i https://test.pypi.org/simple/ arbor #should select the latest build, otherwise e.g. arbor==0.8rc0
python -c 'import arbor; print(arbor.__config__)'

Release

  1. Make sure no errors were encountered in the pre-release phase, working wheels were produced, and were installable from Test.PyPI.org and that no problems were reported.

  2. Change VERSION. Make sure does not end with -rc or -dev. Push to the draft PR opened earlier for the rc.

  3. When tests pass, merge the PR.

  4. Tag

    • commit and either reuse the draft PR for the RC, or open a new one.

    • once merged, make and push tag.

      • on cmdline: git tag -a TAGNAME

      • git push upstream TAGNAME

  5. Upload to pypi & verify

    Get the wheels from test PyPI or the GitHub Action that produced the release artifacts. Make sure you have pip installed twine and have your ~/.pypirc file setup with the right token (see docs).

    twine upload -r arborpypi dist/*

python -m venv env && source env/bin/activate
pip install arbor
python -c 'import arbor; print(arbor.__config__)'

  6. Create GitHub Release: https://github.com/arbor-sim/arbor/releases

    • The Github action that produced the release artifacts should have prepared a draft Release.

    • Update body text with CHANGELOG.md

    • (Probably: delete the GitHub draft release for the -rc)

    • If no Github Release was automatically drafted:

    • Go to GH tags and click “…” and “Create release”

    • Categorize/edit Github’s autogenerated release notes (alternatively, go through merged PRs to come up with a changelog).

    • Manually build full tarball:

    scripts/create_tarball ~/loc/of/arbor tagname outputfile

    • eg scripts/create_tarball /full/path/to/arbor v0.5.1 ~/arbor-v0.5.1-full.tar.gz

Post Release

  1. Start a new release on Zenodo. This allocated a DOI, but you don’t have to finish it right away. Add new Zenodo DOI badge/link to CITATION.bib and docs/index.rst.

  2. Update Zenodo with authors and changelog created in the previous step and submit.

  3. Make a new PR setting VERSION to the next with a trailing -dev. E.g. if you just released 3.14.15, change VERSION to 3.15.16-dev. Make sure the number portion always consists of a triple. Shorter versions are uninstallable by Spack (spack install arbor@0.8 will install v0.8.1, due to anything shorter than a triple being interpreted as a version range).

    • Include changes such as to CITATIONS, doc/index.rst in postrel PR. Copy Zenodo BibTex export to CITATIONS.

  4. Update scripts/check-all-tags.sh to check the current tag.

  5. Update spack package / Ebrains Lab / Opensourcebrain

  6. Announce on our website

  7. [AUTOMATED] Add tagged version of docs on ReadTheDocs

  8. FZJ admin

GUI

Release automation is a bit more advanced for Arbor GUI: the act of pushing a new tag, auto-drafts a release with the relevant artifacts. The post-release steps mentioned above are largely the same. A list of the places where an update must be entered:

  1. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7415129