# Making a Translate Toolkit Release

## Summary

1. Git clone git@github.com:translate/translate.git translate-release
2. Create release notes
3. Up version number
4. make build
5. Test install and other tests
6. Tag the release
7. Publish on PyPI
8. Upload to Sourceforge
9. Release documentation
10. Update translate website
11. Unstage sourceforge
12. Announce to the world
13. Cleanup
14. Other possible steps

## Detailed instructions

### Get a clean checkout

We work from a clean checkout to ensure that everything you are adding to the build is what is in VC and doesn’t contain any of your uncommitted changes. It also ensure that someone else could replicate your process.

    $ git clone git@github.com:translate/translate.git translate-release
    $ cd translate-release
    $ git submodule update --init

### Create release notes

The release notes will be used in these places:

- Toolkit website - download page (used in gh-pages)
- Sourceforge download - README.rst (used to give user info)
- Email announcements - text version

We create our release notes in reStructured Text, since we use that elsewhere and since it can be rendered well in some of our key sites.

First we need to create a log of changes in the Translate Toolkit, which is done generically like this:

    $ git log $previous_version..HEAD > docs/release/$version.rst

Or a more specific example:

    $ git log 1.10.0..HEAD > docs/releases/1.11.0-rc1.rst

Edit this file. You can use the commits as a guide to build up the release notes. You should remove all log messages before the release.

Note

Since the release notes will be used in places that allow linking we use links within the notes. These should link back to products websites (Virtaal, Pootle, etc), references to Translate and possibly bug numbers, etc.

Read for grammar and spelling errors.

Note

When writing the notes please remember:

1. The voice is active. ‘Translate has released a new version of the toolkit’, not ‘A new version of the toolkit was release by Translate’.
2. The connection to the users is human not distant.
3. We speak in familiar terms e.g. “I know you’ve been waiting for this release” instead of formal.

We create a list of contributors using this command:

    $ git log 1.10.0..HEAD --format='%aN, ' | awk '{arr[$0]++} END{for (i in arr){print arr[i], i;}}' | sort -rn | cut -d\  -f2-

### Up version numbers

Update the version number in:

- `translate/__version__.py`
- `docs/conf.py`

In `__version__.py`, bump the build number if anybody used the toolkit with the previous number, and there have been any changes to code touching stats or quality checks. An increased build number will force a toolkit user, like Pootle, to regenerate the stats and checks.

For `conf.py` change `version` and `release`

Todo

FIXME - We might want to consolidate the version and release info so that we can update it in one place.

The version string should follow the pattern:

    $MAJOR-$MINOR-$MICRO[-$EXTRA]

E.g.

    1.10.0
    0.9.1-rc1

`$EXTRA` is optional but all the three others are required. The first release of a `$MINOR` version will always have a `$MICRO` of `.0`. So `1.10.0` and never just `1.10`.

### Build the package

Building is the first step to testing that things work. From your clean checkout run:

    $ make build

This will create a tarball in `dist/` which you can use for further testing.

Note

We use a clean checkout just to make sure that no inadvertant changes make it into the release.

### Test install and other tests

The easiest way to test is in a virtualenv. You can test the installation of the new toolkit using:

    $ mkvirtualenv releasing
    (releasing)$ pip install path/to/dist/translate-toolkit-$version.tar.bz2

You can then proceed with other tests such as checking:

1. Documentation is available in the package

2. Converters and scripts are installed and run correctly:

       (releasing)$ moz2po --help
       (releasing)$ php2po --version
       (releasing)$ deactivate
       $ rmvirtualenv releasing

3. Meta information about the package is correct. This is stored in `setup.py`, to see some options to display meta-data use:

       $ ./setup.py --help

   Now you can try some options like:

       $ ./setup.py --name
       $ ./setup.py --version
       $ ./setup.py --author
       $ ./setup.py --author-email
       $ ./setup.py --url
       $ ./setup.py --license
       $ ./setup.py --description
       $ ./setup.py --long-description
       $ ./setup.py --classifiers

   The actual descriptions are taken from `translate/__init__.py`.

