This guide provides information on how release versions and branches are handled in this repository.
This repository uses semantic versioning to version releases.
Semantic versions are in the form of MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. Given a version number, increment the:
- MAJOR version when an incompatible model change is made,
- MINOR version when a new optional feature is added in a backwards compatible manner, and
- PATCH version when backwards compatible bug fixes are made.
An incompatible model change will occur when all content produced under a given MAJOR version is no longer schema valid with the new model.
A backwards compatible feature change can entail an addition to a model that adds a new construct, perhaps even deprecating an existing construct, but all previously created content is still schema valid with the new model.
Note: In rare cases, a PATCH release might contain an incompatible model change to correct a typographic error or to fix functionality that is inoperable due to a significant defect.
A PATCH release will be made more frequenly than MAJOR or MINOR releases.
The main branches of this repository are:
- main contains the current supported, production-ready release.
- develop contains the current set of development changes for the next release. New features can be contributed to this branch.
- This branch is an integration branch where development code can be tested prior to promoting the code to a release.
- This branch will be used to create a release-major.minor branch when the developed code is ready to be staged for release.
- nist-pages contains the currently deployed website content, which is managed by the CI/CD process.
- release-* branches, where
*matches a MAJOR.MINOR version number, are used to support patch releases for a major or minor version of a release. You should provide changes only to the highest numbered minor release for a given major release.
To use this strategy, the following Git configuration is needed:
You must do all work in a personal fork of this repository.
git remote add upstream [email protected]:usnistgov/metaschema.git
All individual work will be done in branches in a personal fork of this repository.
Personal branches should be named using the convention <issue #>-brief-dashed-name.
Once work is complete on a personal branch, the branch should be interactively rebased to tidy any commits. Then a PR should be opened against the target feature-* branch or the develop branch if the changes are to be included in the next release.
For more information on how to do this, please refer to our contribution guide.
A release branch is used to stage code in preparation of a new release. Refinements to code can be made in a release branch in preparation for a new release.
Release branches represent production-ready code that is near-ready for release.
- Branched off of
develop. - Must be merged back into
developas releases are made. - Must be merged back into
mainto reflect the latest release - Release branches will be named
release-MAJOR.MINOR, e.g. release 1.0, release 1.1, release 2.0
A release branch can be created by issuing the following Git commands:
git checkout -b release-1.2 develop
# TODO: need a method to bump version numbers in metaschemas and content
git commit -a -m "Bumped version number to 1.2"
git push --set-upstream upstream release-1.2
Once the release is ready, the release can be made using the following Git commands:
git checkout main
git merge --no-ff release-1.2
git tag -a 1.2.0
git push --follow-tags
Patch releases for a given MAJOR.MINOR version will be marked by annotated tags. This allows the same release branch to be used for multiple PATCH releases.
Once a patch release is ready, the release can be made using the following Git commands:
git checkout main
git merge --no-ff release-1.2
git tag -a 1.2.1
git push --follow-tags
A feature branch provides means to integrate a set of features that are a work in progress and the release target of a given set of features is unknown or unpredictable. Work on such a set of features can proceed independent of work targeted at the next release in develop.
Feature branches represent major development topics.
- Branched off of
develop. - Merged back into
developwhen the feature work is completed. - Feature branches will be named
feature-*, where the*is a brief dash-separated label describing the feature.
If multiple committers are working on a feature, then each committer must work in a personal branch and submit a PR to the feature branch when their work is complete.
A feature branch can be created by issuing the following Git command:
git checkout -b feature-NAME develop
git push --set-upstream upstream feature-NAME
where feature-NAME will follow the pattern feature-*.
It may be necessary to periodically sync a feature branch with the latest in develop. You can do this using the following Git commands:
# switch to the feature branch
git checkout feature-NAME
# get the latest from upstream
git pull --ff-only upstream feature-NAME
# get the latest from develop
git pull -r upstream develop
git push --force-with-lease upstream feature-NAME
The following Git commands will be used to merge a feature branch into develop:
# switch to the develop branch
git checkout develop
# merge the feature branch
git merge --no-ff feature-myfeature
# delete the feature branch once it is merged
git branch -d feature-myfeature
# push the branch to the upstream repository
git push upstream develop