RELEASES.md: describe the release process

Signed-off-by: Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos <nmav@gnutls.org>

1 files changed, 26 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/RELEASES.md b/RELEASES.md
index c0a840c2c5..5922814900 100644
--- a/RELEASES.md
+++ b/RELEASES.md
@@ -16,3 +16,29 @@ cases change the API.
 |:----:|:-----:|:--------------:|
 |stable|3.6.x  |bi-monthly      |
 |next  |-      |                |
+
+
+# Release process
+
+ 0. Create a new 'milestone' for the next release and move all issues present in the
+    current release milestone.
+ 1. Verification of release notes: ensure that release notes ([NEWS](NEWS)) exist
+    for this release, and include all significant changes since last release.
+ 2. Update of release date in [NEWS](NEWS), and bump of version number in
+    [configure.ac](configure.ac) as well as soname numbers in [m4/hooks.m4](m4/hooks.m4).
+ 3. make distcheck
+ 4. git tag -s $(VERSION). The 3.6.12 was including both the 3.6.12 and
+    gnutls_3_6_12 tags, but it may make sense to only use the version from
+    now on.
+ 5. git push && git push --tags
+ 6. make dist && gpg --sign --detach gnutls-$(VERSION).tar.xz
+ 7. scp gnutls-$(VERSION).tar.xz* trithemius.gnupg.org:/home/ftp/gcrypt/v3.6/
+ 8. Create and send announcement email based on previously sent email to the list and
+    [NEWS](NEWS) file.
+ 9. Create a NEWS entry at [web-pages repository](https://gitlab.com/gnutls/web-pages/-/tree/master/news-entries),
+    and/or [a security advisory entry](https://gitlab.com/gnutls/web-pages/-/tree/master/security-entries)
+    if necessary. The NEWS entry is usually pointing to the announcement email.
+    A commit auto-generates the [gnutls web site](https://gnutls.gitlab.io/web-pages/)
+    which is mirrored twice a day by www.gnutls.org.
+10. Use the @GnuTLS twitter account to announce the release.
+11. Close the current release milestone.