Instructions to create pretest or release tarballs.
-- originally written by Gerd Moellmann, amended by Francesco Potort́
   with the initial help of Eli Zaretskii

For each step, check for possible errors.

1.  `bzr update' (for a bound branch), or `bzr pull'.
     bzr status # check for locally modified files

2.  Bootstrap to make 100% sure all elc files are up-to-date, and to
    make sure that the later tagged version will bootstrap, should it be
    necessary to check it out.

3.  Regenerate Emacs' etc/AUTHORS file (M-x load-file RET
    lisp/emacs-lisp/authors.el RET, then M-x authors RET, then save
    the *Authors* buffer).  This may require fixing syntactically
    incorrect ChangeLog entries beforehand.

4.  Set the version number (M-x load-file RET admin/admin.el RET, then
    M-x set-version RET).  For a release, add released change log
    entries (M-x add-release-logs RET).

    For a pretest, start at version .90.  After .99, use .990 (so that
    it sorts).

    If needed, increment the value of the variable
    `customize-changed-options-previous-release' in cus-edit.el to
    refer to a newer release of Emacs.  (This is probably needed only
    when preparing a major Emacs release, or branching for it.)

5.   autoreconf -i -I m4 --force
     make bootstrap

6.  Commit etc/AUTHORS, all the files changed by M-x set-version, and
    lisp/cus-edit.el (if modified).
    Copy lisp/loaddefs.el to lisp/ldefs-boot.el and commit lisp/ldefs-boot.el.
    For a release, also commit the ChangeLog files in all directories.

7.   make-dist --snapshot.  Check the contents of the new tar with
    admin/diff-tar-files against an older tar file.  Some old pretest
    tarballs may be found at <ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest>;
    old release tarballs are at <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/>.

    If this is the first pretest of a major release, just comparing
    with the previous release may overlook many new files.  You can try
    something like `find . | sort' in a clean bzr tree, and compare the
    results against the new tar contents.

8.   xdelta delta emacs-OLD.tar.gz emacs-NEW.tar.gz emacs-OLD-NEW.xdelta

9.   tar -zxf emacs-NEW.tar.gz; cd emacs-NEW
     ./configure && make && make -n install
    Use `script' or M-x compile to save the compilation log in
    compile-NEW.log and compare it against an old one.  The easiest way
    to do that is to visit the old log in Emacs, change the version
    number of the old Emacs to __, do the same with the new log and do
    M-x ediff.  Especially check that Info files aren't built.

10.  cd EMACS_ROOT_DIR; bzr tag TAG
    TAG is EMACS_PRETEST_XX_YY_ZZZ for a pretest, EMACS_XX_YY for a
    release.

    Shortly before the release, cut the version branch also, and open
    a Savannah support request asking for commits to the new branch to
    be sent to the emacs-diffs mailing list (by default, the list
    normally only gets commits to the trunk).

11. Now you should upload the files to the GNU ftp server.  In order to
    do that, you must be registered as an Emacs maintainer and have your
    GPG key acknowledged by the ftp people.  Mail <ftp-upload@gnu.org>
    for instructions.

    You can use the gnupload script to upload each FILE, like this:
     gnupload --to alpha.gnu.org:emacs/pretest FILE (for a pretest)
     gnupload --to ftp.gnu.org:emacs FILE           (for a release)

    Instead of using gnupload, for each FILE, create a detached GPG
    binary signature and a clearsigned directive file like this:
     gpg -b FILE
     echo directory: emacs/pretest > FILE.directive      (for a pretest)
     echo directory: emacs > FILE.directive              (for a release)
     gpg --clearsign FILE.directive
    Upload by anonymous ftp to ftp://ftp-upload.gnu.org/ the files FILE,
    FILE.sig, FILE.directive.asc.
    For a release, place the files in the /incoming/ftp directory.
    For a pretest, place the files in /incoming/alpha instead, so that
    they appear on ftp://alpha.gnu.org/.

    For a release, upload a bz2 tarfile as well; this can save a lot
    of bandwidth.

12. After five minutes, verify that the files are visible at
    ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest/ for a pretest, at
    ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/ for a release.

13. For a pretest, announce it on emacs-devel and BCC the pretesters.
    For a release, announce it on info-gnu@gnu.org,
    info-gnu-emacs@gnu.org, and emacs-devel.

14. For a release, update the Emacs homepage in the web repository.
    Also add the new NEWS file as NEWS.xx.y.