# Releasing Nitime

This section contains notes about the process that is used to release Nitime.

Most of the release process is automated by the `release` script in the `tools` directory. This is just a handy reminder for the release manager.

1. Write release notes in `doc/whatsnew/` for the current release. Use the notes that have hopefully accumulated in `doc/whatsnew/development`. For writing release notes, this will cleanly show who contributed as author of commits (get the previous release name from the tag list with `git tag`):

   git log –pretty=format:”* %aN” PREV_RELEASE… | sort | uniq

2. Uncomment the empty `version_extra` assignment in the `version.py` file, so that the complete version-string will not have the `dev` suffix.

3. Update the website with announcements and links to the updated files on github. Remember to put a short note both on the news page of the site, and the index `What's New` section.

4. Make sure that the released version of the docs is live on the site.

5. Run `build_release`, which does all the file checking and building that the real release script will do. This will let you do test installations, check that the build procedure runs OK, etc.

6. Make the test installation from one of the release tarballs, make sure that:

   - The installation is being done into a place in your PYTHONPATH, which will over-ride your development tree.

   - The docs build in your test installation.

   - The tests run and pass in your test installation.

7. Run the `release` script, which makes the tar.gz, eggs and Win32 .exe installer. It posts them to the site and registers the release with PyPI.

8. Tag the current state of the repository:

   git tag -a rel/x.y -m”Releasing version x.y” git push –tags origin master

9. Draft a short release announcement with highlights of the release (and send it off!).

10. Increment the version number in the `version.py` file and comment the line with the additional `version_extra`, so that you get back the `dev` tag on the version number.

11. Commit this as the beginning of the development of the next version.

12. Celebrate!