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Release Process

Preparing a release​

The following steps shall be done before the "Creating a Release" section.

  1. Create an isssue containing tasks for getting the main branch ready
  2. Finish all tasks inside the issue.
  3. Build the release branch and make sure there are no error.
  4. Execute tests and make sure there are no error.
  5. Create release

Creating a Release​

  1. Navigate to GitHub repository's Releases section
  2. Click "Draft a new release" button
  3. In the release creation interface:
    • Target: Select the pre-developed release development branch (e.g., release-x.y.z)
    • Tag: Create a new release tag in the "Choose a tag" section
      • Follow semantic versioning (e.g., v1.0.0, v1.1.2)
  4. Github Actions will automatically:
    • Build the release
    • Run unittests and generate coverage report
    • Generate manifest.toml for Eclipse Manifest.
    • Attach them to the release

Release notes​

The release notes are generated automatically with the GitHub web frontend by clicking on the Generate release notes button. The procedure uses the filters for pull request labels configured inside .github/release.yml.

Review Release notes​

Review the auto-generated notes. Add a brief summary highlighting major changes, breaking changes, or features relevant to the end-user.

Release development branches​

To stabilize an upcoming release or prepare for a release, a development release branch should be created before final release.

Branch Naming Convention:​

release-<major>.<minor>.<patch>

For example release-0.1.0

Release workflow​

For release a tagged branch a workflow exists inside .github/workflows/release.yml. The release workflow uses the build and test coverage workflow from .github/workflows/colcon-build.yml and muto-coverage.yml.

This allows to avoid having to duplicate the steps of the build workflow into the release workflow and thus have a single point of change for the build workflow.

The release workflow executes the build workflow, exports the build artifacts into an archive for each supported platform and uploads it to the GitHub release.