Release PyGMT v0.17.0

[seisman]

Release: v0.17.0
Scheduled Date: 2025/09/30 2025/10/03
Pull request due date: 2025/09/28
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17156962
Announcement draft: https://hackmd.io/c5dOOqRjRv6AkjbZ53P-4g

Priority PRs/issues to complete prior to release

• Add the Pattern class for specifying bit and hachure patterns to fill symbols and polygons #4020
• Figure.image/grdimage/tilemap: Migrate the monochrome parameter to the new alias system #4088
• sequence_join: Correctly join datetime-like values in pd.DataFrame/xr.DataArray objects #4097
• AliasSystem: Migrate the region parameter to the new alias system #4099
• Drop GMT 6.4.0 support and add GMT 6.6.0 support #4017
• Update issue template for bumping GMT versions #4019
• Figure.colorbar: Add note regarding automatic fontsize scaling  #4126
• pygmt.params.Pattern: Set default pattern value to 1 plus extra validation checks #4134

Before release:

• Check SPEC 0 to see if we need to bump the minimum supported versions of GMT, Python and core package dependencies (NumPy, pandas, Xarray)
  • Drop GMT 6.4.0 support and add GMT 6.6.0 support #4017
  • SPEC 0: Bump minimum supported version to Xarray 2023.10 #4091
  • SPEC 0: Bump minimum supported version to pandas 2.2 #4092
  • SPEC 0: Bump minimum supported version to NumPy 2.0 and Xarray 2024.5 #4090 [Requires xarray>=2024.06]
• Review the "PyGMT Team" page
• README looks good on TestPyPI. Visit TestPyPI, click the latest pre-release, and check the homepage.
• Check to ensure that:
  • Deprecated workarounds/codes/tests are removed. Run grep "# TODO" **/*.py to find all potential TODOs.
  • All tests pass in the "GMT Legacy Tests" workflow
  • All tests pass in the "GMT Dev Tests" workflow
  • All tests pass in the "Doctests" workflow
• Update warnings in pygmt/_show_versions.py as well as notes in Not working transparency regarding GMT-Ghostscript incompatibility Update the GMT/Ghostscript compatibility notes #4129
• Reserve a DOI on Zenodo by clicking on "New Version" 10.5281/zenodo.17156962
• Finish up the "Changelog entry for v0.x.x" Pull Request (Use the previous changelog PR as a reference) Changelog entry for v0.17.0 #4121
  • Remember to update the author order Discuss the author order for v0.17.0 #4023
• Run make codespell to check common misspellings. If there are any, either fix them or add them to ignore-words-list in pyproject.toml
• Draft the announcement on https://hackmd.io/@pygmt

Release:

• At the PyGMT release page on GitHub:
  • Edit the draft release notes with the finalized changelog
  • Set the tag version and release title to vX.Y.Z
  • Make a release by clicking the 'Publish Release' button, this will automatically create a tag too
• Verify that all workflows triggered by the release pass
  • The latest version is correct on PyPI
  • The latest version is correct on https://www.pygmt.org/latest/
  • The release page has five assets, including baseline-images.zip, pygmt-docs.zip and pygmt-docs.pdf
• Download pygmt-X.Y.Z.zip (rename to pygmt-vX.Y.Z.zip) and baseline-images.zip from the release page, and upload the two zip files to https://zenodo.org/deposit, ensure that they are filed under the correct reserved DOI
  • Remember to update the author order Discuss the author order for v0.17.0 #4023

After release:

• Update conda-forge pygmt-feedstock (Done automatically by conda-forge's bot. If you don't want to wait, open a new issue in the conda-forge/pygmt-feedstock repository with the title @conda-forge-admin, please update version. This will trigger the bot immediately. Remember to pin GMT, Python and SPEC0 versions) pygmt v0.17.0 + convert to v1 recipe.yaml syntax conda-forge/pygmt-feedstock#45
• Bump PyGMT version on https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/try-gmt (after conda-forge update) Bump pygmt from 0.16.0 to 0.17.0, geopandas to 1.1.1 try-gmt#60
• Announce the release on:
  • GMT forum (do this announcement first! Requires moderator status)
  • ResearchGate (after forum announcement; download the ZIP file of the new release from the release page and add it as research item via the code category, be sure to include the corresponding new Zenodo DOI)
• Update release checklist template with any additional bullet points that may have arisen during the release

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• Party 🎉 (don't tick before all other checkboxes are ticked!)

