Here are the steps to follow to create a new notmuch release. These steps assume that a process (not described here) has already been followed to determine the features and bug fixes to be included in a release, and that adequate testing by the community has already been performed. The little bit of testing performed here is a safety check, and not a substitute for wider testing. OK, so the code to be released is present and committed to your git repository. From here, there are just a few steps to release: 1) Verify that the NEWS file is up to date. Read through the entry at the top of the NEWS file and see if you are aware of any major features recently added that are not mentioned there. If so, please add them, (and ask the authors of the commits to update NEWS in the future). 2) Verify that the library version in lib/Makefile.local is correct See the instructions there for how to increment it. The version should have been updated with any commits that added API _in a non-upwardly compatible_ way, 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 Commit this change, if any. 3) Update the debian/libnotmuchX.symbols file If the library version changed at all (step 2) it probably means that symbols have changed/been added, in which case the debian symbols file also needs to be updated: dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us dpkg-gensymbols -plibnotmuchX | patch -p0 Carefully review the changes to debian/libnotmuch1.symbols to make sure there are no unexpected changes. Remove any debian versions from symbols. Commit this change, if any. 4) Upgrade the version in the file "version" The scheme for the release number is as follows: A major milestone in usability causes an increase in the major number, yielding a two-component version with a minor number of 0, (such as "1.0" or "2.0"). Otherwise, releases with changes in features cause an increase in the minor number, yielding a two-component version, (such as "1.1" or "1.2"). Finally, releases that do not change "features" but are merely bug fixes either increase the micro number or add it (starting at ".1" if not present). So a bug-fix release from "1.0" would be "1.0.1" and a subsequent bug-fix release would be "1.0.2" etc. When you are happy with the file 'version', run make update-versions to propagate the version to the other places needed. Commit these changes. 5) 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. XXX: It would be great if this step were automated as part of release, (taking entries from NEWS and the version from the version file, and creating a new commit, etc.) 6) Run "make release" which will perform the following steps. Note: in order to really upload anything, set the make variable REALLY_UPLOAD=yes * Ensure that the version consists only of digits and periods * Ensure that version and debian/changelog have the same version * 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 no release exists with the current version * Make a signed tag * Generate a tar file from this tag * Generate a .sha1 sum file for the tar file and GPG sign it. * Commit a (delta for a) copy of the tar file using pristine-tar * Tag for the debian version * if REALLY_UPLOAD=yes - push the signed tag to the origin XXX FIXME push debian tag - scp tarball to web site * Provide some text for the release announcement (see below). 7) 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 it again for you.