release

name	release
description	Prepare all files needed to cut a new netlab release

Preparing a New netlab Release

Identify the release version

• Use user input or determine the new version number (e.g. 26.03) using calendar versioning (YY.MM for the first release in a month or YY.MM.NN for subsequent releases)
• Find the previous release tag with git tag | grep release | sort -V | tail -5.

Check what is already done

Some steps are done incrementally during development and must not be repeated:

• docs/release/XX.YY.md — may already exist (created mid-cycle via a separate PR)
• docs/release.md — may already have the new release entry
• docs/caveats.md — updated alongside feature commits; do not rewrite
• docs/platforms.md — updated alongside feature commits; do not rewrite

Files that always need updating

File	What to change
netsim/__init__.py	__version__ string
README.md	## Releases blurb — latest release link + fallback link

Check release notes completeness

• List all commits since the previous tag: git log release_XX.YY..HEAD --oneline
• Compare each commit against the existing docs/release/XX.YY.md to find missing items.
• Focus on user-facing commits; skip internal items (integration test cleanups, timing fixes, skill/tooling updates).
• When the release notes file does not yet exist, use docs/release/release.template as a base and the release-notes skill to write it.

Update docs/release.md if needed

• If the new release entry is missing, add it at the top (above the previous release), following the style of recent entries.
• Include the release date (today) in the heading.
• Include the toctree entry for release/XX.YY.md.

README.md wording pattern

The latest release is [release XX.YY](https://github.com/ipspace/netlab/releases/tag/release_XX.YY).
It should be pretty stable, but if you encounter bugs, please report them as
[GitHub issues](https://github.com/ipspace/netlab/issues/new/choose) and use
[release XX.ZZ](https://github.com/ipspace/netlab/releases/tag/release_XX.ZZ).

where XX.ZZ is the previous stable release.

Commit message convention

The release commit is titled Release XX.YY (#NNNN) and is submitted as a PR.