Dependencies & Releases

Update WarpX’ Core Dependencies

WarpX has direct dependencies on AMReX, pyAMReX, and PICSAR, which we periodically update.

The script update_dependencies.py from Tools/Release/update_dependencies.py automates this workflow, in case one needs a newer commit of AMReX, pyAMReX, or PICSAR between releases:

usage: update_dependencies.py [-h] [--amrex] [--pyamrex] [--picsar] [--warpx]
options:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit
  --amrex     Update AMReX only
  --pyamrex   Update pyAMReX only
  --picsar    Update PICSAR only
  --warpx     Update WarpX only
  --release   New release

Create a new WarpX release

WarpX has one release per month. The version number is set at the beginning of the month and follows the format YY.MM.

In order to create a GitHub release, you need to:

  1. Create a new branch from development and update the version number in all source files. We usually wait for the AMReX release to be tagged first, then we also point to its tag.

    The script above can be used to update the core dependencies of WarpX and the WarpX version.

    For a WarpX release, ideally a git tag of AMReX & PICSAR shall be used instead of an unnamed commit. This can be done by running the script above with the command line option --release.

    Then open a PR, wait for tests to pass and then merge.

    The maintainer script Tools/Release/releasePR.py automates the steps above. Please read through the instructions in the script before running.

  2. Local Commit (Optional): at the moment, @ax3l is managing releases and signs tags (naming: YY.MM) locally with his GPG key before uploading them to GitHub.

    Publish: On the GitHub Release page, create a new release via Draft a new release. Either select the locally created tag or create one online (naming: YY.MM) on the merged commit of the PR from step 1.

    In the release description, please specify the compatible versions of dependencies (see previous releases), and provide info on the content of the release. In order to get a list of PRs merged since last release, you may run

    git log <last-release-tag>.. --format='- %s'

  3. Optional/future: create a release-<version> branch, write a changelog, and backport bug-fixes for a few days.