Releasing Dancer2

This document is an overview of the process we go through when putting together a new release of Dancer2. This is a guide, not a bible - we don't follow this religiously - but it is better to do more of what's in here than less.

Ongoing

For all PRs and branches merged:

• Make sure all tests pass on the branch to be merged.
• Make sure Changes is updated. Include the GitHub issue or PR # in the changelog entry.
• Make sure the author is reflected in the Contributors section of Dancer2.pm
• git merge --no-ff <branch-name> && git push

One week before release

Notify the Core Team that a release is going out. Do this via the dancer-dev mailing list and Twist. If anyone has something to be merged, now is the time to bring it up. If the release needs to be delayed in order for someone to get a change into a release, this is the time to pump the brakes.

Day of Release

Pull the latest code from main

Don't be That Person. Make sure everything you have is current.

Ensure all changes are merged

Each release should have a milestone in GitHub. Make sure all issues and PRs in the milestone are closed. If an issue or PR needs to move to a later release, do that now.

Update the version in dist.ini

We use Semantic Versioning for all Dancer2 releases.

Do the release!

Run dzil release --all. This will:

• Run the test suite, including the author tests
• Build a tarball for upload to PAUSE
• Upload the new version to PAUSE
• Commit Dancer2.pm and the new README file to the repo (after which, you need to git push)

After this, you must git push to push the updated release files to GitHub.

The test suite must pass before a release can be done. This is your last chance to resolve any test failures.

Provided the tests pass, you will be prompted to continue the release process. Provided you have your PAUSE credentials set up, this will upload the new dist to PAUSE. If you don't have a credential file set up, you can manually update the new release via the PAUSE web interface.

Send out release announcements

Historically, release announcements have been sent out via the following channels:

• dancer-users mailing list
• Twitter/X
• blogs.perl.org

Going forward, we intend to also send out announcements via:

• LinkedIn
• Perl Community group on Facebook
• dev.to
• Medium

Reshare from any accounts you have. Blog about it.

After the Release

Watch for bug reports, praise, criticism, and respond appropriately.