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. A new snapshot is needed whenever significant new features or bug fixes are committed. Here are the steps to follow: 1) Ensure that there are no local, uncommitted modifications. The best thing to do here may be to begin with a fresh checkout from CVS: cvs -d cairographics.org:/cvs/cairo co cairo But it's probably good enough if "cvs -q update -Ad" generates no output. 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-head archives ready for distribution: caioo-X.Y.Z-head.tar.gz ================================================== (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. Take special care to note any incompatible changes in the API. These should be easy to find by looking for cairo*.h in the ChangeLog. Additionally, the output of the following command should be examined using the previous snapshot tag: cvs diff -r SNAPSHOT_X_Y_Z src/*.h [Hmm, it would be nice to have a pattern for that command that would exclude private header files.] 4) Increment CAIRO_VERSION in configure.in First, remove the "-head" suffix, then increment the version as follows: If there are backward-incompatible changes in the API, (function removals, or semantic changes), increment the minor number and reset the sub-minor number to 0. Otherwise, (that is, if there are only bug fixes and perhaps API additions), then increment only the sub-minor number. Prior to the initial "1.0" release of cairo, leave the major number at 0. Also, do not modify the "libtool shared library version" variables, (LT_CURRENT, LT_VERSION, LT_AGE). 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 release-publish" which will perform the following steps for you: * Check that no release exists with the current version * Verify that make distcheck completes successfully * Generate the final tar file * Generate an md5sum file * scp both files to appear on http://cairographics.org/snapshots * Create a LATEST-package-version file (after deleting any old one) * Place local copies of both files in the releases directory * Provide some text for the release announcement (see below). 7) Tag the entire source tree with a tag of the form SNAPSHOT_X_Y_Z: cvs tag SNAPSHOT_X_Y_Z 8) Add a "-head" to CAIRO_VERSION in configure, and commit. 9) Send a message to cairo-announce@cairographics.org to announce the new snapshot using the text provided from "make release-publish".