From 3758e5b1648a26fd2343db3c804d32a29ae75ff8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Simon McVittie <smcv@collabora.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2022 11:19:28 +0100
Subject: Move release checklist to its own file

In other projects I've found that having a separate file that only
lists the release steps makes them easier to check.

Signed-off-by: Simon McVittie <smcv@collabora.com>
---
 maint/release-checklist.md | 82 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 82 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 maint/release-checklist.md

(limited to 'maint')

diff --git a/maint/release-checklist.md b/maint/release-checklist.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5de87933
--- /dev/null
+++ b/maint/release-checklist.md
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+# dbus release checklist
+
+To make a release of D-Bus, do the following:
+
+ - check out a fresh copy from Git
+
+ - verify that the libtool versioning/library soname is
+   changed if it needs to be, or not changed if not
+
+ - update the file NEWS based on the git history
+
+ - verify that the version number of dbus-specification.xml is
+   changed if it needs to be; if changes have been made, update the
+   release date in that file
+
+ - update the AUTHORS file with "make update-authors" if necessary
+
+ - the version number should have major.minor.micro, even
+   if micro is 0, i.e. "1.0.0" and "1.2.0" not "1.0"/"1.2"; the micro
+   version should be even for releases, and odd for intermediate snapshots
+
+ - "make distcheck" (DO NOT just "make dist" - pass the check!)
+
+ - if make distcheck fails, fix it.
+
+ - once distcheck succeeds, "git commit -a".  This is the version
+   of the tree that corresponds exactly to the released tarball.
+
+ - tag the tree with "git tag -s -m 'Released X.Y.Z' dbus-X.Y.Z"
+   where X.Y.Z is the version of the release.  If you can't sign
+   then simply created an unsigned annotated tag:
+   "git tag -a -m 'Released X.Y.Z' dbus-X.Y.Z".
+
+ - bump the version number up in configure.ac (so the micro version is odd),
+   and commit it.  Make sure you do this *after* tagging the previous
+   release! The idea is that git has a newer version number
+   than anything released. Similarly, bump the version number of
+   dbus-specification.xml and set the release date to "(not finalized)".
+
+ - merge the branch you've released to the chronologically-later
+   branch (usually "master"). You'll probably have to fix a merge
+   conflict in configure.ac (the version number).
+
+ - push your changes and the tag to the central repository with
+     git push origin master dbus-X.Y dbus-X.Y.Z
+
+ - scp your tarball to freedesktop.org server and copy it to
+   dbus.freedesktop.org:/srv/dbus.freedesktop.org/www/releases/dbus/dbus-X.Y.Z.tar.xz.
+   This should be possible if you're in group "dbus"
+
+ - Update the online documentation with `make -C doc maintainer-upload-docs`.
+
+ - update the wiki page http://www.freedesktop.org/Software/dbus by
+   adding the new release under the Download heading. Then, cut the
+   link and changelog for the previous that was there.
+
+ - post to dbus@lists.freedesktop.org announcing the release.
+
+## Making a ".0" stable release
+
+We create a branch for each stable release. The branch name should be
+dbus-X.Y which is a branch that has releases versioned X.Y.Z;
+changes on a stable branch should be limited to significant bug fixes.
+
+Because we won't make minor changes like keeping up with the latest
+deprecations on a stable branch, stable branches should turn off the
+gcc warning for deprecated declarations (e.g. see commit 4ebb275ab7).
+
+Be extra-careful not to merge master (or any branch based on master) into a
+stable branch.
+
+To branch:
+
+    git branch dbus-X.Y
+
+and upload the branch tag to the server:
+
+    git push origin dbus-X.Y
+
+To develop in this branch:
+
+    git checkout dbus-X.Y
-- 
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