Releasing the AURA software bundle

The release of a complete software bundle is triggered from within the aura repository and performed by the release manager.

Before proceeding review the main AURA changelog in aura/CHANGELOG.md.

Preparing the release

  1. Create a new branch for the release: git checkout -b %VERSION%-prep. Note the -prep suffix for release preparation, as the actual %VERSION% branch needs to stay unused for the actual release tag branch.

  2. In aura/CHANGELOG.md change the version identifier [Unreleased] to the release version and add the current date.

  3. Bump the version of the aura repository with poetry version <version>.

  4. Update the versions of referenced services in the Docker Compose config/<docker compose>/sample.env files and in scripts/dev/.env.

  5. Update the configuration files, fixtures, contributors and changelogs by running

    cd scripts/dev && make release.prepare

    This command pulls all configuration files, fixtures and changelogs from the individual repos identified by the versions in scripts/dev/.env. The changlogs are stored .tmp and are merged into a file named merged-CHANGELOG-%AURA_VERSION%.md. Commit any changed configs and fixtures. Review the collected contributors and update their types of contributions. Add missing ones manually (see Adding a contributor manually).

  6. Commit and push the branch.

Now inform the testers to check-out and test the given branch.

Adding a contributor manually

Contributors are automatically added to the contributors list by the release.prepare Makefile target. In case you need to add a contributor manually, use the Makefile target from scripts/dev:

cd scripts/dev
export GITLAB_PRIVATE_TOKEN=<token> # Alternatively set the token in the .env file
make contributors.add CONTRIBUTOR=<gitlab-username> TYPES=<contribution-types>

Multiple contribution types are comma-separated. See the contribution types for valid values (e.g. code, doc, design, ideas, userTesting).

Contributors who do not have a GitLab account can be added directly to the .all-contributorsrc file.

After adding, regenerate all contributor tables:

make contributors.generate

Performing the release

After the testers inform the product owner and development team, that the release criteria is met, we can proceed.

In case developers have done any last minute bugfixes and re-released their services, ensure all the configuration and changelog files are still up-to-date by executing

cd scripts/dev && make release.prepare

once more.

  1. Take the contents of .tmp/merged-CHANGELOG-%AURA_VERSION%.md and paste it into a new section in docs/release-notes.md.

  2. Now we have to start thinking: What should be in the header of the release notes? Comprehend what this release delivers by checking the roadmap and contents of the changelog below.

  3. Review and commit the changes.

  4. To ship the release, run

cd scripts/dev && make release.ship

  1. Check out main and merge everything changed, except the version updates. They should remain as main for all services. Alternatively cherry-pick the relevant commits or update the relevant version strings to main after the merge.

  2. Update aura/CHANGELOG.md with a new template section for the next release.

  3. Push the changes to main.

  4. Delete the branch used for release preparation.

  5. Inform the product owner and team that the release is done.