Prerequisites

• Python 3.7 and higher
• run python3 -m pip install --user -r news/requirements.txt
• run python3 -m pip install --user -r tpn/requirements.txt

Release candidate (Tuesday, Aug 27)

• Ensure all new features are tracked via telemetry
• Announce the code freeze (not just to team but also to ptvsd and language server)
• Update master for the release
  • Create a branch against master for a pull request
  • Change the version in package.json from a -dev suffix to -rc
  • Run npm install to make sure package-lock.json is up-to-date
  • Update requirements.txt to point to latest release version of ptvsd.
  • Update languageServerVersion in package.json to point to the latest version (???) of the Language Server.
  • Update CHANGELOG.md
    • Run news (typically python news --final --update CHANGELOG.md | code-insiders -)
    • Copy over the "Thanks" section from the previous release
    • Make sure the "Thanks" section is up-to-date (e.g. compare to versions in requirements.json)
    • Touch up news entries (e.g. add missing periods)
    • Add any relevant news entries for ptvsd and the language server if they were updated
  • Update ThirdPartyNotices-Distribution.txt by running tpn (typically python tpn --npm package-lock.json --npm-overrides package.datascience-ui.dependencies.json --config tpn/distribution.toml ThirdPartyNotices-Distribution.txt)
    • for each failure:
      1. go to the repo (from link on NPM page) and look for the license there
      2. copy the text from the failure into tpn/distribution.toml
      3. fill in the license found in the package's repo
    • if there is no license in a package's repo then do one of the following:
      • check the NPM metadata and fill in the corresponding license from the OSI site
      • ask the package maintainer (e.g. via github)
      • ask CELA
  • Update ThirdPartyNotices-Repository.txt as appropriate
  • Create a pull request against master
  • Merge pull request into master
• Update the release branch
  • (if necessary) Request from a repo admin that the branch be un-"protected"
  • Delete the release branch in the repo
  • Create a new release branch from master
  • (alternately, force-push the master branch to the GitHub "release" branch)
  • (if necessary) Request that the branch be set anew as "protected"
• Update master post-release
  • Bump the version number to the next monthly ("YYYY.M.0-dev") release in the master branch
    • package.json
    • package-lock.json
  • Create a pull request against master
  • Merge pull request into master
• Announce the code freeze is over
• Update Component Governance (Click on "microsoft/vscode-python" on that page)
  • Provide details for any automatically detected npm dependencies
  • Manually add any repository dependencies
• GDPR bookkeeping (@brettcannon)
• Open appropriate documentation issues
  • new features
  • settings changes
  • etc. (ask the team)
• Begin drafting a blog post
• Ask CTI to test the release candidate

Final (Tuesday, Sep 03)

Preparation

• Make sure the appropriate pull requests for the documentation -- including the WOW page -- are ready
• final updates to the release branch
  • Create a branch against release for a pull request
  • Update the version in package.json
  • Run npm install to make sure package-lock.json is up-to-date (the only update should be the version number if package-lock.json has been kept up-to-date)
  • Update CHANGELOG.md
    • Update version and date for the release section
    • Run news and copy-and-paste new entries (typically python news --final | code-insiders -; quite possibly nothing new to add)
  • Update ThirdPartyNotices-Distribution.txt by running tpn (typically python tpn --npm package-lock.json --npm-overrides package.datascience-ui.dependencies.json --config tpn/distribution.toml ThirdPartyNotices-Distribution.txt; quite possible there will be no change)
  • Update ThirdPartyNotices-Repository.txt manually if necessary
  • Create pull request against release
  • Merge pull request into release
• Make sure component governance is happy

Release

• Publish the release via Azure DevOps
  • Make sure CI is passing
  • Make sure the "Upload" stage on the release page succeeded
  • Make sure no extraneous files are being included in the .vsix file (make sure to check for hidden files)
  • Deploy the "Publish" stage
• Publish documentation changes
• Publish the blog post
• Determine if a hotfix is needed
• Merge release back into master

Clean up after this release

• Go through info needed issues and close any that have no activity for over a month
• GDPR bookkeeping

Prep for the next release

• Create a new release plan
• (Un-)pin release plan issues