Release process checklist

For all releases (major, minor, patch, and beta)

Note: we follow semantic versioning and the terms major, minor, patch, and beta release are used as in that context.

At GitHub

1. All code changes are internally tested according to the MathJax Development Process.
2. If it is not a patch release, an vN.m-latest branch is created.
3. Double check that MathJax's internal version and package.json is updated as well.
4. Don't forget to repack and recombine the files before merging.
5. Complete the Documentation update process.
6. For non-beta releases, when the mathjax/develop branch is deemed ready, it is merged into the mathjax/master (for out-of-line patch releases it is also merged into the branch of the minor version).
7. The release is tagged on GitHub with a tag name such as N.m.p (for beta releases, we tag from develop); follow the example of preceding release notes.
8. The distribution should then be downloaded and smoke tested.

CDNs

CDN providers (cdnjs, rawgit) will pick up tagged releases automatically.

Note. We no longer provide our own CDN service, cf. https://www.mathjax.org/cdn-shutting-down/.

At mathjax.org

1. For major and minor releases (and important bug fix releases), a news announcement for the release is posted. The post should follow the announcement for previous versions, in particular
   • Summary of what changed in the release
   • Advise regarding the CDN propagation (clear browser cache etc)
   • Point to the release
   • Give instructions for reporting bugs, and refer questions to MathJax Users
   • A copy of the What's new document from the documentation
2. Extract from this a press release (again, follow previous examples).

For the community

• Send word to the MathJax sponsors
• Announcement should be posted to the User Groups at mathjax-dev and mathjax-users
  • Advise regarding the CDN propagation (clear browser cache etc)
• The new post should be announced on social media channels, see MathJax-web-presence.
• The press release should be pushed to MailChimp.

Note for patch release

Note that our policy is that we don't create tracking branches or documentation branches for patch releases.

From the documentation:

If a packaged release receives any important updates, then those updates will be part of the branch for that version. The link to the .zip file in the download list will be the original release version, not the patched version. To obtain the patched version, use the Branches drop down menu (at the far left of the menus within the page) to select the release branch that you want (for example v1.1-latest), and then use the download button and the Download .tar.gz or Download .zip button to get the latest patched version of that release.