Recommendation: Use git tags and GitHub releases to support software versioning

[pkmitre]

The current approach used for versioning of the openVA software and associated algorithms appears to be to create gzipped tarballs and committing them to the master branch in GitHub. Git repositories support the use of tags for versioning, which is recommended over keeping historical releases on the HEAD of the master branch. Specifically, the next version of openVA could be released using git tags by

1. Creating a tag with the appropriate name:

   git tag openVA_1.0.8

2. Pushing the tag up to GitHub:

   git push origin --tags

Once tags are pushed to GitHub, the site allows any tagged version to be downloaded as either a zip file or a gzipped tarball via the "releases" link; for the openVA repository that link takes one to (https://github.com/verbal-autopsy-software/openVA/releases).

For more information on tagging, see (https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Tagging).

GitHub also supports creating a "release" from a tag; a release supports additional features over tags like the ability to include release notes.

For more information on releases, see (https://help.github.com/articles/creating-releases/).