updated README notes and release build flags.

.github/workflows/README.md

@@ -3,4 +3,6 @@
 We use GitHub actions to continuously integrate and deploy the MPoL codebase. This document summarizes the intended functionality of each of the workflows.
 
 * `verify-tests-and-docs.yml` runs the unit tests and (if successful) builds (but does not deploy) the documentation to ascertain whether the codebase is in a working state (defined as passing tests on all non-experimental Python versions and a successful documentation build). This workflow is intended to run on every commit to the `main` branch as well as every commit to open pull requests.
-* `docs-build-deploy.yml` builds and deploys the documentation to [GitHub Pages](https://mpol-dev.github.io/MPoL/). This workflow is intended to run on every commit to the `main` branch, to ensure that the currently deployed documentation matches the current state of the source code. Note that if you are merging a PR: you may find that the docs are built twice, once as part of the `verify-tests-and-docs.yml` and then again as part of `docs-build-deploy.yml`. This duplication is OK, since it is designed to support small changes implemented directly on `main` as well as changes introduced through branches and PRs.
+* `docs-build-deploy.yml` builds and deploys the documentation to [GitHub Pages](https://mpol-dev.github.io/MPoL/). This workflow is intended to run on every commit to the `main` branch, to ensure that the currently deployed documentation matches the current state of the source code. Note that if you are merging a PR: you may find that the docs are built twice, once as part of the `verify-tests-and-docs.yml` and then again as part of `docs-build-deploy.yml`. This duplication is OK, since it is designed to support small changes implemented directly on `main` as well as changes introduced through branches and PRs.
+* `pre-release.yml` tries to install the package into Linux, MacOS, and Windows using all supported Python versions. As the name suggests, this is designed to run in anticipation of a release and is triggered by a "draft" release on GitHub.
+* `release.yml` is run when a release is submitted on GitHub. Note that there is no prerequisite for `pre-release.yml` to have run (or passed), but it is a good idea to go through this manually by drafting a release.

.github/workflows/pre-release.yml

@@ -28,13 +28,6 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install test deps
         run: |
           pip install .[test]
-      - name: Lint with flake8
-        run: |
-          pip install flake8
-          # stop the build if there are Python syntax errors or undefined names
-          flake8 . --count --select=E9,F63,F7,F82 --show-source --statistics
-          # exit-zero treats all errors as warnings. The GitHub editor is 127 chars wide
-          flake8 . --count --exit-zero --max-complexity=10 --max-line-length=127 --statistics
       - name: Run tests with coverage
         run: |
           pytest --cov=mpol

.github/workflows/package.yml → .github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-name: build and upload pip
+name: build and upload to PyPI
 
 on:
   release:
@@ -7,14 +7,13 @@ on:
 
 jobs:
   deploy:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
-
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - name: Set up Python
-        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
-          python-version: 3.10
+          python-version: "3.12"
       - name: Install dependencies
         run: |
           pip install --upgrade pip