Simplified Release Process Proposal

The following is just a preliminary proposal to simplify the Release Process. The aim is to keep it as simple as possible because there has been a lot of difficulty following the more sophisticated Release Process currently in place.

  [Feature PRs]  [Bugfix PRs]           [ Emergency bug/regression fix PR]
       |    |     |       |                          |
       |    |     |       |                          |
====*==*====*=====*=======*==========*====master=====*=========*============>
     \             .       .        /                 .       /
      \             .       .      /                   .     /
       *--2.xx-------*---*---*----*---------------------*---*--------------->
                          \        \                         \
                 [tag v2.xx.0b1]  [tag v2.xx.0]           [tag v2.xx.x]
                                         
                                          

| = pull request
\ = fork\tag
/ = merge
. = cherry-pick

Contributors

Just make pull requests to master.

Release Manager

Releases

Only the Release Manager needs to do this and they only need to do this during a scheduled feature freeze for an upcoming release. The feature freeze window should be kept short to minimize the work involved.

It's assumed they have a github.com/D-Programming-Language remote setup called "upstream" and master is up-to-date with it.

When a scheduled feature freeze for an upcoming release is to happen just create the versioned release branch:

git checkout -b 2.xx master
git push upstream 2.xx

As bugfixes come in cherry-pick them from master:

# while "2.xx" is checked out
git cherry-pick <commit-hash>
git push upstream 2.xx

As each beta is made:

git tag -m v2.xx.0-bx v2.xx.0-bx 2.xx
git push upstream v2.xx.0-bx

When the final release has been built and is out the door:

git tag -m v2.xx.0 v2.xx.0 2.xx
git push upstream v2.xx.0
git push upstream 2.xx
git checkout master
git merge 2.xx
git push upstream master

Hotfixes

Hotfixes are emergency releases made because of some very serious bug or regression that cannot wait until the next release is made.

After the regression/bug fix comes in cherry-pick it from master:

# while the appropriate "2.xx" is checked out
git cherry-pick <commit-hash>
git push upstream 2.xx

When the final hotfix release has been built and is out the door:

git tag -m v2.xx.x v2.xx.x 2.xx
git push upstream v2.xx.x
git push upstream 2.xx
git checkout master
git merge 2.xx
git push upstream master