X-Git-Url: https://git.notmuchmail.org/git?p=notmuch;a=blobdiff_plain;f=RELEASING;h=99c6d79ecb86812471fab6adefe795ce42ace68a;hp=8e628d7f44f8a361de1f4f591e1a51ee9665fc44;hb=ac3dcac7e6d18b787fc65d02a3aa8db3eba805b4;hpb=8700de6fb77fb0ebd7956be7b0a90443ef3e3989

diff --git a/RELEASING b/RELEASING
index 8e628d7f..99c6d79e 100644
--- a/RELEASING
+++ b/RELEASING
@@ -16,13 +16,16 @@ repository. From here, there are just a few steps to release:
 	not mentioned there. If so, pleas add them, (and ask the
 	authors of the commits to update NEWS in the future).
 
-2) Increment the libnotmuch library version in lib/Makefile.local
+2) Verify that the library version in lib/Makefile.local is correct
 
-	See the instructions there for how to increment it. The
-	command below can be useful for inspecting header-file changes
-	since the last release X.Y.Z:
+	See the instructions there for how to increment it.
 
-		git diff X.Y.Z..HEAD -- lib/notmuch.h
+	The version should have been updated with any commits that
+	added API, but do check that that is the case. The command
+	below can be useful for inspecting header-file changes since
+	the last release X.Y:
+
+		git diff X.Y..HEAD -- lib/notmuch.h
 
 	Note: We currently don't plan to increment
 	LIBNOTMUCH_VERSION_MAJOR beyond 1, so if there *are*
@@ -30,24 +33,38 @@ repository. From here, there are just a few steps to release:
 	stop. Don't release. Figure out the plan on the notmuch
 	mailing list.
 
+	Commit this change, if any.
+
+3) Create an entry for the new release in debian/changelog
+
+	The syntax of this file is tightly restricted, but the
+	available emacs mode (see the dpkg-dev-el package helps).  The
+	entries here will be the Debian-relevant single-line
+	description of changes from the NEWS entry. And the version
+	must match the version in the next step.
+
 	Commit this change.
 
-3) Run "make VERSION=X.Y release" which will perform the following steps:
+	XXX: It would be great if this step were automated as part of
+	release, (taking entries from NEWS and the version from the
+	VERSION, and creating a new commit).
+
+4) Run "make VERSION=X.Y release" which will perform the following steps:
 
    For the X.Y version, we'll generally just increment Y. But for
    major milestones of usability we're increment X as well.
 
+	* Ensure that the caller passed VERSION=X.Y
+	* Verify that the source tree is clean
 	* Compile the current notmuch code (aborting release if it fails)
 	* Run the notmuch test suite (aborting release if it fails)
-	* Check that the notmuch version consists of only two components
-	* Check that no release exists with the current version
-	* Verify that "make dist" completes successfully
 	* Generate the final tar file
-	* Generate an sha1sum file
+	* Generate a .sha1 sum file for the tar file
 	* Sign the sha1sum using your GPG setup (asks for your GPG password)
+	* Check that no release exists with the current version
 	* scp the three files to appear on http://notmuchmail.org/releases
-	* Place local copies of the three files in the releases directory
 	* Create a LATEST-notmuch-version file (after deleting any old one)
+	* Place local copies of the three files in the releases directory
 	* Tag the entire source tree with a tag of the form X.Y.Z, and sign
 	  the tag with your GPG key (asks for your GPG password, and you
 	  may need to set GIT_COMMITTER_NAME and GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL to match
@@ -55,7 +72,7 @@ repository. From here, there are just a few steps to release:
 	* Push that tag
 	* Provide some text for the release announcement (see below).
 
-4) Send a message to notmuch@notmuchmail.org to announce the release.
+5) Send a message to notmuch@notmuchmail.org to announce the release.
 
 	Use the text provided from "make release" above, (if for some
 	reason you lose this message, "make release-message" prints