1 Here are most of the steps we (maintainers) follow when making a release.
3 * start from a clean, up-to-date git directory.
5 git checkout master; git pull
7 * Run ./configure && make maintainer-clean
9 * Ensure that the desired versions of autoconf, automake, bison, etc.
10 are in your PATH. See HACKING for the complete list.
12 * Ensure that you're on "master" with no uncommitted diffs.
13 This should produce no output: git checkout master; git diff
15 * Make sure your local gnulib directory is up to date.
17 * Run bootstrap: ./bootstrap
19 FIXME: enable excluded programs like arch? to get their manual pages?
21 * Pre-release testing:
22 On at least one SELinux-enabled (enforcing) and one non-SELinux system,
23 run all tests, both root-only and regular.
24 Run *all* non-root tests, including expensive and very expensive ones i.e.,
25 run this: make -j1 check RUN_VERY_EXPENSIVE_TESTS=yes RUN_EXPENSIVE_TESTS=yes
27 Run the root-only tests:
28 sudo env PATH="$PATH" NON_ROOT_USERNAME=$USER make -k check-root
30 * Run "make distcheck"
32 * Manually set the date, version number, and [stable/alpha/beta] on
33 line 3 of NEWS, then do e.g.,:
36 git commit -F <(printf 'version '$v'\n\n* NEWS: Record release date.\n') -a
37 git tag -s -m "coreutils $v" v$v HEAD
39 * Run the following to create release tarballs. Your choice selects the
40 corresponding upload-to destination in the emitted gnupload command.
41 The different destinations are specified in cfg.mk. See the definitions
42 of gnu_ftp_host-{alpha,beta,major}.
44 # "TYPE" must be major, beta or alpha
47 * Test the tarball. copy it to a few odd-ball systems and ensure that
48 it builds and passes all tests.
50 * While that's happening, write the release announcement that you will
53 Once all the builds and tests have passed,
55 * Run the gnupload command that was suggested by your "make major" run above.
57 * Wait a few minutes (maybe up to 30?) and then use the release URLs to
58 download all tarball/signature pairs and use gpg --verify to ensure
59 that they're all valid.
62 git push origin tag v<JUST_RELEASED_VERSION_NUMBER>
64 * Send the gpg-signed announcement mail, e.g.,
65 To: info-gnu@gnu.org, coreutils-announce@gnu.org
66 Cc: coordinator@translationproject.org, bug-coreutils@gnu.org
67 Subject: coreutils-7.1 released [stable]
69 * Approve the announcement here:
70 http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/admindb/coreutils-announce
72 * Announce it on Savannah, too:
74 https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/coreutils/
75 click on the "submit news", then write something like the following:
77 Subject: coreutils-7.2 released [stable]
78 The announcement is here:
79 http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.core-utils.announce/49
81 Then go here to approve it:
82 https://savannah.gnu.org/news/approve.php?group=coreutils
84 * After each non-alpha release, update the on-line manual accessible via
86 http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/
88 by running the gnu-web-doc-update script.