### Tag and branch the release

You should only tag once you are happy with your release as there are some things that we can’t undo. You can safely branch for a `stable/` branch before you tag.

    $ git checkout -b stable/1.10.0
    $ git push origin stable/1.10.0
    $ git tag -a 1.10.0 -m "Tag version 1.10.0"
    $ git push --tags

### Publish on PyPI

Publish the package on the

Note

You need a username and password on Python Package Index (PyPI) and have rights to the project before you can proceed with this step.

These can be stored in `$HOME/.pypirc` and will contain your username and password. A first run of:

    $ ./setup.py register

will create such file. It will also actually publish the meta-data so only do it when you are actually ready.

To test before publishing run:

    $ make test-publish-pypi

Then to actually publish:

    $ make publish-pypi

### Copy files to sourceforge

Publishing files to the Translate Sourceforge project.

Note

You need to have release permissions on sourceforge to perform this step.

- http://sourceforge.net/projects/translate/files/Translate%20Toolkit/

You will need:

- Tarball of the release
- Release notes in reStructured Text

1. Create a new folder in the Translate Toolkit release folder using the ‘Add Folder’ button. The folder must have the same name as the release version e.g. `1.10.0-rc1`. Mark this as being for staging for the moment.
2. `make publish-sourceforge` will give you the command to upload your tarball and `README.rst`.
   1. Upload tarball for release.
   2. Upload release notes as `README.rst`.
   3. Click on the info icon for `README.rst` and tick “Exclude Stats” to exlude the README from stats counting.
3. Check that the README.rst for the parent `Translate Toolkit` folder is still appropriate, this is the text from `translate/__info__.py`.
4. Check all links for `README.rst` files, new release and parent.

### Release documentation

We need a tagged release before we can do this. The docs are published on Read The Docs.

- https://readthedocs.org/dashboard/translate-toolkit/versions/

Use the admin pages to flag a version that should be published

Todo

FIXME we might need to do this before publishing so that we can update doc references to point to the tagged version as apposed to the latest version.

### Update translate website

We use github pages for the website. First we need to checkout the pages:

    $ git checkout gh-pages

1. In `_posts/` add a new release posting. This is in Markdown format (for now), so we need to change the release notes .rst to .md, which mostly means changing URL links from ``xxx <link>`_` to `[xxx](link)`.
2. Change $version as needed. See `download.html`, `_config.yml` and `egrep -r $old_release *`
3. git commit and git push – changes are quite quick, so easy to review.

### Unstage on sourceforge

If you have created a staged release folder, then unstage it now.

### Announce to the world

Let people know that there is a new version:

1. Announce on mailing lists: Send the announcement to the translate-announce mailing lists on translate-announce@lists.sourceforge.net
2. Adjust the #pootle channel notice. Use `/topic` to change the topic.
3. Email important users
4. Tweet about it
5. Update Toolkit’s Wikipedia page

## Cleanup

These are tasks not directly related to the releasing, but that are nevertheless completely necessary.

### Bump version to N+1-alpha1

Now that we’ve release lets make sure that master reflect the current state which would be `{N+1}-alpha1`. This prevents anyone using master being confused with a stable release and we can easily check if they are using master or stable.

## Other possible steps

Some possible cleanup tasks:

- Remove any RC builds from the sourceforge download pages (maybe?).
- Commit any release notes and such (or maybe do that before tagging).
- Remove your translate-release checkout.
- Update and fix these release notes.

We also need to check and document these if needed:

- Build docs: we need to check if we need to build the docs for the release
- Change URLs to point to the correct docs: do we want to change URLs to point to the $version docs rather then ‘latest’
- Building on Windows, building for other Linux distros. We have produced Windows builds in the past.
- Communicating to upstream packagers