3. Development

This section only needs to be read by developers of the nocasedict project, including people who want to make a fix or want to test the project.

3.1. Repository

The repository for the nocasedict project is on GitHub:

https://github.com/pywbem/nocasedict

3.2. Setting up the development environment

If you have write access to the Git repo of this project, clone it using its SSH link, and switch to its working directory:
```
$ git clone git@github.com:pywbem/nocasedict.git
$ cd nocasedict
```
If you do not have write access, create a fork on GitHub and clone the fork in the way shown above.
It is recommended that you set up a virtual Python environment. Have the virtual Python environment active for all remaining steps.
Install the project for development. This will install Python packages into the active Python environment, and OS-level packages:
```
$ make develop
```
This project uses Make to do things in the currently active Python environment. The command:
```
$ make
```
displays a list of valid Make targets and a short description of what each target does.

3.3. Building the documentation

The ReadTheDocs (RTD) site is used to publish the documentation for the project package at https://nocasedict.readthedocs.io/

This page is automatically updated whenever the Git repo for this package changes the branch from which this documentation is built.

In order to build the documentation locally from the Git work directory, execute:

$ make builddoc

The top-level document to open with a web browser will be build_doc/html/docs/index.html.

3.4. Testing

All of the following make commands run the tests in the currently active Python environment.

The package files that are tested are those in the nocaselist directory in the main repository directory.

The test case files and any utility functions they use are always used from the tests directory in the main repository directory.

The tests directory has the following subdirectory structure:

tests
 +-- unittest            Unit tests
 +-- installtest         Installation tests

There are multiple types of tests:

Unit tests

These tests can be run standalone, and the tests validate their results automatically.

They are run by executing:
```
$ make test
```
Test execution can be modified by a number of environment variables, as documented in the make help (execute make help).
Installation tests

These tests can be run standalone, and the tests validate their results automatically.

They are run by executing:
```
$ make installtest
```

To run the unit tests in all supported Python environments, the Tox tool can be used. It creates the necessary virtual Python environments and executes make test (i.e. the unit tests) in each of them.

For running Tox, it does not matter which Python environment is currently active, as long as the Python tox package is installed in it:

$ tox                              # Run tests on all supported Python versions
$ tox -e py313                     # Run tests on Python 3.13

3.5. Contributing

Third party contributions to this project are welcome!

In order to contribute, create a Git pull request, considering this:

Test is required.
Each commit should only contain one “logical” change.
A “logical” change should be put into one commit, and not split over multiple commits.
Large new features should be split into stages.
The commit message should not only summarize what you have done, but explain why the change is useful.

What comprises a “logical” change is subject to sound judgement. Sometimes, it makes sense to produce a set of commits for a feature (even if not large). For example, a first commit may introduce a (presumably) compatible API change without exploitation of that feature. With only this commit applied, it should be demonstrable that everything is still working as before. The next commit may be the exploitation of the feature in other components.

For further discussion of good and bad practices regarding commits, see:

Further rules:

The following long-lived branches exist and should be used as targets for pull requests:
- master - for next functional version
We use topic branches for everything!
- Based upon the intended long-lived branch, if no dependencies
- Based upon an earlier topic branch, in case of dependencies
- It is valid to rebase topic branches and force-push them.
We use pull requests to review the branches.
- Use the correct long-lived branch (i.e. master) as a merge target.
- Review happens as comments on the pull requests.
- At least one approval is required for merging.
GitHub meanwhile offers different ways to merge pull requests. We merge pull requests by rebasing the commit from the pull request.

3.6. Releasing a version

This section describes how to release a version of nocasedict to PyPI.

It covers all variants of versions that can be released:

Releasing a new major version (Mnew.0.0) based on the master branch
Releasing a new minor version (M.Nnew.0) based on the master branch
Releasing a new update version (M.N.Unew) based on the stable branch of its minor version

This description assumes that you are authorized to push to the remote repo at https://github.com/pywbem/nocasedict and that the remote repo has the remote name origin in your local clone.

Any commands in the following steps are executed in the main directory of your local clone of the pywbem/nocasedict Git repo.

On GitHub, verify open items in milestone M.N.U.

Verify that milestone M.N.U has no open issues or PRs anymore. If there are open PRs or open issues, make a decision for each of those whether or not it should go into version M.N.U you are about to release.

If there are open issues or PRs that should go into this version, abandon the release process.

If none of the open issues or PRs should go into this version, change their milestones to a future version, and proceed with the release process. You may need to create the milestone for the future version.
Run the Safety tool:
```
make safety
```
If any of the two safety runs fails, fix the safety issues that are reported, in a separate branch/PR.

Roll back the PR into any maintained stable branches.
Check for any dependabot alerts.

If there are any dependabot alerts, fix them in a separate branch/PR.

