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+So far, cairo hasn't reached an initial release. But we can still form
+good habits now by practicing the release process with the current
+snapshots.
+
+10 easy steps to creating a new cairo snapshot
+==============================================
+
+1) Commit code with a significant new feature or backwards
+   incompatibility.
+
+	Either of these events triggers the need for a new snapshot.
+	Users of cairo snapshots need to be able to specify snapshot
+	version numbers in order to get access to a specific set of
+	features.
+
+2) Verify that the code passes "make distcheck"
+
+	Running "make distcheck" should result in no warnings or
+	errors and end with a message of the form:
+
+	=============================================
+	cairo-X.Y.Z.tar.gz is ready for distribution
+	=============================================
+
+	(But the tar file isn't actually ready yet, as we still have
+	some more steps to follow).
+
+3) Fill out an entry in the NEWS file
+
+	Sift through the information in ChangeLog since the last
+	snapshot. Summarize major changes briefly in a style similar
+	to other entries in NEWS.
+
+4) Increment CAIRO_VERSION in configure.in
+
+	Right now, in its pre-release form, we are incrementing
+	CAIRO_VERSION for each snapshot but we are not changing the
+	libtool shared library version information. Until now, we've
+	only incremented the sub-minor version. We'll invent rules for
+	incrementing major and minor numbers when the time is right.
+
+5) Commit the changes to NEWS and configure.in
+
+	Don't forget to fill out the ChangeLog just like with any
+	other commit. It's especially important to mention the new
+	version number in the ChangeLog.
+
+6) Run "make distcheck" to generate the final tar file with the
+   correct version number.
+
+7) Copy the resulting tar file to the cairo snapshots distribution
+   directory:
+
+	scp cairo-X.Y.Z-tar.gz cairographics.org:/home/www/cairo/snapshots
+
+8) Tag the entire source tree with a tag of the form SNAPSHOT_X_Y_Z:
+
+	cvs tag SNAPSHOT_X_Y_Z
+
+9) Send a message to cairo-announce@cairographics.org to announce the
+   new snapshot.
+
+	This is as simple as cutting and pasting the new section of
+	the NEWS file into the body of the message.
+
+10) Sit back and relax in confidence, (or brace yourself for a flood
+    of new bug reports). It's up to you!