RELEASING.rst

Release Procedure

Our current policy for releasing is to aim for a bug-fix release every few weeks and a minor release every 2-3 months. The idea is to get fixes and new features out instead of trying to cram a ton of features into a release and by consequence taking a lot of time to make a new one.

Important

pytest releases must be prepared on Linux because the docs and examples expect to be executed on that platform.

To release a version MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, follow these steps:

1. For major and minor releases, create a new branch MAJOR.MINOR.x from the latest master and push it to the pytest-dev/pytest repo.

2. Create a branch release-MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH from the MAJOR.MINOR.x branch.

   Ensure your are updated and in a clean working tree.

3. Using tox, generate docs, changelog, announcements:

   $ tox -e release -- MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH

   This will generate a commit with all the changes ready for pushing.

4. Open a PR for the release-MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH branch targeting MAJOR.MINOR.x.

5. After all tests pass and the PR has been approved, tag the release commit in the MAJOR.MINOR.x branch and push it. This will publish to PyPI:

   git tag MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH
   git push git@github.com:pytest-dev/pytest.git MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH

   Wait for the deploy to complete, then make sure it is available on PyPI.

6. Merge the PR.

7. Cherry-pick the CHANGELOG / announce files to the master branch:

   git fetch --all --prune
   git checkout origin/master -b cherry-pick-release
   git cherry-pick --no-commit -m1 origin/MAJOR.MINOR.x
   git checkout origin/master -- changelog
   git commit  # no arguments

8. Send an email announcement with the contents from:

   doc/en/announce/release-<VERSION>.rst

   To the following mailing lists:

   • pytest-dev@python.org (all releases)
   • python-announce-list@python.org (all releases)
   • testing-in-python@lists.idyll.org (only major/minor releases)

   And announce it on Twitter with the #pytest hashtag.