RELEASE.txt

How to make a new release of ``skimage``
========================================

While following this guide, note down all the times that you need to consult a
previous release manager, or that you find an instruction unclear. You will
make a PR to update these notes after you are done with the release. ;-)

Some of the instructions don't apply to patch releases. As a reminder, we use a
variant of "semantic versioning", where version numbers are classified as
v<major>.<minor>.<patch>. If you are making a patch release, skip the first
three steps. Instead, make a PR to update ``release_<major>.<minor>.txt`` on
the corresponding release branch.

- Check ``TODO.txt`` for any outstanding tasks.

- Branch v<major>.<minor>.x from master. This is the "release branch", where
  you will make your changes gearing up for release, and cherry-pick them as
  appropriate to master.

- On the release branch, update the release notes:

  1. Review and cleanup ``doc/release/release_dev.txt``.

  2. Make a list of merges, contributors, and reviewers by running
     ``tools/generate_release_notes.py -h`` and following that file's usage.

  3. Paste this list at the end of the ``release_dev.txt``.

  4. Scan the PR titles for highlights, deprecations, API changes,
     and bugfixes, and mention these in the relevant sections of the notes.
     Try to present the information in an expressive way by mentioning
     the affected functions, elaborating on the changes and their
     consequences. If possible, organize semantically close PRs in groups.

  5. Rename the file to ``doc/release/release_<major>.<minor>.txt``

  6. Copy ``doc/release/release_template.txt`` to
     ``doc/release/release_dev.txt`` for the next release.

  7. Copy relevant deprecations from ``release_<major>_<minor>.txt``
     to ``release_dev.txt``.

- Submit the release notes for review by other project maintainers:

  - Create a PR from v<major>.<minor>.x branch to master (at this point,
    the difference should show the full contents of the release notes).
  - Discuss with others, and make the changes directly to v<major>.<minor>.x branch.
  - Once the consensus is found, ask the project maintainers to merge the PR.

- In the master branch, update the version number in ``skimage/__init__.py``
  to the next ``.dev0`` version, commit, and push. This should follow PEP440
  meaning that the appropriate version number would look something like
  ``0.20.dev0`` with the period between ``20`` and ``dev`` and a trailing
  ``0`` immediately after ``dev``. 

- Back on the release branch, update the version number to stable in
  ``skimage/__init__.py``, commit, and push.

- Add the version number as a tag in git::

   git tag -s -m <github_release_message> [-u <key-id>] v<major>.<minor>.0

  (If you do not have a GPG key, follow the tutorial to set it up:
   https://help.github.com/articles/signing-commits-with-gpg/)

- Push the new tag to GitHub::

   git push upstream v<major>.<minor>.0

  (where ``upstream`` is the name of the
   ``github.com:scikit-image/scikit-image`` repository.)

- Make sure you have all the required write permissions (if not, you will need
  to ask Stéfan or Juan to grant you the access), specifically, to:

  - https://github.com/scikit-image/scikit-image-wheels
  - https://pypi.org/project/scikit-image/
  - https://github.com/scikit-image/scikit-image-web

- Build the package wheels (pre-compiled binaries) for various platforms:

  - Clone https://github.com/scikit-image/scikit-image-wheels.
  - If making a patch release, switch to the appropriate v<major>.<minor>.x
    branch. Otherwise, create that branch.
  - Update its ``.travis.yml`` file so that ``BUILD_COMMIT`` points to this
    release tag (e.g. ``v0.14.0``).
  - Update its ``.appveyor.yml`` file so that ``BUILD_COMMIT`` also points to
    this release tag.
  - Commit and push.
  - Monitor the builds at
    https://ci.appveyor.com/project/scikit-image/scikit-image-wheels and
    https://travis-ci.org/scikit-image/scikit-image-wheels/branches
  - When all is green, spot-check a couple of builds to make sure that the
    wheels have correctly uploaded. You should see a message like:
    ``python -m wheelhouse_uploader upload --local-folder``, with output:
    ``Wheelhouse successfully published at:
    http://[crazyrandomstring].rackcdn.com``
  - Open that URL and check for the wheels as
    ``scikit_image-<versiontag>-<platforminfo>.whl``

- Update the docs:

  - Edit ``doc/source/_static/docversions.js`` and commit
  - Build a clean version of the docs. In the root directory, run
    ``python setup.py install``, then ``make cleandoc; make html``.
  - In the ``doc/`` directory, build using ``make gh-pages``.
  - Update the symlink to ``stable``.
  - Push upstream: ``git push origin gh-pages`` in ``doc/gh-pages``.

