pgTAP Release Management

Here are the steps to take to make a release of pgTAP:

  • Review and fix any open bugs in the issue tracker.

  • Review and merge any appropriate pull requests.

  • Make sure that all tests pass on all supported versions of Postgres. If you want to run the tests manually, you can use the pgxn-utils Docker image or pgenv to install and switch between versions. For each version, ensure that:

    • Patches apply cleanly (try to eliminate Hunk warnings for patches to pgtap.sql itself, usually by fixing line numbers)

    • All files are installed.

    • ALTER EXTENSION pgtap UPDATE; works.

    • CREATE EXTENSION pgtap; works.

    • All tests pass in make installcheck.

  • If you've made any significant changes while testing versions backward, test them again in forward order (9.1, 9.2, 9.3, etc.) to make sure the changes didn't break any later versions.

  • Review the documentation in doc/pgtap.mmd, and make any necessary changes, including to the list of PostgreSQL version-compatibility notes at the end of the document.

  • Add an item to the top of the %changelog section of contrib/pgtap.spec. It should use the version you're about to release, as well as the date (use date +'%a %b %d %Y') and your name and email address. Add at least one bullet mentioning the upgrade.

  • Run make html (you'll need MultiMarkdown (Homebrew: brew install multimarkdown) in your path and the Pod::Simple::XHTML (Homebrew: brew install cpanm && cpanm Pod::Simple::XHTML) Perl module installed), then checkout the gh-pages branch and make these changes:

    • cp .documentation.html.template documentation.html. Edit documentation.html, the main div should look like this:

      <div id="main">
        <!-- DOCS INTRO HERE -->
        <!-- END DOCS INTRO HERE -->
        <div id="toc">
          <!-- TOC SANS "pgTAP x.xx" -->
          <!-- END TOC -->
        </div>
        <!-- DOCS HERE, WITH INTRO MOVED ABOVE -->
        <!-- END DOCS -->
      </div>
      
    • Copy the first <h1> and <p> from doc/pgtap.html into the DOCS INTRO HERE section.

    • Copy the rest of doc/pgtap.html into the DOCS HERE, WITH INTRO MOVED ABOVE section.

    • Copy the entire contents of doc/toc.html into the DOC SANS pgTAP x.xx section, and then remove the first <li> element that says "pgTAP x.xx".

    • Review to ensure that everything looks right; use git diff to make sure nothing important was lost. It should mainly be additions.

    • Commit the changes, but don't push them yet.

  • Go back to the main branch and proofread the additions to the Changes file since the last release. Make sure all relevant changes are recorded there, and that any typos or formatting errors are corrected.

  • Timestamp the Changes file. I generate the timestamp like so:

    perl -MDateTime -e 'print DateTime->now->datetime . "Z\n"'
    

    Paste that into the line with the new version, maybe increment by a minute to account for the time you'll need to actually do the release.

  • Commit the timestamp and push it:

    git ci -m 'Timestamp v0.98.0.'
    git push
    
  • Once again make sure all tests pass. Fix any that fail.

  • Once all tests pass, tag the release with its semantic version (including the leading v) and push the tag.

    git tag -sm 'Tag v0.98.0.' v0.98.0
    git push --tags
    
  • Monitor the release workflow to make sure the new version is released on both PGXN and GitHub.

  • Push the gh-pages branch:

    git push
    
  • Increment the minor version to kick off development for the next release. The version should be added to the Changes file, and incremented in the following files:

    • META.json (including for the three parts of the provides section)
    • README.md
    • contrib/pgtap.spec
    • doc/pgtap.mmd
    • pgtap.control
  • Commit that change and push it.

    git ci -m 'Increment to v1.0.1.'
    git push
    
  • Start hacking on the next version!