Making a Release of Banter

If you're used to doing this, it'll probably take about an hour to make a Banter release. If you hit a glitch, who knows how long it will take, so plan accordingly.

• Announce in #banter that you're about to make a release so they'll stop committing code in trunk (although you may get someone who begs you for a few more minutes for a last-minute-super-risky change)

• Update to the latest code svn up

• Update the NEWS file

  • This is one occasion where the ChangeLog file is your friend.

  • Keep the NEWS file mostly non-technical in nature. You don't have to add every single thing from the ChangeLog, only the things that would mean the most to end-users. Serious technical issues should be omitted from the NEWS file. Bugs (with the number), are useful however.

• Build a test tarball

  • Run: make distcheck

  • make distcheck must succeed. Do not make a release if this step fails. Take the time to fix any problems that arise. You'll thank yourself later.

• Test the banter-x.y.z.tar.gz file that is generated

  • tar xzvf banter-x.y.z
    cd banter-x.y.z
    ./configure --prefix=/tmp/banter-x.y.z
    make
    make install
    /tmp/banter-x.y.z/bin/banter  (this should run banter w/o issues)

• If everything worked in the test tarball, commit the NEW news file (updating the ChangeLog file at the same time).

• Build the official tarball

  • Run: make distcheck

  • Good idea to test this tarball too
• Tag the code in SVN

  • svn copy svn+ssh://<username>@svn.gnome.org/svn/banter/trunk svn+ssh://<username>@svn.gnome.org/svn/banter/tags/BANTER_X_Y_Z

  • The tag should be in the following format: BANTER_{MAJOR}_{MINOR}_{RELEASE}

  • e.g., BANTER_0_1_0

  • Good idea to double-check that the directories/files look fine inside of the tag: http://svn.gnome.org/viewcvs/banter/tags/

• Bump the version one revision in configure.ac and commit it (complete with ChangeLog entry)

  • e.g., 0.1.0 -> 0.1.1

  • This allows others to start developing in trunk again
• Install the tarball on master.gnome.org

  • md5sum banter-x.y.z    (note the value, you'll use it later)
    scp banter-x.y.z {your-GNOME-username}@master.gnome.org:.
    ssh {your-GNOME-username}@master.gnome.org
    md5sum banter-x.y.z    (make sure it matches with the MD5 on your machine)
    install-module banter-x.y.z    (follow instructions, usually just answer Y)

  • If this step is successful, you should see the tar.gz and tar.bz2 appear here (after a few minutes): http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/banter/

• Send an ANNOUNCE email:
  • Subject: ANNOUNCE: Banter X.Y.Z Released!

  • Cc: banter-list@gnome.org, gnome-announce-list@gnome.org, mono-announce-list@lists.ximian.com, telepathy@lists.freedesktop.org

  • Grab the content from a previous announcement and adjust accordingly
  • Make sure to mention changes that would affect packagers

• Update the Download web page

• You're done! WHEW!