Github release creation stopped working

[Kwankyu Lee]

Hi,

Hopefully, some of you may have noticed that the latest release 10.8.beta2 did not appear at

https://github.com/sagemath/sage/releases

These releases are important for properly documenting your contributions.

The github workflow ".github/workflows/dist.yml" is responsible for automatic creation of the releases.

I traced how it stopped working. The PR merged to 10.8.beta2

https://github.com/sagemath/sage/pull/40709

is the culprit. It removed a significant portion of the workflow script. In particular, the workflow step "Create release".

I am upset by that the PR author removed the code in the name of "outdated things". We have to understand the code and why it exists before we declare that the code is  "outdated". 

I am upset by that the PR reviewer gave the PR positive review without "reviewing". A reviewer should be half the author. A reviewer should be especially careful when a PR removes code instead of adding code, since that is likely to break things. 

Please restore the carelessly removed code.

[Tobia...@gmx.de]

At https://github.com/sagemath/sage/actions/runs/17527169457/job/49779204920 you can see that the workflow fails in the "release_dist" step with the error " sage_bootstrap.tarball.FileNotMirroredError: tarball does not exist on mirror network". I have no idea what this step is checking in detail but according to the comments in the workflow I get the impression that Volker is supposed to upload some files before he pushes the new release to github, but didn't do it this time. Anyway, the release_dist step was not touched in  https://github.com/sagemath/sage/pull/40709.

Concerning " workflow step "Create release"." was removed: no it was replaced by using the softprops/action-gh-release to create the release notes at the same time as uploading the release assets. Since adding the assets didn't work as can be seen in https://github.com/sagemath/sage/actions/runs/16854260655/job/47745153952 which was also linked in the PR description.

[Kwankyu Lee]

On Saturday, September 13, 2025 at 11:19:25 AM UTC+9 Tobia...@gmx.de wrote:

Concerning " workflow step "Create release"." was removed: no it was replaced by using the softprops/action-gh-release to create the release notes at the same time as uploading the release assets. Since adding the assets didn't work as can be seen in https://github.com/sagemath/sage/actions/runs/16854260655/job/47745153952 which was also linked in the PR description.

The code in the "Create release" was introduced not long ago by https://github.com/sagemath/sage/pull/39194

While removing a bunch of code, you and your reviewer made no efforts to understand the purpose of the code. 

I fear this attitude: "I don't know what this code is doing, and hence regard it outdated useless code".

 

[Kwankyu Lee]

This message was delivered to me, but somehow not posted here: ("---" inserted by me)

> Kwankyu,
>
> we love your attitude too. You disappear from the project for a solid half a year or so, and then come back as it was yesterday and start sw---ring at people who continued working on it.
>
> Dima

@sage-conduct Please watch this thread.

[Kwankyu Lee]

I manually created "releases" for 10.8.beta2 and 10.8.beta3. The github workflow is not working.

[Kwankyu Lee]

As the author of #40709 does not restore the removed code, I prepared a PR

https://github.com/sagemath/sage/pull/40843

which restores the removed code but retain the improvement made by #40709.

Please review.