Simplify the release process by linking to release notes instead of copy/pasting them #347

jeffwidman · 2023-04-21T06:40:11Z

There's a chicken-and-egg scenario where we don't have the release notes to include in the version bump PR until we create a GitHub release... but we don't want to publish the release until the commit bumping the version actually lands.

I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze... no one really looks at the changelog notes in the PR, and if in fact having the release notes two different places introduces a risk of drift because both the PR description and the git tag for the release can be edited later on... only the commit history is actually immutable. So if either is edited w/o editing the other, they're out of sync.

The odds of that are low--we rarely edit release notes--but still life is simpler if we merely point the commit/PR description at the URL for the release notes and manage those in a single place.

This also lets us script creating the PR, which is one less thing to do manually.

There's a chicken-and-egg scenario where we don't have the release notes to include in the version bump PR until we create a GitHub release... but we don't want to publish the release until the commit bumping the version actually lands. The last few times I've cut a `fetch-metadata` release, I've been surprised how I always forget the intricate dance to navigate this chicken-and-egg. I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze... no one really looks at the changelog notes in the PR, and if in fact having the release notes two different places introduces a risk of drift because both the PR description and the git tag for the release can be edited later on... only the commit history is actually immutable. So if either is edited w/o editing the other, they're out of sync. The odds of that are low--we rarely edit release notes--but still life is simpler if we merely point the commit/PR description at the URL for the release notes and manage those in a single place. This also lets us script creating the PR, which is one less thing to do manually.

jeffwidman · 2023-04-21T06:49:14Z

README.md

-      ```
-  - Copy the release notes from the draft release to the PR description. This is optional, but looks much nicer than a bare URL.
-  - Merge the PR after getting it reviewed
-  - Publish the draft release found at https://github.com/dependabot/fetch-metadata/releases/tag/untagged-XXXXXX
  - Update the `v1` tracking tag to point to the new version


We could automate this as well, so that anytime a new v1.x version is tagged, the v1 tracking tag is updated to point to it. Or is that too much "magic"??

jeffwidman requested a review from a team as a code owner April 21, 2023 06:40

jeffwidman added the EE Engineering Efficiency label Apr 21, 2023

jeffwidman self-assigned this Apr 21, 2023

jeffwidman changed the title ~~Simplify the release process~~ Simplify the release process by linking to release notes instead of copy/pasting them Apr 21, 2023

jeffwidman commented Apr 21, 2023

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jeffwidman mentioned this pull request Apr 21, 2023

Publish the Dependabot ruby gems more frequently (weekly??) dependabot/dependabot-core#7132

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pavera approved these changes Apr 21, 2023

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jeffwidman merged commit 5a033be into main Apr 24, 2023

jeffwidman deleted the simplify-release-process branch April 24, 2023 15:37

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Simplify the release process by linking to release notes instead of copy/pasting them #347

Simplify the release process by linking to release notes instead of copy/pasting them #347

jeffwidman commented Apr 21, 2023 •

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jeffwidman Apr 21, 2023

Simplify the release process by linking to release notes instead of copy/pasting them #347

Simplify the release process by linking to release notes instead of copy/pasting them #347

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jeffwidman commented Apr 21, 2023 •

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