Contribution guide

Information on how to make contributions to the hdl_modules project.

Maintaining changelog

We maintain a changelog according to the keep a changelog format. The unreleased changelog in doc/release_notes/unreleased.rst shall be updated continuously, not just at release. Release note files are in the rst format, inspect older release note files to see the formatting details.

How to make a new release

Stable versions are “released” by marking with a git tag. To make a new release follow these steps.

Test CI pipeline

Before doing anything, launch a CI run from the main branch to see that everything works as expected. The CI environment is stable but due to things like, e.g., new pylint version it can unexpectedly break. When the pipeline has finished and is green you can move on to the next step.

Review the release notes

Check the release notes file unreleased.rst. Fill in anything that is missing according to Maintaining changelog.

Determine new version number

We use the Semantic Versioning scheme. Read the Summary at the top of that page and decide the new version number accordingly.

Run release script

Run the script

python3 tools/tag_release.py X.Y.Z

where X.Y.Z is your new version number. The script will copy release notes to a new file, and commit and tag the changes.

Push commit and tag

git push origin HEAD:refs/heads/release_branch
git push origin vX.Y.Z

WARNING: Avoid the “git push –tags” command, which is dangerous since it pushes all your local tags.

Open a new merge request to main and wait for the CI pipeline to pass. If everything went well then you can merge your release commit via the gitlab merge request GUI.