Release process

Production releases and release candidates are represented by tags on the main branch. Every production release should be preceded by one or more release candidates. Because VS Code follows the Modern Lifecycle Policy, old releases of the extension do not need to be serviced, so there's no need to maintain a separate release branch. Follow these steps to create a new release candidate or production release.

Release candidate

1. On the main branch, update the version in package.json and add -rc to the end. For example, "version": "0.5.0-rc". For better or worse, vscode-arduino is effectively following ZeroVer.
   1. Major (first) version is always zero.
   2. Minor (second) version is incremented for breaking changes. We define changes as "breaking" if they prevent old files from working in the new version (usually settings) or significantly impact existing workflows. If the change only affects build artifacts, like requiring a rebuild, it is not considered breaking.
   3. Patch (third) version is incremented for all other non-breaking changes.
2. Run npm install from the root of the repository.
3. Update CHANGELOG.md to describe the changes in the new release.
4. Commit the changes directly to main and push.

git add package.json package-lock.json CHANGELOG.md
git commit -m "Pre-release v0.5.0"
git push

5. Tag the release candidate with a tag that matches the new version and push the tag.

git tag v0.5.0-rc
git push origin v0.5.0-rc

6. Verify that an Azure DevOps CI build associated with the tag has started. If the build fails (unlikely because there are no changes aside from version number), investigate the failure and open PRs to fix any issues.
7. Once the build finishes, verify that the release candidate appears on GitHub.
8. Install the release candidate VSIX in VS Code and validate that all issues labeled fixed-pending-release have been resolved. For higher risk releases, you may also want to share the VSIX with partners for testing.

Production release

1. On the main branch, update the version in package.json to remove the -rc suffix. For example, "version": "0.5.0".
2. Run npm install from the root of the repository.
3. If needed, update the release date in CHANGELOG.md.
4. Commit the changes directly to main and push.

git add package.json package-lock.json CHANGELOG.md
git commit -m "Bump to v0.5.0"
git push

5. Tag the release with a tag that matches the new version and push the tag.

git tag v0.5.0
git push origin v0.5.0

6. Verify that an Azure DevOps CI build associated with the tag has started.
7. Once the build finishes, verify that the release appears on GitHub.
8. Download the release VSIX and upload it to the VS Code Marketplace extension portal.
9. Once the Marketplace finishes validation steps, verify that you can install the new version of vscode-arduino from the Marketplace within VS Code.
10. Verify that all issues labeled fixed-pending-release are closed. There are some issues with this automation that we haven't fully flushed out yet.