This file contains the changes that were made to a maintenance branch since it split off from develop. It will also be found in the develop branch when experimental releases have been created.

RELEASE.txt

This is the changelog for the current version of the library.

For a MAJOR release (or in develop) this files lists all the changes since the last major version. For a MINOR release (or in a maintenance branch), this file lists all the changes since the last release in the maintenance branch.

Examples:

The file for HDF5 1.14.0 includes all the changes since HDF5 1.12.0
The file for HDF5 1.10.9 includes all the changes since HDF5 1.10.8
The file in develop includes all the changes since the last major release
The file in hdf5_1_14 includes all the changes since the last minor HDF5 1.14 release

Note that we make no effort to bring maintenance branch HISTORY files back to develop. If you want to compare, say, 1.10.4 with 1.12.3, you'd have to get the history files from those releases and compare them by hand.

Creating new releases

MAJOR release

If there were experimental releases, merge the experimental HISTORY file and the current RELEASE.txt by category to create a separate, unified file that ignores the experimental releases. Don't check this in yet or clobber any existing HISTORY/RELEASE files, but put it someplace handy for use in later steps.
Create the new maintenance branch

In develop:

Create the new HISTORY-[VERSION 1]-[VERSION 2].txt file
- If there is an experimental HISTORY file, add RELEASE.txt to the beginning of it and use that
- Otherwise, start with RELEASE.txt
- Add the introduction boilerplate like in the other HISTORY files (TOC, etc.)
Delete any experimental HISTORY file
Clear out RELEASE.txt

Note that we're KEEPING any experimental release history information in the HISTORY-[VERSION 1]-[VERSION 2].txt file, so do NOT use the merged file in the above steps!

In the new maintenance branch:

Create the new HISTORY-[VERSION].txt file
- If there is an experimental HISTORY file use the combined file you created earlier
- Otherwise, start with RELEASE.txt
- Add the introduction boilerplate like in the other HISTORY files (TOC, etc.)
Delete any experimental HISTORY file
Clear out RELEASE.txt
Create the new release branch

In the new release branch:

If there were experimental releases, use the combined file you created earlier as RELEASE.txt
Otherwise the RELEASE.txt will be used as-is

MINOR release

Create the release branch

In the maintenance branch:

Add the contents of RELEASE.txt to the beginnnig of HISTORY-[VERSION].txt
Clear out RELEASE.txt

EXPERIMENTAL release

Add the contents of RELEASE.txt to the beginnnig of HISTORY-[VERSION].txt
Clear out RELEASE.txt

INSTALL files

These files include instructions for building and installing HDF5 on various platforms.

USING files

These files document how to build HDF5 applications with an installed HDF5 library.

README.md

The release_docs directory

Intro

HISTORY files

HISTORY-[VERSION 1]-[VERSION 2].txt

HISTORY-[VERSION].txt