Roll back the PR into any maintained stable branches.
Create and push the release branch (replace M,N,U accordingly):
```
VERSION=M.N.U make release_branch
```
This uses the default branch determined from VERSION: For M.N.0, the master branch is used, otherwise the stable_M.N branch is used. That covers for all cases except if you want to release a new minor version based on an earlier stable branch. In that case, you need to specify that branch:
```
VERSION=M.N.0 BRANCH=stable_M.N make release_branch
```
This includes the following steps:
- create the release branch (release_M.N.U), if it does not yet exist
- make sure the AUTHORS.md file is up to date
- update the change log from the change fragment files, and delete those
- commit the changes to the release branch
- push the release branch
If this command fails, the fix can be committed to the release branch and the command above can be retried.
On GitHub, create a Pull Request for branch release_M.N.U.

Important: When creating Pull Requests, GitHub by default targets the master branch. When releasing based on a stable branch, you need to change the target branch of the Pull Request to stable_M.N.

Set the milestone of that PR to version M.N.U.

This PR should normally be set to be reviewed by at least one of the maintainers.

The PR creation will cause the “test” workflow to run. That workflow runs tests for all defined environments, since it discovers by the branch name that this is a PR for a release.
On GitHub, once the checks for that Pull Request have succeeded, merge the Pull Request (no review is needed). This automatically deletes the branch on GitHub.

If the PR did not succeed, fix the issues.
On GitHub, close milestone M.N.U.

Verify that the milestone has no open items anymore. If it does have open items, investigate why and fix (probably step 1 was not performed).
Publish the package (replace M,N,U accordingly):
```
VERSION=M.N.U make release_publish
```
or (see step 4):
```
VERSION=M.N.0 BRANCH=stable_M.N make release_publish
```
This includes the following steps:
- create and push the release tag
- clean up the release branch
Pushing the release tag will cause the “publish” workflow to run. That workflow builds the package, publishes it on PyPI, creates a release for it on GitHub, and finally creates a new stable branch on GitHub if the master branch was released.

Verify the publishing

Wait for the “publish” workflow for the new release to have completed: https://github.com/pywbem/nocasedict/actions/workflows/publish.yml

Then, perform the following verifications:
- Verify that the new version is available on PyPI at https://pypi.python.org/pypi/nocasedict/
- Verify that the new version has a release on Github at https://github.com/pywbem/nocasedict/releases
- Verify that the new version has documentation on ReadTheDocs at https://nocasedict.readthedocs.io/en/stable/changes.html
  
  The new version M.N.U should be automatically active on ReadTheDocs, causing the documentation for the new version to be automatically built and published.
  
  If you cannot see the new version after some minutes, log in to https://readthedocs.org/projects/nocasedict/versions/ and activate the new version.

3.7. Starting a new version

This section shows the steps for starting development of a new version.

This section covers all variants of new versions:

Starting a new major version (Mnew.0.0) based on the master branch
Starting a new minor version (M.Nnew.0) based on the master branch
Starting a new update version (M.N.Unew) based on the stable branch of its minor version

This description assumes that you are authorized to push to the remote repo at https://github.com/pywbem/nocasedict and that the remote repo has the remote name origin in your local clone.

Any commands in the following steps are executed in the main directory of your local clone of the pywbem/nocasedict Git repo.

Create and push the start branch (replace M,N,U accordingly):
```
VERSION=M.N.U make start_branch
```
This uses the default branch determined from VERSION: For M.N.0, the master branch is used, otherwise the stable_M.N branch is used. That covers for all cases except if you want to start a new minor version based on an earlier stable branch. In that case, you need to specify that branch:
```
VERSION=M.N.0 BRANCH=stable_M.N make start_branch
```
This includes the following steps:
- create the start branch (start_M.N.U), if it does not yet exist
- create a dummy change
- commit and push the start branch (start_M.N.U)
On GitHub, create a milestone for the new version M.N.U.

You can create a milestone in GitHub via Issues -> Milestones -> New Milestone.
On GitHub, create a Pull Request for branch start_M.N.U.

Important: When creating Pull Requests, GitHub by default targets the master branch. When starting a version based on a stable branch, you need to change the target branch of the Pull Request to stable_M.N.

No review is needed for this PR.

Set the milestone of that PR to the new version M.N.U.
On GitHub, go through all open issues and pull requests that still have milestones for previous releases set, and either set them to the new milestone, or to have no milestone.

Note that when the release process has been performed as described, there should not be any such issues or pull requests anymore. So this step here is just an additional safeguard.
On GitHub, once the checks for the Pull Request for branch start_M.N.U have succeeded, merge the Pull Request (no review is needed). This automatically deletes the branch on GitHub.
Update and clean up the local repo (replace M,N,U accordingly):
```
VERSION=M.N.U make start_tag
```
or (see step 1):
```
VERSION=M.N.0 BRANCH=stable_M.N make start_tag
```
This includes the following steps:
- checkout and pull the branch that was started (master or stable_M.N)
- delete the start branch (start_M.N.U) locally and remotely
- create and push the start tag (M.N.Ua0)