Release Checklist

Author: Ramses Matabadal
Status: Draft
Last updated: Fri Aug 17 2007

This is a guidance that can be used by the lead developer or the release manager (if we are lucky enough to have one). This checklist is by no means final and is only ment as a reference.

Assuming the source code in question (could be from trunk, could be from another branch) is stable and tested enough for an official release, this is what should be done at a minimum:

Updating versioninfo

Increment version number, double check with grep to make sure all files are updated accordingly.

Updating documentation

Generate new API documentation from source code.
Make sure the installation guide (INSTALL) and the user's manual (README) reflect the changes made to the source code.
Update the changelog file (CHANGES) based on the version control log.
Also update the development roadmap (ROADMAP) and the todo list (TODO).
Update finger response (~/.plan).

Freezing source

Create a new tag¹ and a new branch².
Add the version number to the tracker system so users can file bugs against the proper release.
The new tag will be used to create the archive.
The new branch is used for future point releases which will contain code cleanup and address small fixes.
Development can continue on the main development line (trunk).
Sent an e-mail to the irc-collective-devel mailinglist explaining the newly created tag and branch. Also mention the updated roadmap and the todo list.

Creating archive

Create a gzip compressed tarball with a name like irc-collective-0.1.0.tar.gz.
When extracted there should be a directory with the same base name as the archive, e.g. irc-collective-0.1.0.tar.gz should create irc-collective-0.1.0/.

Testing archive

Try to install it on a clean machine using the installation guide.
In case of a minor issue you can use the current archive and just add release notes to the page where the archive can be downloaded.
In case of a showstopper you may need to postpone the release and fix the source code and/or update the documentation.

Uploading archive

Sign the archive using GPG to create an .asc file.
Calculate MD5 checksum to create an .md5 file.
Upload the archive along with the signature and checksum files to the website.

Updating website

Add the archive to the download page on the website.
Update the roadmap page and the current todo list on the website.

Announcing release

Create a news posting for the frontpage of the website. Include the relevant portion of the CHANGES file, except for the initial version.
If not automated; add news posting to the RSS feed.
Create a new topic in the announcements forum, copy the contents of the news posting.
Add a link to the topic on the forum to the news posting.
Sent an e-mail to the irc-collective-news mailinglist with the same contents as the news posting.
Update the topic on the IRC channel to point at the announcement on the forum.
Make announcements elsewhere³.

¹ Tags will be named release-x.y.z.

² Branches will be named x.y-suffix, where suffix can be stable/unstable, stable/dev or stable/test(ing). This is something that sill has to be decided.

³ Freshmeat.net, SourceForge.net, Slashdot.org(?), etc.