docs: Update instructions for creating a release

This captures all of the steps I have been following in making releases for
the past year or so. This way, the instructions should be sound for anyone who
would like to take over the release process going forward.

1 files changed, 180 insertions, 30 deletions

diff --git a/docs/devinfo.html b/docs/devinfo.html
index e173b550bc2..8d20eea3c56 100644
--- a/docs/devinfo.html
+++ b/docs/devinfo.html
@@ -315,64 +315,205 @@ These are the instructions for making a new Mesa release.
 <h3>Get latest source files</h3>
 <p>
 Use git to get the latest Mesa files from the git repository, from whatever
-branch is relevant.
+branch is relevant. This document uses the convention X.Y.Z for the release
+being created, which should be created from a branch named X.Y.
 </p>
 
+<h3>Perform basic testing</h3>
+<p>
+The release manager should, at the very least, test the code by compiling it,
+installing it, and running the latest piglit to ensure that no piglit tests
+have regressed since the previous release.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The release manager should do this testing with at least one hardware driver,
+(say, whatever is contained in the local development machine), as well as on
+both Gallium and non-Gallium software drivers. The software testing can be
+performed by running piglit with the following environment-variable set:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1
+</pre>
+
+And Gallium vs. non-Gallium software drivers can be obtained by using the
+following configure flags on separate builds:
+
+<pre>
+--with-dri-drivers=swrast
+--with-gallium-drivers=swrast
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+Note: If both options are given in one build, both swrast_dri.so drivers will
+be compiled, but only one will be installed. The following command can be used
+to ensure the correct driver is being tested:
+</p>
 
-<h3>Verify and update version info in VERSION</h3>
+<pre>
+LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 glxinfo | grep "renderer string"
+</pre>
+
+If any regressions are found in this testing with piglit, stop here, and do
+not perform a release until regressions are fixed.
+
+<h3>Update version in file VERSION</h3>
 
 <p>
-Create a docs/relnotes/x.y.z.html file.
-The bin/bugzilla_mesa.sh and bin/shortlog_mesa.sh scripts can be used to
-create the HTML-formatted lists of bugfixes and changes to include in the file.
-Link the new docs/relnotes/x.y.z.html file into the main <a href="relnotes.html">relnotes.html</a> file.
+Increment the version contained in the file VERSION at Mesa's top-level, then
+commit this change.
 </p>
 
+<h3>Create release notes for the new release</h3>
+
 <p>
-Update <a href="index.html">docs/index.html</a>.
+Create a new file docs/relnotes/X.Y.Z.html, (follow the style of the previous
+release notes). Note that the sha256sums section of the release notes should
+be empty at this point.
 </p>
 
 <p>
-Tag the files with the release name (in the form <b>mesa-x.y</b>)
-with: <code>git tag -s mesa-x.y -m "Mesa x.y Release"</code>
-Then: <code>git push origin mesa-x.y</code>
+Two scripts are available to help generate portions of the release notes:
+
+<pre>
+	./bin/bugzilla_mesa.sh
+	./bin/shortlog_mesa.sh
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+The first script identifies commits that reference bugzilla bugs and obtains
+the descriptions of those bugs from bugzilla. The second script generates a
+log of all commits. In both cases, HTML-formatted lists are printed to stdout
+to be included in the release notes.
 </p>
 
+<p>
+Commit these changes
+</p>
 
-<h3>Make the tarballs</h3>
+<h3>Make the release archives, signatures, and the release tag</h3>
 <p>
-Make the distribution files.  From inside the Mesa directory:
+From inside the Mesa directory:
 <pre>
 	./autogen.sh
-	make tarballs
+	make -j1 tarballs
 </pre>
 
 <p>
-After the tarballs are created, the md5 checksums for the files will
-be computed.
-Add them to the docs/relnotes/x.y.html file.
+After the tarballs are created, the sha256 checksums for the files will
+be computed and printed. These will be used in a step below.
 </p>
 
