Alpha release process

From PostgreSQL wiki

Contents 1 Prerequisites 2 Naming 3 Release preparation 4 Announcing

Prerequisites

• Commit fest manager declares commit fest closed
• Build farm status is green, or failures are adequately explained (if widespread breakage, wait for a few days until fixed)

Naming

• 8.5alpha1, 8.5alpha2, etc.

Release preparation

In general, src/tools/RELEASE_CHANGES applies. Exact procedure for alpha releases:

1. Release notes [discussion]
2. Optional: Update timezone data
3. Optional: Translation updates (probably not useful for the first or second alpha)
4. Create CVS branch, e.g., REL8_5_ALPHA1_BRANCH [discussion]
5. Release version number changes
6. Tag in CVS, e.g, REL8_5_ALPHA1
7. Export the CVS tag
8. Build the actual release tarball: make distcheck
9. Ask -hackers to check the tarball for sanity
10. Upload to ftp server (under ~ftp on developer.postgresql.org)

Announcing

Update web page: http://www.postgresql.org/developer/alpha

Announce to:

• PostgreSQL News
• pgsql-announce

For this one, we don't wait for the binaries to be built before announcing. Just make sure that the source tarballs are in place before the announcements go out. This may take a day or three; doesn't really matter.

ReleasePrep contains notes about how to announce a release, which do not apply in their entirety to the alpha process, but are still worth digesting.