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# Releasing a version

## Preliminaries

- Make sure that `RELEASE_NOTES.md` and `ANNOUNCE.md` are up to date with the latest news in the release.

- Check that VERSION symbols in include/blosc2.h contains the correct info.

- If API/ABI changes, please increase the minor number (e.g. 2.15 -> 2.16) and bump the SOVERSION in blosc/CMakeLists.txt. When in doubt on when SOVERSION should change, see these nice guidelines: conda-forge/c-blosc2-feedstock#62

- Commit the changes with:

      $ git commit -a -m "Getting ready for release X.Y.Z"
      $ git push

## Testing

Create a new build/ directory, change into it and issue:

    $ cmake ..
    $ cmake --build .
    $ ctest

## Forward compatibility testing

First, go to the compat/ directory and generate a file with the current version:

    $ cd ../compat
    $ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=../build/blosc
    $ gcc -o filegen filegen.c -L$LD_LIBRARY_PATH -lblosc2 -I../include
    $ ./filegen compress lz4 blosc-lz4-1.y.z.cdata

In order to make sure that we are not breaking forward compatibility, link and run the compat/filegen utility against different versions of the Blosc library (suggestion: 1.3.0, 1.7.0, 1.11.1, 1.14.1, 2.0.0).

You can compile the utility with different blosc shared libraries with:

    $ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=shared_blosc_library_path
    $ gcc -o filegen filegen.c -L$LD_LIBRARY_PATH -lblosc -Iblosc2.h_include_path

Then, test the file created with the new version with:

    $ ./filegen decompress blosc-lz4-1.y.z.cdata

Repeat this for every codec shipped with Blosc (blosclz, lz4, lz4hc, zlib and zstd).

## Tagging

- Create a tag `X.Y.Z` from `master`. Use the next message:

      $ git tag -a vX.Y.Z -m "Tagging version X.Y.Z"

- Push the tag to the github repo:

      $ git push --tags

- Create a new release visiting Blosc/c-blosc2 and add the release notes copying them from RELEASE_NOTES.md document.

## Check documentation

Go to blogsite actions and trigger a build by going to the last run and clicking on “Re-run all jobs”.

Wait up to 10 min and go to the blosc2 docs and check that it contains the updated docs.

## Announcing

- Send an announcement to the blosc and comp.compression mailing lists. Use the `ANNOUNCE.md` file as skeleton (likely as the definitive version).

- Toot about it from the @Blosc2 account in https://fosstodon.org.

## Post-release actions

- Edit VERSION symbols in blosc/blosc2.h in master to increment the version to the next minor one (i.e. X.Y.Z –> X.Y.(Z+1).dev).

- Create new headers for adding new features in `RELEASE_NOTES.md` and add this place-holder instead:

  #XXX version-specific blurb XXX#

- Commit the changes:

      $ git commit -a -m"Post X.Y.Z release actions done"
      $ git push

That’s all folks!