
                     ngIRCd - Next Generation IRC Server
                           http://ngircd.barton.de/

               (c)2001-2026 Alexander Barton and Contributors.
               ngIRCd is free software and published under the
                   terms of the GNU General Public License.

                            -- HowToRelease.txt --


I. Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Creating a new ngIRCd release requires a few steps to follow: the source
tree must be in a releasable state (be up to date, include all required
patches, be tested on as many platforms as possible), a name for the new
release must be chosen, and all the files describing the release must be
updated accordingly.

Since ngIRCd release 13 (2009-12-25) we use "simple" release numbers for
major releases (e.g. "13", "17", "42", ...) introducing new features and
sub-releases for bug fixes only (e.g. "14.1", "22.3", ...).

When creating pre-releases or release candidates, please use the tilde ("~")
character to separate the "postfix" in the release number (e.g. "17~rc2"
or "123.4~rc6").

The release/version number of a build is automatically generated using the
GIT "describe" command, see git-describe(1). Therefore it is required that
a new release is tagged in the GIT tree and that the configure script is
up-to-date (e.g. using ./autogen.sh) before generating the archives!


II. How to prepare a new ngIRCd release?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a) Make sure you have working versions of GNU autoconf and GNU automake
   installed on the system you use for generating the release:
   as of May 2020 we are using GNU autoconf 2.69 and GNU automake 1.11.6
   which seem to work just fine.
   NOTE: new releases of GNU automake DO NOT work, as they lack support for
   the "ansi2knr" wrapper and "de-ANSI-fication" support!

b) Make sure the source tree is in a releasable state ;-)
    - Are all branches & patches merged? Check GitHub issues, pull requests
      and milestones!
    - Run as many tests as you can!
    - Is the AUTHORS.md file up to date? This command may be helpful:
      "( grep '>$' AUTHORS.md; git shortlog -se|cut -c8-|sed 's/^/- /' ) \
        | grep -Ev '(alex@barton.de|fw@strlen.de)' \
        | LC_ALL=de_DE.UTF-8 sort -u"

c) Update the files describing the new release:
    - ChangeLog
    - NEWS

d) Update the version numbers in the following files:
    - contrib/de.barton.ngircd.metainfo.xml
    - contrib/ngircd.spec

e) Generate a new Debian change log entry in the following file, e.g. using
   the Debian "dch" tool of the "devscripts" package:
    - contrib/Debian/changelog

f) Commit the above changes to GIT: "git add", "git commit"

g) Create a new signed GIT tag for the new release: "git tag -s".
   Please note that we don't use the tilde ("~") here, instead use a simple
   hyphen ("-") as delimiter: e.g. "rel-16" "rel-17-rc1", "rel-18-pre2", ...

h) Run "./autogen.sh" to update the ./configure script with the correct
   release number (autogenerated using "git describe", see above).

i) Run "./configure" to rebuild all generated Makefiles.

j) Run "make distcheck" (and "make dist-tarZ && make dist-xz") to generate all
   of the distribution archives.

k) Sign the distribution archive(s) using GnuPG: "gpg -b <archivefile>"

l) Upload and distribute the newly generated ngIRCd release archive(s)
   and GnuPG signatures (to the website, its mirrors, and GitHub).

m) Update the ngIRCd website and its mirrors!

n) Write an announcement to the mailing list, Twitter, ...

o) Relax :-)
