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Version Control

Semantic Versioning (SemVer)

  • A method of versioning your software packages.
  • Makes most sense for versioning software that is used by another piece of software, e.g. a Python package that is installed.
  • The version number is composed of three segments: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, for example 1.4.2.
    • MAJOR: Increments when incompatible API changes are introduced. It indicates that there are significant and potentially breaking changes that might require modifications in existing code.
    • MINOR: Increments when new features are added in a backward-compatible manner. It signals the addition of functionality without breaking existing code. Developers can expect that their code will still work as intended.
    • PATCH: Increments for backward-compatible bug fixes. It denotes minor improvements or bug fixes that do not introduce new features and do not break existing functionality.

CalVer and others

  • Sometimes SemVer doesn't make sense. For example, in a user-facing software service/tool, what does a 'breaking' change denote?
  • In these cases, other conventions may be better suited.
  • At HOT, we use YYYY.VERSION.PATCH, in line with the developers of the ODK ecosystem.
    • YYYY: the current year.
    • VERSION: the release version for the current year. Resets in the next year.
    • PATCH: a patch to the released version, typically bugfixes.

Conventional Commits

A specification for adding human and machine readable meaning to commit messages.

A 'new' standard for commit messages.

Format: <type>[optional scope]: <description>

Example feat: allow provided config object to extend other configs Example fix: fixed the bug in issue #123

Advantage: Automated SemVer version management (major.minor.patch), and automated changelogs.

Tool: Commitizen

  • Commitizen is a Python tool to help with creating conventional commits and automating version control.
  • Versions are managed by Commitizen from the pyproject.toml file in a repo.
  • Versions are determined by conventional commit messages:
    • fix: xxx denotes a patch, feat: xxx denotes a minor increment.
    • Breaking changes are applied every year to increment the YYYY in place of MAJOR.

Install

pip install commitizen

Commiting Code

  • Instead of git commit use cz commit and follow the prompts.
  • You can select the type of commit, plus additional metadata.

Bumping a Version

  • When you decide it is time to create a new version:

  1. Create a new branch

    git checkout -b bump/new_release

  2. Bump the version and push

    pip install commitizen # (if not installed)

cz bump --check-consistency --changelog

git push
git push --tag

This will:

  • Update the SemVer version number in locations specific in pyproject.toml, throughout the codebase.
    • If a feat commit is included, the version is bumped by a minor increment (0.x.0), if only fix is included a patch will be used (0.0.x).
  • Automatically update CHANGELOG.md with all changes since the last version.
  • Create a tag matching the version number.

Note: in a repo where you have direct push access, you would simply update on main and push. As we are using Git-Flow, a PR is necessary.

Creating Releases

  1. Update the version throughout the code (Bumping a Version).
  2. Go to the Releases page of your repo (https://github.com/ORG/REPO/releases).
  3. Click Draft a new release.
  4. Click Choose a tag, then input the current version number and press enter (this will automatically create a matching tag for your release).
  5. Set the Release title to vx.x.x, replacing with your version number.
  6. Add a description if possible, then release.

This should trigger the PyPi publishing workflow (for HOT repos), and your version will be available on PyPi.org.