RELEASE.md
Release Process:
Modify falcon/version.py if it has not been updated since the previous
release. Examine the rendered changelog to determine the appropriate SEMVER
field to modify.
Note that we have dropped setup.cfg altogether, so __version__ in
falcon/version.py must contain the whole version
(including the previously separately managed tag_build), for instance:
# Development version
__version__ = '4.0.0.dev1'
# First alpha
__version__ = '4.0.0a1'
# Release candidate
__version__ = '4.0.0rc1'
# Stable release
__version__ = '4.0.0'
Update changelog filename in pyproject.toml to suit.
If a changelog RST has not yet been created, add one under docs/changes using
the following template, and update the summary and changes to supported
platforms to suit:
Changelog for Falcon 4.0.1
==========================
Summary
-------
This is a minor point release to take care of a couple of bugs that we did
not catch for 4.0.0.
.. towncrier release notes start
Contributors to this Release
----------------------------
Many thanks to those who contributed to this bugfix release:
Otherwise, ensure the summary has been brought up to date; be sure to highlight key changes in this release.
Next, update the contributors and render towncrier fragments by running:
$ tox -e changelog_release
Note that if the previous release was made on a branch, the tool may get confused, and try to scan too many commits, which will unfortunately get rate-limited (and fail) unless you provide a GitHub auth token.
The workaround is to make sure you have already aggregated the list of contributors in the prior commits leading to the release, and only run the towncrier tool:
$ tools/towncrier_draft.py
Examine the updated RST as well as the rendered HTML docs and make any adjustments as needed. On OS X it's as simple as:
$ open docs/_build/html/changes/index.html
Or on Linux:
$ xdg-open docs/_build/html/changes/index.html
If you need to go back and make any additional tweaks:
$ git restore docs/changes
Then re-run the tox command when you're ready for another
proofreading. Or if you just made a manual edit to the updated RST,
you can re-render the docs without overwriting the changelog RST:
$ tox -e docs
If all looks good, remove the rendered towncrier fragments from
docs/_newsfragments and then submit a PR containing the changes made so far.
Finally, merge the documentation PR and check that everything renders correctly
on https://falcon.readthedocs.io/. Note that if the release is not based on
master (or main), you may need to manually enable build on RtD for the
branch or tag in question.
Be sure to install and test from PyPI as a sanity check afterwards. Fix docs, performance regressions, and reported bugs (if any) and release additional betas or release candidates.
TODO: Replace with CI gate
Make sure to add a release date to the changelog file in the form of (use the actual date of the release):
.. falcon-release: 2025-05-05
These comments are used to aggregate the table of stable releases in
docs/community/releases.rst.
Be sure to install and test from PyPI as a sanity check afterwards.
Merge the stable tag into the maintenance branch of the current Falcon series,
e.g., falcon-4.x.
Normally, the following should suffice, but please verify and address conflicts, if any:
git checkout falcon-4.x
git merge 4.$YOUR_MINOR.$YOUR_PATCH
# E.g., git merge 4.2.3
git push
At the time of writing, the repository contains these stable series branches:
falcon-1.x: https://github.com/falconry/falcon/tree/falcon-1.xfalcon-2.x: https://github.com/falconry/falcon/tree/falcon-2.xfalcon-3.x: https://github.com/falconry/falcon/tree/falcon-3.xfalcon-4.x: https://github.com/falconry/falcon/tree/falcon-4.xIf you are releasing a new major version of the framework, create a new branch,
e.g., falcon-5.x.
If you find any inconsistencies, outdated notes or anything missing here, make sure you improve this document for future releases!