- Upload the wheels to PyPI:

  - Make sure ``twine`` is available. You can install it with
    ``pip install twine``.
  - Download ``wheel-uploader`` [1]_ and place it on your PATH.
  - Run ``tools/upload_wheels.sh``.
  - If everything worked, delete the wheels from your local directory with
    ``rm -rf *.whl``

.. [1] https://github.com/MacPython/terryfy/blob/master/wheel-uploader

- Publish the source distribution on PyPi::

   python setup.py sdist
   twine upload dist/scikit-image-<major>.<minor>.0.tar.gz

- Update the web frontpage:
  The webpage source is kept in a separate repo: scikit-image-web. The
  live webpage lives in a second repo, scikit-image.github.com, that you only
  interact with via the ``make`` command within scikit-image-web.

  - Sync your branch with the remote repo: ``git pull``.
    If you try to ``make gh-pages`` when your branch is out of sync, it
    creates headaches.
  - Add release date to ``index.rst`` under "News".
  - Add previous stable version documentation path to disallowed paths
    in `robots.txt`
  - Commit and push back to master. (Nothing is being served at this stage.)
  - Build using ``make gh-pages``. (This checks out a copy of the
    scikit-image.github.com repository in the ``gh-pages`` directory.)
  - Push the built site: ``cd gh-pages`` and ``git push origin master``.

- Post release notes on mailing lists, blog, Twitter, etc.

  - scikit-image@python.org
  - scipy-user@python.org
  - scikit-learn@python.org

- Update the version and the release date on Wikipedia
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scikit-image

- Make a PR to scikit-image with any updates you might have to these notes

- If making a patch release (v<major>.<minor>.<patch>), forward-port the
  release notes to the master branch and make a PR.

Conda-forge
-----------

**Note**: conda-forge now has an automated bot who makes the below PR for you.
Now all you have to do is to look at pull requests at
https://github.com/conda-forge/scikit-image-feedstock/pulls
and check for a new one for this version. Wait for all the continuous
integration checks to go green, then merge.

The manual instructions remain below in case the bot fails for some reason.

A scikit-image build recipe resides at
https://github.com/conda-forge/scikit-image-feedstock. You should update it to
point to the most recent release. You can do this by following these steps:

- Fork the repository at https://github.com/conda-forge/scikit-image-feedstock,
  and clone it to your machine.
- Sprout a new branch, e.g. ``v<major>.<minor>``.
- Find out the SHA256 hash of the source distribution. You can find this at
  https://pypi.org/project/scikit-image/, or use the following commands:

  - ``sha256sum path/to/scikit-image-*.tar.gz`` (Linux)
  - ``shasum -a 256 dist/scikit-image-*.tar.gz`` (macOS)
  - ``CertUtil -hashfile dist\scikit-image-*.tar.gz SHA256`` (Windows)

- Edit the file ``recipe/meta.yaml``:

  - Update the version number on the first line.
  - Update the SHA256 value on line 9.
  - If necessary, reset the build number to 0. (line 12)
  - Update any requirements in the appropriate sections (build or run).
    Note: don't remove ``numpy x.x``. This tells conda-smithy, conda-forge's
    build system, that the library must be linked against NumPy at build time.
  - Commit these changes.
  - Update the infrastructure around the recipe with ``conda-smithy``:
    * Install conda-smithy either with conda or pip
    * Run ``conda-smithy rerender`` in the root of the repository, and commit
      the changes.

- Push to your fork, and submit a pull request to the
  upstream repo.

Debian
------

The below instructions remain here for completeness. However, the Debian
scientific team has kindly taken over package maintenance. Simply follow the
procedure described at https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting to report a "bug"
that there is a new version of scikit-image out (specifying the version
number), with severity set to "Wishlist".

If you want to take matters into your own hands for some reason, follow the
instructions detailed below to cut a Debian release yourself.

- Tag the release as per instructions above.
- git checkout debian
- git merge v0.x.x
- uscan <- not sure if this step is necessary
- Update changelog (emacs has a good mode, requires package dpkg-dev-el)
  - C-C C-v add new version, C-c C-c timestamp / save
- git commit -m 'Changelog entry for 0.x.x'
- git-buildpackage -uc -us -rfakeroot
- Sign the changes: debsign skimage_0.x.x-x_amd64.changes
- cd ../build-area && dput mentors skimage_0.x.x-x_amd64.changes
- The package should now be available at:

  http://mentors.debian.net/package/skimage

For the last lines above to work, you need ``~/.gbp.conf``::

  [DEFAULT]
  upstream-tag = %(version)s

  [git-buildpackage]
  sign-tags = True
  export-dir = ../build-area/
  tarball-dir = ../tarballs/

As well as ``~/dput.cf``::

  [mentors]
  fqdn = mentors.debian.net
  incoming = /upload
  method = http
  allow_unsigned_uploads = 0
  progress_indicator = 2
  # Allow uploads for UNRELEASED packages
  allowed_distributions = .*