tor/doc/HACKING/ReleasingTor.txt

Putting out a new release
-------------------------

Here are the steps Roger takes when putting out a new Tor release:

1) Use it for a while, as a client, as a relay, as a hidden service,
and as a directory authority. See if it has any obvious bugs, and
resolve those.

1.5) As applicable, merge the maint-X branch into the release-X branch.

2) Gather the changes/* files into a changelog entry, rewriting many
of them and reordering to focus on what users and funders would find
interesting and understandable.

   2.1) Make sure that everything that wants a bug number has one.
        Make sure that everything which is a bugfix says what version
        it was a bugfix on.
   2.2) Concatenate them.
   2.3) Sort them by section. Within each section, sort by "version it's
        a bugfix on", else by numerical ticket order.

   2.4) Clean them up:

   Standard idioms:
     "Fixes bug 9999; bugfix on 0.3.3.3-alpha."

   One space after a period.

   Make stuff very terse

   Make sure each section name ends with a colon

   Describe the user-visible problem right away

   Mention relevant config options by name.  If they're rare or unusual,
   remind people what they're for

   Avoid starting lines with open-paren

   Present and imperative tense: not past.

   'Relays', not 'servers' or 'nodes' or 'Tor relays'.

   "Stop FOOing", not "Fix a bug where we would FOO".

   Try not to let any given section be longer than about a page. Break up
   long sections into subsections by some sort of common subtopic. This
   guideline is especially important when organizing Release Notes for
   new stable releases.

   If a given changes stanza showed up in a different release (e.g.
   maint-0.2.1), be sure to make the stanzas identical (so people can
   distinguish if these are the same change).

   2.5) Merge them in.

   2.6) Clean everything one last time.

   2.7) Run ./scripts/maint/format_changelog.py to make it prettier.

3) Compose a short release blurb to highlight the user-facing
changes. Insert said release blurb into the ChangeLog stanza. If it's
a stable release, add it to the ReleaseNotes file too. If we're adding
to a release-0.2.x branch, manually commit the changelogs to the later
git branches too.

4) In maint-0.2.x, bump the version number in configure.ac and run
   scripts/maint/updateVersions.pl to update version numbers in other
   places, and commit.  Then merge maint-0.2.x into release-0.2.x.

   (NOTE: TO bump the version number, edit configure.ac, and then run
   either make, or 'perl scripts/maint/updateVersions.pl', depending on
   your version.)

5) Make dist, put the tarball up somewhere, and tell #tor about it. Wait
a while to see if anybody has problems building it. Try to get Sebastian
or somebody to try building it on Windows.

6) Get at least two of weasel/arma/sebastian to put the new version number
in their approved versions list.

7) Sign the tarball, then sign and push the git tag:
  gpg -ba <the_tarball>
  git tag -u <keyid> tor-0.2.x.y-status
  git push origin tag tor-0.2.x.y-status

8a) scp the tarball and its sig to the dist website, i.e.
/srv/dist-master.torproject.org/htdocs/ on dist-master. When you want
it to go live, you run "static-update-component dist.torproject.org"
on dist-master.

8b) Edit "include/versions.wmi" and "Makefile" to note the new version.

9) Email the packagers (cc'ing tor-assistants) that a new tarball is up.
   The current list of packagers is:
       {weasel,gk,mikeperry} at torproject dot org
       {blueness} at gentoo dot org
       {paul} at invizbox dot io
       {ondrej.mikle} at gmail dot com
       {lfleischer} at archlinux dot org

10) Add the version number to Trac.  To do this, go to Trac, log in,
select "Admin" near the top of the screen, then select "Versions" from
the menu on the left.  At the right, there will be an "Add version"
box.  By convention, we enter the version in the form "Tor:
0.2.2.23-alpha" (or whatever the version is), and we select the date as
the date in the ChangeLog.

11) Forward-port the ChangeLog.

12) Wait up to a day or two (for a development release), or until most
packages are up (for a stable release), and mail the release blurb and
changelog to tor-talk or tor-announce.

  (We might be moving to faster announcements, but don't announce until
  the website is at least updated.)

13) If it's a stable release, bump the version number in the maint-x.y.z
    branch to "newversion-dev", and do a "merge -s ours" merge to avoid
    taking that change into master.  Do a similar 'merge -s theirs'
    merge to get the change (and only that change) into release.  (Some
    of the build scripts require that maint merge cleanly into release.)