Guide to release new version of FANS

The developer who is releasing a new version of FANS is expected to follow this workflow:

The release of the FANS repository is made directly from a release branch called FANS-v1.2.3. This branch is primarily intended to assist other developers with testing.

1. Create a branch called FANS-v1.2.3 from the latest commit of the develop branch.

2. Bump the version in the CHANGELOG.md, the base CMakeLists.txt, and in the pixi.toml on the branch FANS-v1.2.3.

3. Assuming you have Pixi installed, run the command pixi lock in the repository root to update the pixi.lock file. Then commit and push the FANS-v1.2.3 branch to remote.

4. Open a Pull Request main <-- FANS-v1.2.3 named after the version (i.e., Release v1.2.3) and briefly describe the new features of the release in the PR description.

5. Once the CI runs successfully (all green ticks) and one approving review is made, merge the release PR (from FANS-v1.2.3) into main by a merge commit (not squash and merge or rebase and merge).

6. Draft a new release in the Releases section of the repository page in a web browser. The release tag needs to be the exact version number (i.e., v1.2.3 or v1.2.3rc1, compare to existing tags). Use @target:main. Release title is also the version number (i.e., v1.2.3 or v1.2.3rc1, compare to existing releases). Use the Auto-generate release notes feature.

7. Merge main into develop for synchronization of develop.

8. If everything is in order up to this point, then the new version can be released by hitting the "Publish release" button in your Release Draft. This will create the corresponding tag.