Release Process

This page describes the release process for KubeSnapIt, which involves using GitHub Actions to automate the release of the module to the PowerShell Gallery, the Krew plugin, and to update the documentation.

How to Create and Push a Tag

To release a new version of KubeSnapIt, you need to tag the release in Git. Tags should follow semantic versioning (e.g., v1.0.0).

Steps to Tag and Push a Release

Create a Tag: In your local Git repository, create a tag with the version you want to release. Replace v1.0.0 with your version number.
```
git tag v1.0.0
```
Push the Tag to GitHub: After creating the tag, push it to GitHub.
```
git push origin v1.0.0
```
GitHub Actions: Once the tag is pushed, the GitHub Actions workflows will be automatically triggered to publish the release to the PowerShell Gallery and Krew.

GitHub Pages Deployment

The Deploy Jekyll Site to Pages action runs only when changes are pushed to the docs/ folder. This ensures that the GitHub Pages site is updated only when the documentation is modified, avoiding unnecessary builds and deployments when there are no documentation changes.

Triggering the Pages Action

The GitHub Pages action is triggered when:

A commit is pushed to the main branch that affects files in the docs/ folder.
The workflow is manually triggered through GitHub’s Actions tab.

Netlify PR Previews for Documentation

When a pull request that affects the docs/ folder is opened or updated, Netlify automatically deploys a preview of the updated website. This allows you to review the documentation changes in a live environment before merging the pull request.

Reviewing Documentation with Netlify Previews

For each pull request, a unique preview URL will be posted as a comment. Before merging, reviewers should check this preview to ensure the documentation appears as expected.

Make sure to always review the Netlify preview to confirm that the changes render correctly on the website.

GitHub Actions Workflows

We use several GitHub Actions workflows to automate the release process. You can view the full details of these workflows directly in the repository:

Publish Module to PowerShell Gallery: This action publishes the KubeSnapIt PowerShell module to the PowerShell Gallery when a tag is pushed.
Publish Plugin to Krew: This action packages and publishes the KubeSnapIt plugin for Linux and macOS, and uploads it to GitHub as release assets.
Deploy Jekyll Site to Pages: This action builds and deploys the documentation site to GitHub Pages when changes are pushed to the docs/ folder.
Netlify PR Previews: Netlify automatically builds and deploys documentation previews for pull requests affecting the docs/ folder.

Summary

These workflows automate the release process and manage releases across multiple platforms. With Netlify PR previews, contributors and reviewers can verify how documentation updates will appear on the website before they are merged into the main branch.

For more details, please refer to the workflows folder in the repository.