[Gimp-developer] Release procedure (was: Testers requested for our new Mac OS X DMG release!)

[Sven Claussner <scl gplus gmail com>]

On  10.1.2016 at 1:11 AM Alexandre Prokoudine wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 4, 2016 at 11:23 AM, Kristian Rietveld wrote:
>> On 31 Dec 2015, at 14:13, scl <scl gplus gmail com> wrote:
> > > - @GIMP team: I remember that at the time I was more active
> > > new versions came out of a sudden when Mitch had time to
> > > bump a release and the releases were made later. This has the
> > > effect that users who read the announcement have to wait
> > > again and thus are disappointed after a long period of waiting
> > > for a release.
> > > How about reorganizing the process of release builds and
> > > version announcements by
> > > 1. negotiating a release date internally,
> > > 2. completing the release docs (NEWS, 
> > > http://wiki.gimp.org/index.php?title=Special%3APrefixIndex&prefix=Release%3A&namespace=0)
> > > 3. bumping the version number,
> > > 4. making and testing the builds and
> > > 5. as last step announcing the release?
> >
> > More coordinated releases would be a good thing to have IMHO. Releasing Windows & Mac binaries and perhaps 
> > Debian/Ubuntu and Fedora packages at the same time as a new tarball release would be great.
> Hence I'd like to propose the following change to the release policy,
> using Sven's proposal as a basis:
>
> 1. Negotiate a release date between mitch (GIMP maintainer), pippin
> (GEGL/babl maintainer), Jernej (Win builds), and Kris (OSX builds).
>
> 2. Finalize a list of changes that should be covered in the user
> manual and in the docs for developers.
>
> 3. Announce a strings freeze at least a month before releasing to give
> translators and docs writers do their job.
>
> 4. Complete all release related docs.
>
> 5. Bump version number for both GEGL/babl, GIMP, and gimp-help.
>
> 6. Make and test all builds for all supported systems.
>
> 7. Update the 'testing' branch of the website (download links,
> announcements), update docs.gimp.org, check everything.
>
> 8. Merge all changes from the 'testing' branch into the 'master' branch of wgo.
>
> 9. Announce.
>
> To specifically aid #2, since December, there's a changelog targeted
> at user manual writers:
>
> http://wiki.gimp.org/wiki/Release:2.10_changelog
>
> Needless to say, it's WIP, but it's getting there.

lately in IRC the idea of documenting and scripting our deployment
processes at LGM came up. I support this idea and like to bring up the
topic of rethinking our release procedure again. It would be nice
if you could discuss it at LGM. Well, I'm not attending LGM but
if you need me I'm ready to take the time and be there in our chat room
or answer by mail.

Greetings

Sven