3.4.0 Release

[eseiler]

• Update copyright year. [DOC] Update copyright year #3327
• Create at least one pre-release s.t. our package maintainers can try out a new release of our library. (Instructions)
• Check that the directory structure is valid.
• Check for critical performance regressions (see here).
• Check Nightlies for critical build failures.
• Check workarounds in platform.hpp. Are they still valid, or can they be limited to specific compiler versions? [MISC] Remove workarounds #3329
• Check the Changelog.md for completeness (including changed headers). (Instructions)
• Update the index from cppreference.com so that up-to-date documentation links are generated. (Instructions) [INFRA,DOC] Update doxygen webtags #3330

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• Freeze branch. (Instructions)
• Add versioned documentation to docs.seqan.de. (Instructions)
• Prepare seqan3-[VERSION]-{Linux,Source}.tar.xz{,.sha265}. (Instructions)
• Prepare a release note with notable features, API changes, bugs, and external dependency updates.

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• Tag release on GitHub and attach seqan3-[VERSION]-{Linux,Source}.tar.xz{,.sha265} to the release. (Instructions)

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• Bump version. (Instructions)
• Update the version used for update notifications.
• Announce release on Twitter.
• Announce release on website.
• Announce release on mailing list [email protected].
• Announce release on public Gitter channel.
• Notify upstream package maintainers:
  • brew
  • macports
  • bio.tools
  • conda
  • conan
  • debian
  • fedora
• Update release template with the current release tasks.
• Celebrate 🎉 🍺

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Instructions

Creating a pre-release

GitHub is not able to create annotated releases (seqan/product_backlog#159), so we have to manually sign the release.
Make sure you have set up signed commits.

git checkout release-[VERSION]
git tag -s [VERSION]-rc.[RC] # e.g. 3.1.0-rc.1
git push upstream [VERSION]-rc.[RC]

You will need to provide a tag message. Since this is a pre-release, it can be as simple as Tag 3.1.0-rc.1.

Now follow the packaging instructions to create seqan3-[VERSION]-rc.[RC]-{Linux,Source}.tar.xz{,.sha265}.

Go to https://github.com/seqan/seqan3/releases and create a new release using the created tag and attach the source packages.

⚠️ Make sure to set the tick for "This is a pre-release" ⚠️

Once again, the release message can be simply something along the lines of:

This is the first release candidate for SeqAn 3.0.3

You can find a list of changes in our [changelog](https://docs.seqan.de/seqan/3.0.3/about_changelog.html).

Afterwards, bump the succeeding release candidate number in the release branch: include/seqan3/version.hpp.

Updating cppreference index

Check for new releases and update the link and hash in test/documentation/seqan3-doxygen.cmake.
You can compute the hash via wget -O- <link to html book> | sha256sum.

Freezing the release branch

• Make sure all PRs that should be merged are merged.
• Set SEQAN3_RELEASE_CANDIDATE to 0 include/seqan3/version.hpp.
• This should be the last commit before the release.

Creating versioned documentation

1. Checkout the release tag and build documentation.
2. Create a #.#.# directory for the release in /web/docs.seqan.de/htdocs/seqan/
3. Copy everything from the build (doc_usr/html/*) into the directory.
4. Alter the file /web/docs.seqan.de/htdocs/seqan3.html with a link to the new documentation build.

Creating source packages

Use a new clone of the repository.

git clone https://github.com/seqan/seqan3.git
cd seqan3
git checkout release-[VERSION] # version/branch to pack
git submodule update --init

mkdir ../package-build
cd ../package-build

cmake ../seqan3 # configure
cpack # builds binary package, e.g. seqan3-[VERSION]-Linux.tar.xz{,.sha265}
cmake --build . --target package_source # builds source package, e.g. seqan3-[VERSION]-Source.tar.xz{,.sha265}

Note: Do not use git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/seqan/seqan3.git because it will recursively pull sub-submodules!

Checking the changelog

• List all supported compiler, also add to https://docs.seqan.de/seqan3/main_user/about_api.html#autotoc_md35.
• Check that all links are consistent, e.g., [\#2540](https://github.com/seqan/seqan3/pull/2538):
  • Search (\[\\#)(\d+)(\]\(.+?)(\d+)(\)) and replace $1$2$3$2$5 (i.e., replace link issue-id by the displayed id).

Creating a release

GitHub is not able to create annotated releases (seqan/product_backlog#159), so we have to manually sign the release.
Make sure you have set up signed commits.

git checkout release-[VERSION]
git tag -s [VERSION]
git push upstream [VERSION]

You will need to provide a tag message. We use the first sentences of the release note:

E.g. (see https://github.com/seqan/seqan3/tags)

SeqAn 3.0.2 Release


Despite all circumstances, we are excited to present a new update of our SeqAn library.
We present some great new features and also a lot of usability improvements.
Among others, this release will fully comply with the final C++-20 standard.

:warning: In this release we harmonised the algorithm configurations for a better user experience.
This, much like 2020, will break a lot of code. But rest assured that the changes are easy to apply and are worth every bit. :smile:

You can find a comprehensive list of the changes in our [changelog](https://docs.seqan.de/seqan/3.0.2/about_changelog.html).

Bumping the version

• Bump succeeding version number in the main branch: include/seqan3/version.hpp.
• The SEQAN3_RELEASE_CANDIDATE must be set to 1 as 0 indicates a stable release.
• Bump the latest stable version number of the API-Stability test in main: test/api_stability/CMakeLists.txt.