Merge pull request #2399 from processing/chore/add-patch-release-docs

add documentation for creating a patch release

Author: raclim

contributor_docs/release.md

@@ -25,3 +25,28 @@ This project release guide is based on
 
 Travis CI will automatically deploy the release to production, as well as push a production tagged Docker image to DockerHub.
 
+
+## Steps for a Patch Release
+Sometimes you might need to push a release for an isolated and small bug fix without what's currently been merged into the `develop` branch. The steps for pushing a Patch Release are similar to a standard Release, except you work with the `release` branch as opposed to `develop`.
+
+1. `$ git checkout release`
+2. `$ git pull origin release`
+3. `$ git checkout -b release-<newversion>` (increment patch version)
+4. Do all of the release branch testing necessary. This could be as simple as running `npm test:ci`, or it could take user testing over a few days.
+5. `$ npm version <newversion>` (see [npm-version](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/version) for valid values of )(npm version patch).
+6. `$ git checkout release`
+7. `$ git merge --no-ff release-<newversion>`
+8. `$ git push && git push --tags`
+9. `$ git checkout develop`
+10. `$ git merge --no-ff release-<newversion>`
+11. `$ git push origin develop`
+12. [Draft a new release on Github](https://github.com/processing/p5.js-web-editor/releases/new). Choose the tag that is the release version you just created, and then title it `v<newversion>`. Then click "Generate release notes". Publish the release and you are finished!
+
+### What if the PR Bug Fix is branched from `develop`?
+
+1. Make a copy of the branch locally: `gh pr checkout ##`
+2. `git checkout release`
+3. `git pull origin release`
+4. `git checkout -b <descriptive-branch-name>`
+5. `git cherry-pick <every sha in PR branch>`
+6. Make a new PR that merges into `release` (has a base branch `release`)