Making a release should be easy

Making a release is too hard. I want to simplify this. I have no idea at all on what needs to be done, but I want everything automated.

See also MaintainersCorner/Releasing

The release script should:

Detect or have a config file for pre-release/post-release incrementing
Should default to release a new minor version (2.13.x+1 or 2.12.x+1)
Update the version number everywhere
Write the NEWS file by parsing Bugzilla/ChangeLog/whatever + translations
Run distcheck and ensure it doesn't fail
Do CVS commit
Tag it
Upload it to master.gnome.org using sftp
Run install-module on master.gnome.org
Send announcement mail
Perhaps hardcode module specific stuff (GNOME version in gnome-desktop)
whatever I forgot / don't know about

VincentUntz: I have a script that does most of this. I'll publish it as soon as I find time.

GoranRakic: This and this scripts are mentioned on MaintainersCorner/Releasing wiki page.

{{{kmaraas fatalerror, releasing 6 modules on the same day can cause some confusion yea bkor ./release-this-stuff ? kmaraas bkor, there's always some degree of manual intervention needed fatalerror no, that's inefficient! bkor kmaraas: why? fatalerror write a python script that uses libjustdoit kmaraas fatalerror, one more thing, vte doesn't pass make distcheck kmaraas fatalerror, would be nice to have that fixed kmaraas bkor, because sometimes it fails during distcheck fatalerror kmaraas: calm down, today I'm only hijacking gnome-terminal kmaraas bkor, and then you have to update NEWS files etc fatalerror kmaraas: vte is for tomorrow =D kmaraas fatalerror, yeah, so now you know kmaraas man foo fighters is one rockin' live band bkor kmaraas: distcheck will be caught by the cluster of tinderboxes kmaraas bkor, we have that now?! bkor kmaraas: NEWS.. hmm.. can't that be largely automated too? find bug numbers from changelog, fetch maybe status whiteboard or something, put that in NEWS bkor kmaraas: 1-2 weeks, have to email the board kmaraas bkor, if you have the scripting knowledge sure kmaraas bkor, if you write the release-module script please mail it to me bkor it sounds like a fun thing to make kmaraas bkor, 'release < module-list.txt' kmaraas bkor, which also uploads the finished tarballs to window.gnome.org and sends an announcement to the right lists etc kmaraas and maybe even runs the install-module script on the server bkor kmaraas: of course.. it should abort if something fails kmaraas sure bkor otherwise it should do everything kmaraas and tell you how to fix it kmaraas bkor get prompt back = done! fatalerror libjustdoit! greg bkor: Unix Philosophy fatalerror import justdoit fatalerror justdoit.just_do_it() greg bkor: no output means no problems kmaraas bkor, that would let a lot of developers spend their time on more important tasks * rob has quit (Remote closed the connection)}}}