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Digital · Guided lesson

Define release stages and their gates

About 29 minutes · 7 reading + 22 practice and checks
Time includes reading, practice, and questions. Extra videos or further study are optional.
See this course’s project requirements

A local Python release script that validates source, runs tests, packages only allowlisted files, writes checksums and stops on a failing stage.

Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.

What to include

  • Create an ordered stage/gate map with explicit failure branches.
  • Document the exact child command, working directory, timeout, and failure interpretation.
  • Create and inspect an actual archive whose member list exactly matches the release allowlist.
  • Recompute the delivered archive digest and explain integrity versus correctness/provenance.
  • Demonstrate failed-test stop and byte-preserving overwrite refusal in isolated copies.
  • Deliver one declared local release with stage, package, checksum, failure, and operational-limit evidence.

Review and revise

Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.

  • The implementation or declared simulation follows the supplied contract and retains inspectable original inputs.
  • Normal, boundary and rejected cases are recorded with expected versus observed results.
  • The changed case has a correct explanation and does not rely on hidden state.
  • The project includes source, outputs, instructions and honest tool, privacy and verification limits.
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Before you begin

The idea in everyday life

Original local greeting project: greeting.py, test-greeting.py, usage.txt, release.py and test-pipeline.py. Its release archive may contain only greeting.py and usage.txt. No external CI account, deployment, or package installation is required.

The idea

A pipeline is an ordered sequence with explicit success conditions. Later packaging must not run after a failed compile or test stage.

Follow along

Define release stages and their gates — original worked practice

A pipeline is an ordered sequence with explicit success conditions. Later packaging must not run after a failed compile or test stage.

Original local greeting project: greeting.py, test-greeting.py, usage.txt, release.py and test-pipeline.py. Its release archive may contain only greeting.py and usage.txt. No external CI account, deployment, or package installation is required.

  1. 1. Step 1

    Read release.py and write the order compile → test → package → checksum.

    You should see: Four named stages are identified.

    A pipeline is an ordered sequence with explicit success conditions. Later packaging must not run after a failed compile or test stage.

  2. 2. Step 2

    For compile require valid Python; for test require exit code zero; for package require the two allowlisted files; for checksum require an archive digest.

    You should see: Each stage has an observable gate.

    A pipeline is an ordered sequence with explicit success conditions. Later packaging must not run after a failed compile or test stage.

  3. 3. Step 3

    Read subprocess.run check=True and the exception path returning exit 1.

    You should see: A failed test stops the normal release path.

    A pipeline is an ordered sequence with explicit success conditions. Later packaging must not run after a failed compile or test stage.

  4. 4. Step 4

    Draw the failure branches and the final completion condition.

    You should see: A local release-gate map.

    A pipeline is an ordered sequence with explicit success conditions. Later packaging must not run after a failed compile or test stage.

Now change one thing

The test subprocess exits 1. Should packaging run as a successful release?

Your work

What to finish

Create an ordered stage/gate map with explicit failure branches.

Common mistake

Watch for this

Continuing to package after a failed required test or claiming this local pipeline deploys a website.

How can I tell I understand it?

Demonstrate the rule: A pipeline is an ordered sequence with explicit success conditions. Later packaging must not run after a failed compile or test stage. Use the supplied variant to distinguish a changed result from a broken implementation.

Try 3 questions

Quick knowledge check

Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.

Not yet passed

You’ll get an explanation for each answer. Signed in? Your results save to your account.

1Which stage follows a successful test in this pipeline?
2What does check=True do for the test subprocess?
3Why name each gate rather than say build succeeded?
0 of 3 answeredApply the lesson to a short question, then review the explanation.
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Finish this lesson

Pass the check. We’ll save the progress.

Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.

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Sources and further reading

Explore the references behind this lesson.

docs.python.org — subprocess.html
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Relevant documented module/API behavior inspected during expansion authoring; actual execution evidence is recorded separately. No grant eligibility is established.

Access: Official page retrieved with the web reader on 2026-10-01. Documentation reading does not certify execution in every native tool or browser.

Reuse: Original local practice files, fictional data, worked examples and questions. Concepts paraphrased and linked; source exercises are not copied.

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