lint/docs/release-process.md

Creating GitHub Super-Linter Release

The Process to create a Release of the super-linter/super-linter is as follows:

• Every push to master/main triggers a build and deploy of the super-linter/super-linter
• This creates the following images:
  • super-linter/super-linter:latest
  • super-linter/super-linter:slim-latest
• This also causes the Release drafter action to update a new draft Release

When an Admin wants to create a Release, the process is as follows:

• The Admin pushes an update to master/main and updates the action.yml to point to the next Release version
  • Example: image: 'docker://ghcr.io/super-linter/super-linter:v4.6.2' becomes: image: 'docker://ghcr.io/super-linter/super-linter:v4.6.3'
• Then the admin can go to the Release page and update the current draft Release
• The Admin will set the correct version strings, and update any additional information in the current draft Release
• Once the Admin is ready, they will select Publish Release
• This triggers the GitHub Actions to take the current codebase, and build the containers, and deploy to their locations
• This creates and pushes the following container images:
  • super-linter/super-linter:latest
  • super-linter/super-linter:v4
  • super-linter/super-linter:v4.6.3
  • super-linter/super-linter:slim-latest
  • super-linter/super-linter:slim-v4
  • super-linter/super-linter:slim-v4.6.3
• This also updates the latest and vMAJOR Git tags to point to the same commit that the release Git tag is pointing at.
• At this point, the Release is complete and images are available for general consumption

Pitfalls and Issues

If the Admin Does not update the action.yml to the new version before the Release is published, then the Release will point back to the old version, and any Images will also be sent back to the previous version. This is very much a chicken and the egg issue, but seems to be easily resolved by following the correct path.