[welcome]

👋 Thanks for opening your first issue here! Please make sure you filled out the template with as much detail as possible. You might also want to take a look at our contributing guidelines and code of conduct.

[seisman]

It's time to release v0.17.0 in line with our quarterly release policy. Is 09/30 a good deadline? I'll have limited availability during the first week of October for the Chinese National Day holiday.

[weiji14]

Yep, September 30 sounds good! I can help with the post-release bullet points (e.g. forum announcement) if anything slips into October.

[yvonnefroehlich]

It's time to release v0.17.0 in line with our quarterly release policy. Is 09/30 a good deadline? I'll have limited availability during the first week of October for the Chinese National Day holiday.

Sounds good! For me, September 30 is fine.

[seisman]

• Update warnings in pygmt/_show_versions.py as well as notes in Not working transparency regarding GMT-Ghostscript incompatibility

Unfortunately, we can't get Ghostscript 10.05.1 and 10.06.0 pushed into conda-forge yet (conda-forge/ghostscript-feedstock#35, conda-forge/ghostscript-feedstock#37), so we still don't know if GMT/PyGMT works well with these new versions.

[seisman]

With the help of @weiji14, we have some last-minute progress on GMT 6.6 and ghostscript 10.05/10.06. I think the plans are:

• Have ghostscript 10.05/10.06 pushed to the conda-forge channel (Bump to Ghostscript 10.05.1 conda-forge/ghostscript-feedstock#35, Bump to ghostscript 10.06.0 conda-forge/ghostscript-feedstock#37)
• Check if GMT 6.5 works with gs 10.05/10.06 Bump to Ghostscript 10.06.0 #4125
• Build GMT 6.6 with GDAL 3.10 (Rebuild GMT 6.6 with GDAL 3.10 rather than 3.11 conda-forge/gmt-feedstock#329)
• Rebuild GMT 6.6 with GDAL 3.11 Rebuild GMT 6.6 with GDAL 3.11 conda-forge/gmt-feedstock#330
• Bump to GMT 6.6 and check if GMT 6.6 works with gs 10.03-10.06 Bump the GMT version to 6.6.0 in CI #4018
• Update warnings in pygmt/_show_versions.py as well as notes in "Not working transparency" regarding GMT-Ghostscript incompatibility, if any
• Drop GMT 6.4 support
• Update the v0.17.0 changelog

We may postpone the v0.17.0 release by a few days, depending on the progress.

[seisman]

• Update warnings in pygmt/_show_versions.py as well as notes in Not working transparency regarding GMT-Ghostscript incompatibility

As shown in PR #4125, GMT 6.5 works well with ghostscript 10.05.1 and 10.06.0. Currently, the "Not working transparency" note says:

Ghostscript 10.03 or later for GMT 6.5.0

I think we can either keep it unchanged or change it to "Ghostscript 10.03-10.06 for GMT 6.5.0". Which one is better?

• Bump to GMT 6.6 and check if GMT 6.6 works with gs 10.03-10.06

As shown in #4018 (comment), the rebuilt GMT 6.6 still doesn't work, likely due to conflicts of geos and proj. I guess we should follow our initial plan and release v0.17.0 on Sep 30.

[yvonnefroehlich]

I think we can either keep it unchanged or change it to "Ghostscript 10.03-10.06 for GMT 6.5.0". Which one is better?

I think we can leave the warning as is, and we can update it (if needed) when we add the support for GMT 6.6.

[weiji14]

• Bump to GMT 6.6 and check if GMT 6.6 works with gs 10.03-10.06

As shown in #4018 (comment), the rebuilt GMT 6.6 still doesn't work, likely due to conflicts of geos and proj. I guess we should follow our initial plan and release v0.17.0 on Sep 30.

GMT 6.6 appears to be installable now, I'll test them with ghostscript 10.05.1 and 10.06.0 in #4018.

Is it ok to delay the release then by a week? I think best to get GMT 6.6 in and drop GMT 6.4 now rather than in December which is too close to AGU (even though we usually release after AGU).

[seisman]

I'll be AFK for several hours or days. Feel free to make changes you like.