RELEASE.rst

Making a Kwant release

This document guides a contributor through creating a release of Kwant.

Preflight checks

The following checks should be made before tagging the release.

Check that all issues are resolved

Check that all the issues and merge requests for the appropriate milestone have been resolved. Any unresolved issues should have their milestone bumped.

Ensure that all tests pass

For major and minor releases we will be tagging the master branch. For patch releases, the stable branch. This should be as simple as verifying that the latest CI pipeline succeeded, however in stable branch also manually trigger CI task of building the conda package and verify that it, too, succeeds.

Inspect the documentation

If the CI pipeline succeeded, then the latest docs should be available at:

https://test.kwant-project.org/doc/<branch name>

Check that there are no glaring deficiencies.

Update the whatsnew file

For each new minor release, check that there is an appropriate whatsnew file in doc/source/pre/whatsnew. This should be named as:

<major>.<minor>.rst

and referenced from doc/source/pre/whatsnew/index.rst. It should contain a list of the user-facing changes that were made in the release. With any luck this file will have been updated at the same time as a feature was implemented, if not then you can see what commits were introduced since the last release using git log. You can also see what issues were assigned to the release's milestones and get an idea of what was introduced from there.

Starting with Kwant 1.4, we also mention user-visible changes in bugfix releases in the whatsnew files.

Verify that AUTHORS.rst is up-to-date

The following command shows the number of commits per author since the last annotated tag:

t=$(git describe --abbrev=0); echo Commits since $t; git shortlog -s $t..

Make a release, but do not publish it yet

Various problems can surface only during the process of preparing a release and make it necessary to fix the codebase. It would be a pity to have to succeed the freshly released version by a minor release just to correct a glitch that was detected too late. Therefore it is a good idea to pursue the release as far as possible without announcing it, such that it can be undone and corrected if necessary. In the past tests that failed on the x86-32 architecture and wrongly declared dependencies have been detected in this way.

Tag the release

Make an annotated, signed tag for the release. The tag must have the name:

git tag -s v<version> -m "version <version>"

Be sure to respect the format of the tag name (leading "v", e.g. "v1.2.3"). The tag message format is the one that has been used so far.

Do not yet push the tag anywhere; it might have to be undone!

Build a source tarball and inspect it

./setup.py sdist

This creates the file dist/kwant-<version>.tar.gz. It is a good idea to unpack it in /tmp and inspect that builds in isolation and that the tests run:

cd /tmp
tar xzf ~/src/kwant/dist/kwant-<version>.tar.gz
cd kwant-<version>
./setup.py test

Build the documentation

Building the documentation requires 'sphinx' and a Latex installation. First build the HTML and PDF documentation:

./setup.py build
make -C doc realclean html latex SPHINXOPTS='-A website_deploy=True -n -W'
cd doc/build/latex
make all-pdf

Then create a zipped version of the HTML documentation and name the PDF consistently:

zip -r docs/build/kwant-doc-<version>.zip docs/build/docs/build/html
mv docs/build/latex/kwant.pdf docs/build/kwant-doc-<version>.pdf

Clone the repository of the Kwant Debian package

This step needs to be performed only once. The cloned repository can be reused for subsequent releases.

Clone the "kwant-debian" repository and go into its root directory. If you keep the Kwant source in "src/kwant", a good location for the Debian package repository is "src/debian/kwant". The packaging process creates many files that are placed into the parent directory of the packaging repository, hence having an additional directory level ("src/debian") is a good way to keep these files separate:

mkdir debian
cd debian
git clone ssh://git@gitlab.kwant-project.org:443/kwant/debian-kwant.git kwant
cd kwant

Create a local upstream branch:

git branch upstream origin/upstream

Add a remote for the repository that contains the previously created tag:

git remote add upstream_repo ~/src/kwant

Make sure that:

git config --get user.name
git config --get user.email

show correct information.

Release a new version of the Kwant Debian package

Fetch packaging work (from origin) and the git tag created above (from upstream_repo) into the packaging repo:

git fetch --all

Make sure that the branches master and upstream are up-to-date:

git checkout upstream
git merge --ff-only origin/upstream
git checkout master
git merge --ff-only origin/master

Debian packages may include "quilt" patches that are applied on top of the pristine tarball. The tool gbp pq manages these patches as a git branch patch-queue/master. Execute the following commands to (re)create that branch based on the patches in ``debian/patches:

gbp pq --force import
gbp checkout master

Now it is time to import the new source code. There are two options. If, as recommended above, the tarball of the new version has not been made public yet, it must be imported as follows:

gbp import-orig ~/src/kwant/dist/kwant-<version>.tar.gz

Alternatively, the following commands will import the newest version from PyPI:

uscan --report      # This will report if a newer version exists on PyPI
gbp import-orig --uscan

Now it is time to review the patch queue. Rebase and checkout the patch-queue/master branch using:

gbp pq rebase

As ususal, the rebase might require manual intervention. Once done, review all the commits of the patch-queue/master branch. Are all patches still needed, should any be removed? When done (even if no changes were needed), recreate the files in debian/patches using:

gbp pq export

If git diff reports any changes, be sure to commit them.

