HOWTO-Release

How to make a ScummVM release.

This is work in progress and needs to be completed!

Preparations

• Making the release plan
• Telling people about it, making sure everybody knows what is going on

Testing & Branching

• Identify release critical (show stopper) bugs and get people to fix them.
• Identify other important bugs and get people to fix them.
• Get even more people to fix all the other bugs, if possible :-).
• Get people to do lots of testing, possibly by asking for help via a news item.
• Collect all that information (e.g. in the Wiki). See Release Testing

Preparing the source

• You have to update the versions in all relevant files. There is a script, tools/update-version.pl meant to help you with this. It will generate/update the following files:
  • base/internal_version.h
  • dists/macosx/Info.plist
  • dists/redhat/scummvm.spec
  • dists/scummvm.rc
• In addition, review the following files for version and copyright year updates:
  • README
  • NEWS
• Make sure package descriptions are up-to-date:
  • dists/redhat/scummvm.spec
• Make source tarballs, post them in the SF.net FRS.
  • There is a script toolsdist-scummvm.sh, which does this automatically.

Binaries

• Get porters to make binaries.
  • Porter must follow our filename convention, which goes like this: "scummvm-VERSION-PORT.EXTENSION". For example: "scummvm-1.0.0-macosx.dmg". Do not use special names like "EScummVM" or "ScummVMDS". The only exclusion from this requirement is Debian.
  • Here is a list of files porters should include in their release archives:
    • AUTHORS
    • COPYING
    • NEWS
    • README (generic ScummVM one)
    • modern.zip (if your port uses new GUI)
    • modern.ini (if your port uses new GUI)
    • pred.dic (from dists directory)
    • kyra.dat (from engine-data/tags/release-X-Y-Z module)
    • queen.tbl (from engine-data/tags/release-X-Y-Z module)
    • sky.cpt (from engine-data/tags/release-X-Y-Z module)
    • your build binary
    • your build-specific README (optional)
    • ...
• Update the website internally (i.e. update the version in the repository), but do not yet put these changes online.

News & Notification

Write a news blurb (or rather multiple to be used in the following). Usually, you want a bit longer one for the website, a list for Versiontracker, something with proper english sentences for Freshmeat, etc....

• Write a news item for our website (and as template for news items on other sites).
• Update documentation page to link to the new README.
• Update link to release notes (on downloads.php) to point to the correct new release notes in the SF.net FRS.
• Update / notify various sites:
  • Create a SF.net news item (Ender, Fingolfin, Sev, ...)
  • Freshmeat (Ender, Fingolfin, ...)
  • Versiontracker.com (Fingolfin)
  • Update heise software directory (Fingolfin)
  • ... more ?
• Put the updated web site online
• In the File Release System, use the "Notify" feature to make sure everybody who's interested in new releases gets a mail