Describe the Task

As discussed via Slack and during METplus project meetings, update the instructions in METplus Release Guide to create the main_vX.Y branches prior to the first release candidate rather than waiting for the official release. This change frees up the develop branch to accept new changes for future releases rather than needing to keep it locked down until the official release date.

The downside is that changes between RC1 and the final official release will need to be made to both the main_vX.Y branch and the develop branch.

Time Estimate

2 hours

Sub-Issues

Consider breaking the task down into sub-issues.
None needed

Relevant Deadlines

List relevant project deadlines here or state NONE.

Funding Source

DTC NOAA Base (2782544) for software release support

Define the Metadata

Assignee

• Select engineer(s) or no engineer required
• Select scientist(s) or no scientist required

Labels

• Review default alert labels
• Select component(s)
• Select priority
• Select requestor(s)

Milestone and Projects

• Select Milestone as a METplus-Wrappers-X.Y.Z version, Consider for Next Release, or Backlog of Development Ideas
• For a METplus-Wrappers-X.Y.Z version, select the METplus-Wrappers-X.Y.Z Development project

Define Related Issue(s)

Consider the impact to the other METplus components.

• METplus, MET, METdataio, METviewer, METexpress, METcalcpy, METplotpy
  None

Task Checklist

See the METplus Workflow for details.

• Complete the issue definition above, including the Time Estimate and Funding Source.
• Fork this repository or create a branch of develop.
  Branch name: feature_<Issue Number>_<Description>
• Complete the development and test your changes.
• Add/update log messages for easier debugging.
• Add/update unit tests.
• Add/update documentation.
• Add any new Python packages to the METplus Components Python Requirements table.
• For any new datasets, an entry to the METplus Verification Datasets Guide.
• Push local changes to GitHub.
• Submit a pull request to merge into develop.
  Pull request: feature <Issue Number> <Description>
• Define the pull request metadata, as permissions allow.
  Select: Reviewer(s) and Development issue
  Select: Milestone as the next official version
  Select: METplus-Wrappers-X.Y.Z Development project for development toward the next official release
• Iterate until the reviewer(s) accept and merge your changes.
• Delete your fork or branch.
• Close this issue.