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Maintenance Branchs
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A maintenance branch is a branch created to publish patches for releases that are no longer being actively developed (e.g. past major releases).
For Runway, the naming format of these branches is ``release/v<major>``.

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Creating A Maintenance Branch
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A new maintenance branch should be created prior to beginning work on a new major release.
It is best to create the branch prior to the final planned release (minor or patch) of the outgoing major version.
This enables `release-drafter <https://github.com/release-drafter/release-drafter>`__ to create drafts for future releases.

.. important::
  When releasing the final release of the outgoing major version, create the tag on the maintenance branch.

#. Clone the repo locally.
#. Ensure that the default branch (e.g. ``master``) is up to date.
#. Create the new maintenance branch locally.
#. Push the maintenance branch to GitHub.


Enable Documentation For A Maintenance Branch
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To be completed after the creation of a new maintenance branch.

#. Navigate to the `ReadTheDocs project page <https://app.readthedocs.org/projects/runway/>`__
#. Click **Add version**.
#. Input the name of the maintenance branch, activate it, and click **Update version**.


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Patching A Maintenance Branch
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#. Clone the repo locally.
#. Checkout the maintenance branch and ensure it is up to date.
#. Create a new branch for the patch, make the required changes, commit the changes, and push to GitHub.
#. Open a new PR ensuring the **change the base branch** to the desired maintenance branch.
#. Merge the PR once all requirements are met.
#. Refer to the :ref:`maintainers/release_process:Maintenance Branch` release process.


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Maintenance Branch End Of Life
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TBD