Now is the right moment to verify and modify the packaging information inside the debian/ directory. For example, are the dependencies and versions stated in debian/control up-to-date?

When all changes are commited, it is time to finalize by updating the Debian changelog file. Add a point "New upstream release" if there was one, and describe any other changes to the Debian packaging:

DEBEMAIL=<your-email> gbp dch -R --commit --distribution testing

Now verify that the package builds with:

git clean -i
gbp buildpackage

This is not how the package should be built for distribution. For that, see the following two sections.

If problems surface that require changing the packaging, undo the changelog commit, modify the packaging, and re-iterate. If the problems require fixing Kwant, you will have to go back all the way to recreating the source tarball. If the version to be packaged has been released publicly already, this will require a new bugfix version.

Setup git-pbuilder to build Debian packages

Pbuilder is a tool to build Debian packages in an isolated chroot. This allows to verify that the package indeed only has the declared dependencies. It also allows to cross-build packages for i386 on amd64.

The following describes how to setup git-pbuilder, see also https://wiki.debian.org/git-pbuilder. This procedure needs to be executed only once for a Debian system.

Install the Debian package git-buildpackage.

As root, add the following lines to /etc/sudoers or /etc/sudoers.d/local

Cmnd_Alias BUILD = /usr/sbin/cowbuilder

and

user ALL = SETENV: BUILD

Now create pbuilder images. In the following, replace <dist> by the current Debian testing codename, e.g. "buster":

ARCH=i386 DIST=<dist> git-pbuilder create
ARCH=amd64 DIST=<dist> git-pbuilder create

If the packages to be built have special dependencies, use the trick described in https://wiki.debian.org/git-pbuilder#Using_Local_Packages

Build Kwant packages using git-pbuilder

Update the builder environment (again, replace <dist> with the name of the current Debian testing):

ARCH=i386 DIST=<dist> git-pbuilder update
ARCH=amd64 DIST=<dist> git-pbuilder update

Now build the packages. First the i386 package. The option "--git-tag" tags and signs the tag if the build is successful. In a second step, the package is built for amd64, but only the architecture-dependent files (not the documentation package):

gbp buildpackage --git-pbuilder --git-arch=i386 --git-dist=<dist> --git-tag
gbp buildpackage --git-pbuilder --git-arch=amd64 --git-dist=<dist> --git-pbuilder-options='--binary-arch'

Another example: build source package only:

gbp buildpackage --git-export-dir=/tmp -S

Build backports for the current Debian stable

Create a changelog entry for the backport:

DEBEMAIL=<your-email> dch --bpo

As shown above, run git-pbuilder update for the appropriate distribution codename.

Build backported packages:

gbp buildpackage --git-pbuilder --git-ignore-new --git-arch=i386 --git-dist=<dist>
gbp buildpackage --git-pbuilder --git-ignore-new --git-arch=amd64 --git-dist=<dist> --git-pbuilder-options='--binary-arch'

Do not commit anything.

Publish the release

If the Debian packages build correctly that means that all tests pass both on i386 and amd64, and that no undeclared dependencies are needed. We can be reasonably sure that the release is ready to be published.

git

Push the tag to the official Kwant repository:

git push origin v<version>

PyPI

Install twine and run the following (this requires a file ~/.pypirc with a valid username and password: ask Christoph Groth to add you as a maintainer on PyPI, if you are not already):

twine upload -s dist/kwant-<version>.tar.gz

It is very important that the tarball uploaded here is the same (bit-by-bit, not only the contents) as the one used for the Debian packaging. Otherwise it will not be possible to build the Debian package based on the tarball from PyPI.

Kwant website

The following requires ssh access to kwant-project.org (ask Christoph Groth). The tarball and its signature (generated by the twine command above) should be uploaded to the downloads section of the website:

scp dist/kwant-<version>.tar.gz* kwant-project.org:webapps/downloads/kwant

Debian packages

Go to the Debian packaging repository and push out the changes:

git push --tags origin master upstream

Now the Debian packages that we built previously need to be added to the repository of Debian packages on the Kwant website. So far the full version of this repository is kept on Christoph Groth's machine, so these instructions are for reference only.

Go to the reprepro repository directory and verify that the configuration file "conf/distributions" looks up-to-date. It should look something like this (be sure to update the codenames and the versions):

Origin: Kwant project
Suite: stretch-backports
Codename: stretch-backports
Version: 9.0
Architectures: i386 amd64 source
Components: main
Description: Unofficial Debian package repository of http://kwant-project.org/
SignWith: C3F147F5980F3535

Origin: Kwant project
Suite: testing
Codename: buster
Version: 10.0
Architectures: i386 amd64 source
Components: main
Description: Unofficial Debian package repository of http://kwant-project.org/
SignWith: C3F147F5980F3535

If the config had to be updated execute:

reprepro --delete clearvanished
reprepro export
reprepro --delete createsymlinks

In addition to the above, if distributions were removed from the configuration file the corresponding directories must be removed manually from under the dists subdirectory.

