# Frequent releases of packages?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649>\
**Category:** Community\
**Tags:** question, package\
**Created:** [October 8, 2019, 11:19am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649 "2019-10-08T11:19:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tamasgal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamasgal/32/27946_2.png) [@tamasgal](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tamasgal)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 11:19am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649/1 "2019-10-08T11:19:07Z")

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This kind of a meta question, but related to the package repository. I don’t know where to put it…

I feel a bit reluctant to create frequent releases of my package because I know that the pull requests are manually reviewed and merged, and I tend to think that I have to justify every release because I am creating work for others. It might be just me, but I an automated process (at least after the initial registration of the package) could possibly lower the threshold in general 😅

Two questions:

- Am I the only one who thinks like this and should I stop worrying (e.g. not hesitating to submit a “hotfix-release” ten minutes after having created a register request because reasons)?
- Why is it done manually after all; is it planned to automate the process in near future?

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 11:22am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649/2 "2019-10-08T11:22:01Z")

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[https://github.com/JuliaRegistries/General/issues/3673](https://github.com/JuliaRegistries/General/issues/3673)

[https://github.com/JuliaRegistries/General/pull/3342](https://github.com/JuliaRegistries/General/pull/3342)

For now, I would recommend just tagging a release when you need to. Indeed it relies on the work of kind volunteers, but it will be automated soon.

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**Author:** ![tamasgal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamasgal/32/27946_2.png) [@tamasgal](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tamasgal)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 11:25am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649/3 "2019-10-08T11:25:56Z")

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Thanks, alright. I am not sure how I could not find those two issues 😆

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**Author:** ![randyzwitch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/randyzwitch/32/15955_2.png) [@randyzwitch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/randyzwitch)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 1:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649/4 "2019-10-08T13:12:12Z")

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I’m not one of those maintainers, but I roughly use the CRAN suggestion of (at most) one release per month per package. Obviously, if there’s a critical bug you should put a patch release out as fast as feasible, but for me this feels like a good metric to balance freshness vs. wasting everyone’s time

edit: make it clear that to respect people’s time, release at most once per month, as opposed to sending a new package release every 3 days

> Submitting updates should be done responsibly and with respect for the volunteers’ time. Once a package is established (which may take several rounds), “no more than every 1–2 months” seems appropriate.

> **[CRAN Repository Policy](https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/policies.html#Submission)**
>
> CRAN Repository Policy

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**Author:** ![tamasgal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamasgal/32/27946_2.png) [@tamasgal](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tamasgal)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 1:26pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649/5 "2019-10-08T13:26:53Z")

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Hmm, I don’t see why a release should be based on (periodic) time intervals. The version changes just happen when they happen during coding, following SemVer.

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649/6 "2019-10-08T13:37:23Z")

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I think _at most_ one per month is implied there (just not made explicit).

I think that one can play this by ear, but making a habit of multiple releases per day is not something one should do.

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**Author:** ![randyzwitch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/randyzwitch/32/15955_2.png) [@randyzwitch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/randyzwitch)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649/7 "2019-10-08T13:37:29Z")

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I’m just saying that’s how I view it, to be respectful of other people’s time. I’m far less frequent than one month.

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**Author:** ![dilumaluthge](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dilumaluthge/32/29283_2.png) [@dilumaluthge](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dilumaluthge)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 6:26pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649/8 "2019-10-08T18:26:50Z")

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Yeah we’ll have automerging in the not-so-distant future. I’ll make a Discourse post when it’s live.

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**Author:** ![oxinabox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oxinabox/32/206603_2.png) [@oxinabox](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/oxinabox)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649/9 "2019-10-08T18:29:21Z")

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I am a advocate for release after every PR  
(except of you already have a release pending.)

See my recent blog-post to that effect.

[https://white.ucc.asn.au/2019/09/28/Continuous-Delivery-For-Julia-Packages.html](https://white.ucc.asn.au/2019/09/28/Continuous-Delivery-For-Julia-Packages.html)

The effort for registry maintainers to manually press merge after a quick glance  
is much lower than the effort the PR maker is making to add a feature/fix a bug in the package.  
So to be respectful of their time, you should tag a release  
so they can benifit from the code they wrote.

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**Author:** ![yakir12](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/yakir12/32/297_2.png) [@yakir12](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yakir12)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 8:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frequent-releases-of-packages/29649/10 "2019-10-08T20:30:11Z")

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> [@oxinabox](#):
>
> release after every PR

To me this makes a lot of sense. It’s almost like a reward for the PR. But I have (too rarely) only been on the PR side, never on the reviewing releases side…