Overview of Release Candidate Workflows
What Is a Release Candidate?
A release candidate (RC) is a build intended for testing before a final release. RCs allow us to validate compatibility across the E3SM analysis stack and to ensure that tools and environments function correctly on supported HPC platforms.
RC packages are published to special Conda labels (like e3sm_diags_dev or
e3sm_unified_dev) to keep them separate from stable releases.
Overview of the Process
There are two major workflows:
1. Creating RCs for Dependency Packages
These are individual tools like e3sm_diags, zppy, or mpas_analysis that
are used within the E3SM-Unified environment.
2. Creating an RC for E3SM-Unified
This involves assembling a full test environment based on specific versions of all dependencies — including RCs.
Go to: Creating an E3SM-Unified RC
3. Troubleshooting Build Failures
Solving Conda environments during builds can fail for complex or subtle
reasons. This section provides detailed strategies for debugging, including
use of conda_first_failure.py.
Go to: Troubleshooting Conda Build Failures
Each page includes step-by-step examples, commands, and best practices tailored to the E3SM-Unified release workflow.