 <p>
-Copy the distribution files to a temporary directory, unpack them,
-compile everything, and run some demos to be sure everything works.
+It's important at this point to also verify that the constructed tar file
+actually builds:
 </p>
 
-<h3>Update the website and announce the release</h3>
+<pre>
+	tar xjf MesaLib-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2
+	cd Mesa-X.Y.Z
+	./configure --enable-gallium-llvm
+	make -j6
+	make install
+</pre>
+
 <p>
-Make a new directory for the release on annarchy.freedesktop.org with:
-<br>
-<code>
-mkdir /srv/ftp.freedesktop.org/pub/mesa/x.y
-</code>
+Some touch testing should also be performed at this point, (run glxgears or
+more involved OpenGL programs against the installed Mesa).
 </p>
 
 <p>
-Basically, to upload the tarball files with:
-<br>
-<code>
-rsync -avP -e ssh MesaLib-x.y.* [email protected]:/srv/ftp.freedesktop.org/pub/mesa/x.y/
-</code>
+Create detached GPG signatures for each of the archive files created above:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+	gpg --sign --detach MesaLib-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
+	gpg --sign --detach MesaLib-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2
+	gpg --sign --detach MesaLib-X.Y.Z.zip
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+Tag the commit used for the build:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+	git tag -s mesa-X.Y.X -m "Mesa X.Y.Z release"
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+Note: It would be nice to investigate and fix the issue that causes the
+tarballs target to fail with multiple build process, such as with "-j4". It
+would also be nice to incorporate all of the above commands into a single
+makefile target. And instead of a custom "tarballs" target, we should
+incorporate things into the standard "make dist" and "make distcheck" targets.
+</p>
+
+<h3>Add the sha256sums to the release notes</h3>
+
+<p>
+Edit docs/relnotes/X.Y.Z.html to add the sha256sums printed as part of "make
+tarballs" in the previous step. Commit this change.
+</p>
+
+<h3>Push all commits and the tag creates above</h3>
+
+<p>
+This is the first step that cannot easily be undone. The release is going
+forward from this point:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+	git push origin X.Y --tags
+</pre>
+
+<h3>Install the release files and signatures on the distribution server</h3>
+
+<p>
+The following commands can be used to copy the release archive files and
+signatures to the freedesktop.org server:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+	scp MesaLib-X.Y.Z* people.freedesktop.org:
+	ssh people.freedesktop.org
+	cd /srv/ftp.freedesktop.org/pub/mesa
+	mkdir X.Y.Z
+	cd X.Y.Z
+	mv ~/MesaLib-X.Y.Z* .
+</pre>
+
+<h3>Back on mesa master, andd the new release notes into the tree</h3>
+
+<p>
+Something like the following steps will do the trick:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+	cp docs/relnotes/X.Y.Z.html /tmp
+        git checkout master
+        cp /tmp/X.Y.Z.html docs/relnotes
+        git add docs/relnotes/X.Y.Z.html
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+Also, edit docs/relnotes.html to add a link to the new release notes, and edit
+docs/index.html to add a news entry. Then commit and push:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+	git commit -a -m "docs: Import X.Y.Z release notes, add news item."
+        git push origin
+</pre>
+
+<h3>Update the mesa3d.org website</h3>
+
+<p>
+NOTE: The recent release managers have not been performing this step
+themselves, but leaving this to Brian Paul, (who has access to the
+sourceforge.net hosting for mesa3d.org). Brian is more than willing to grant
+the permission necessary to future release managers to do this step on their
+own.
 </p>
 
 <p>
@@ -384,13 +525,22 @@ sftp USERNAME,[email protected]
 </code>
 </p>
 
+
+<h3>Announce the release</h3>
 <p>
 Make an announcement on the mailing lists:
 
 <em>[email protected]</em>,
-<em>[email protected]</em>
 and
 <em>[email protected]</em>
+
+Follow the template of previously-sent release announcements. The following
+command can be used to generate the log of changes to be included in the
+release announcement:
+
+<pre>
+	git shortlog mesa-X.Y.Z-1..mesa-X.Y.Z
+</pre>
 </p>
 
 </div>