Release procedure

How to make a new release

This should eventually be migrated here from https://github.com/modin-project/modin/blob/main/docs/release-procedure.md

Versioning scheme

Starting from 0.11 onward, Modin will follow semantic versioning ("semver" for short) with an exception: our MAJOR part is going to stay zero until we meet the criteria for a stable Modin release. This is circumvented a bit by the fact that most user-facing API is mimicking pandas, which already follows similar versioning scheme, and hence is not changed drastically. We try to keep user-facing API changes in experimental part of Modin for now.

That said, our version of semver should be expressed like this (with a version being MAJOR.MINOR.REVISION, where MAJOR == 0 for now):

• when we make a bugfix, it's released in next REVISION or MINOR bump, whichever comes first;
• when we introduce a new feature, like something not defaulting into Pandas when it previously did, it should come in MINOR bump;
• when Pandas do a revision release, we do a revision release after updating our requirements to that version;
• when Pandas do a minor release, we do a minor release;
• when Pandas do a major release, we probably do a minor release as we're keeping our MAJOR == 0 for now.

When followed, this versioning scheme should give our users more understanding of whether they should update or not without the need to go over changelog or study the diffs.

Versioning in 0.10.x

Note that there is no change in versioning scheme in 0.10.x branch to give community time to adapt and voice their concerns.