RELEASE_PROCEDURE.md

This document lists the steps that lead to a successful release of the Nix library.

Before Release

Nix uses cargo release to automate the release process. Based on changes since the last release, pick a new version number following semver conventions. For Nix, a change that drops support for some Rust versions counts as a breaking change, and requires a major bump.

The release is prepared as follows:

NOTE: the following procedure should be done directly against the master branch of the repo.

• Clone the nix-rust/nix repository with your preferred way, and cd to it:

  $ git clone https://github.com/nix-rust/nix.git
  $ cd nix

• If we are using libc from git, replace it with a usable release from crates.io.

  [dependencies]
  -libc = { git = "https://github.com/rust-lang/libc", rev = "<Revision>", features = ["extra_traits"] }
  +libc = { version = "<Version>", features = ["extra_traits"] }

• Update the version number in Cargo.toml

• Generate CHANGELOG.md for this release by

  $ towncrier build --version=<VERSION> --yes
  Loading template...
  Finding news fragments...
  Rendering news fragments...
  Writing to newsfile...
  Staging newsfile...
  Removing the following files:
  nix/changelog/xxxx.xxxx.md
  nix/changelog/xxxx.xxxx.md
  ...
  nix/changelog/xxxx.xxxx.md
  Removing news fragments...
  Done!

• Push the changes made by the above steps to the master branch

• Ensure you have a crates.io token

  1. With the publish-update scope
  2. Can be used for crate nix
  3. It is set via cargo login

  If not, create a new token here, and set it.

• Confirm that everything's ready for a release by running cargo release <VERSION>

• Create the release with cargo release -x <VERSION>, this step will publish the version to crates.io and push the new version tag to GitHub.

• Congratulations on a new Nix release!