Now the source and binary Debian packages can be added. The last line has to be executed for all the .deb files and may be automated with a shell loop. (Be sure to use the appropriate <dist>: for the above configuratoin file either "testing" or "stretch-backports".):

reprepro includedsc <dist> ../../src/kwant_<version>-1.dsc
reprepro includedeb <dist> python3-kwant_<version>-1_amd64.deb

Once all the packages have been added, upload the repository:

rsync -avz --delete dists pool kwant-project.org:webapps/downloads/debian

Ubuntu packages

Packages for Ubuntu are provided as a PPA (Personal Package Archive): https://launchpad.net/~kwant-project/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

Make sure ~/.dput.cf has something like this:

[ubuntu-ppa-kwant]
fqdn = ppa.launchpad.net
method = ftp
incoming = ~kwant-project/ppa/ubuntu/
login = anonymous
allow_unsigned_uploads = 0

We will also use the following script (prepare_ppa_upload):

#!/bin/sh

if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
    echo -e "\nUsage: $(basename $0) lousy mourning2 nasty\n"
    exit
fi

version=`dpkg-parsechangelog --show-field Version`
mv debian/changelog /tmp/changelog.$$

for release in $@; do
    cp /tmp/changelog.$$ debian/changelog
    DEBEMAIL=christoph.groth@cea.fr dch -b -v "$version~$release" -u low 'Ubuntu PPA upload'
    sed -i -e "1,1 s/UNRELEASED/$release/" debian/changelog
    debuild -S -sa
done

mv /tmp/changelog.$$ debian/changelog

Make sure that the Debian package builds correctly and go to its directory.

Check https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases for the relevant releases (we want to provide packages at least for the current LTS release and the newer non-LTS releases) and execute:

prepare_ppa_upload <dist0> <dist1> <dist2>

(if a second upload of the same Debian version is needed, something like "vivid2" instead of "vivid" can be used.)

Now the changes files are "put" to start the build process on the PPA servers:

cd ..
dput ubuntu-ppa-kwant *~*.changes

Clone the repository of the Kwant conda-forge package

This step needs to be performed only once. The cloned repository can be reused for subsequent releases.

Clone the "Kwant feedstock" repository and go into its root directory. If you keep the Kwant source in "src/kwant", a good location for the Conda package repository is "src/conda-forge/kwant":

cd ~/src
mkdir conda-forge
cd conda-forge
git clone https://github.com/conda-forge/kwant-feedstock kwant
cd kwant

Rename the default remote to upstream:

git remote rename origin upstream

Create a new version of the Kwant conda-forge package

Edit the file recipe/meta.yml. Correctly set the version at the top of the file to the version of this release. Set the sha256 string in the source section near the top of the file to the SHA256 hash of the kwant source tarball that we previously created. You can find the SHA256 hash by running openssl sha256 <filename> on Linux and Mac OSX.

Commit your changes.

Conda forge

This step requires a GitHub account, as Conda forge packages are autobuilt from repositories hosted on GitHub.

Fork the Kwant feedstock repository and add your fork as a remote to the copy that you previously cloned:

cd ~/conda-forge/kwant
git remote add myfork https://github.com/<your-gh-username>/kwant-feedstock

Push the changes that you previously commited to your fork:

git push myfork master

Open a pull request to Kwant feedstock repository. Ask Bas Nijholt or Joseph Weston to review and accept the pull request.

Documentation

The following requires ssh access to kwant-project.org. Ask Christoph Groth if you need to be granted access.

Upload the zipped HTML and PDF documentation:

scp doc/build/kwant-doc-<version>.zip kwant-project.org:webapps/downloads/doc
scp doc/build/kwant-doc-<version>.pdf kwant-project.org:webapps/downloads/doc

Point the symbolic links latest.zip and latest.pdf to these new files:

ssh kwant-project.org "cd webapps/downloads/doc; ln -s kwant-doc-<version>.zip latest.zip"
ssh kwant-project.org "cd webapps/downloads/doc; ln -s kwant-doc-<version>.pdf latest.pdf"

Then upload the HTML documentation for the main website:

rsync -rlv --delete doc/build/html/* kwant-project.org:webapps/kwant/doc/<short-version>

where in the above <short-version is just the major and minor version numbers.

Finally point the symbolic link <major-version> to <short-version>:

ssh kwant-project.org "cd webapps/kwant/doc; ln -s <major> <short-version>"

Announce the release

Write a short post summarizing the highlights of the release on the Kwant website <https://gitlab.kwant-project.org/kwant/website>, then post this to the mailing list kwant-discuss@kwant-project.org.

Working towards the next release

After finalizing a release, a new whatsnew file should be created for the next release, and this addition should be committed and tagged as:

<new major>.<new minor>.<new patch>a0

This tag should be pushed to Kwant Gitlab, and a new milestone for the next release should be created.