Back out my temporary edit of the FAQ, to make it once again

[u/mdw/putty] / CHECKLST.txt

Checklists for PuTTY administrative procedures
==============================================

Locations of the licence
------------------------

The PuTTY copyright notice and licence are stored in quite a few
places. At the start of a new year, the copyright year needs
updating in all of them; and when someone sends a massive patch,
their name needs adding in all of them too.

The LICENCE file in the main source distribution:

 - putty/LICENCE

The resource files:

 - putty/pageant.rc
    + the copyright date appears twice, once in the About box and
      once in the Licence box. Don't forget to change both!
 - putty/puttygen.rc
    + the copyright date appears twice, once in the About box and
      once in the Licence box. Don't forget to change both!
 - putty/win_res.rc
    + the copyright date appears twice, once in the About box and
      once in the Licence box. Don't forget to change both!
 - putty/mac/mac_res.r
 - putty/unix/gtkdlg.c
    + the copyright date appears twice, once in the About box and
      once in the Licence box. Don't forget to change both!

The documentation (both the preamble blurb and the licence appendix):

 - putty/doc/blurb.but
 - putty/doc/licence.but

The website:

 - putty-website/licence.html

Before tagging a release
------------------------

For a long time we got away with never checking the current version
number into CVS at all - all version numbers were passed into the
build system on the compiler command line, and the _only_ place
version numbers showed up in CVS was in the tag information.

Unfortunately, those halcyon days are gone, and we do need the
version number in CVS in a couple of places. These must be updated
_before_ tagging a new release.

The file used to generate the Unix snapshot version numbers (which
are <previousrelease>-<date> so that the Debian versioning system
orders them correctly with respect to releases):

 - putty/LATEST.VER

The Windows installer script:

 - putty/putty.iss

The Mac resource file (used to generate the binary bit of the 'vers'
resources -- the strings are supplied by the usual means):

 - putty/mac/version.r

It might also be worth going through the documentation looking for
version numbers - we have a couple of transcripts showing the help
text from the command-line tools, and it would be nice to ensure the
whole transcripts (certainly including the version numbers) are up
to date.

 - putty/doc/pscp.but
 - putty/doc/plink.but
 - putty/doc/psftp.but (in case it ever acquires a similar thing)

The actual release procedure
----------------------------

This is the procedure I (SGT) currently follow (or _should_ follow
:-) when actually making a release, once I'm happy with the position
of the tag.

 - Write a release announcement (basically a summary of the changes
   since the last release). Squirrel it away in
   ixion:src/putty/local/announce-<ver> in case it's needed again
   within days of the release going out.

 - On my local machines, check out the release-tagged version of the
   sources.
    + Make sure to run mkfiles.pl _after_ this checkout, just in
      case.

 - Build the Windows/x86 release binaries. Don't forget to supply
   VER=/DRELEASE=<ver>. Run them, or at least one or two of them, to
   ensure that they really do report their version number correctly.
    + Save the release link maps. Currently I keep these on ixion,
      in src/putty/local/maps-<version>.

 - Acquire the Windows/alpha release binaries from Owen.
    + Verify the snapshot-key signatures on these, to ensure they're
      really the ones he built. If I'm going to snapshot-sign a zip
      file I make out of these, I'm damn well going to make sure the
      binaries that go _into_ it were snapshot-signed themselves.
    + Make sure Owen has kept the Alpha release link maps somewhere
      useful.

 - Run Halibut to build the docs.

 - Build the .zip files.
    + The binary archive putty.zip just contains all the .exe files
      except PuTTYtel, and the .hlp and .cnt files.
    + The source archive putty-src.zip is fiddly to build, so it's
      done by the shell script mksrcarc.sh. First check out the
      release sources in a pristine directory (to avoid cluttering
      the zip file with irrelevant stuff), then run mksrcarc.sh in
      that directory.
    + The docs archive puttydoc.zip contains all the HTML files
      output from Halibut.

 - Build the installer.

 - Sign the release (gpg --detach-sign).
    + Sign the locally built x86 binaries, the locally built x86
      binary zipfile, and the locally built x86 installer, with the
      release keys.
    + The Alpha binaries should already have been signed with the
      snapshot keys. Having checked that, sign the Alpha binary
      zipfile with the snapshot keys too.
    + The source archive should be signed with the release keys.
    + Don't forget to sign with both DSA and RSA keys for absolutely
      everything.

 - Begin to pull together the release directory structure.
    + subdir `x86' containing the x86 binaries, x86 binary zip, x86
      installer, and all signatures on the above.
    + subdir `alpha' containing the Alpha binaries, Alpha binary
      zip, and all signatures on the above.
    + top-level dir contains the source zip (plus signatures),
      puttydoc.txt, the .hlp and .cnt files, and puttydoc.zip.

 - Create and sign md5sums files: one in the x86 subdir, one in the
   alpha subdir, and one in the parent dir of both of those.
    + The md5sums files need not list the .DSA and .RSA signatures,
      and the top-level md5sums need not list the other two.
    + Sign the md5sums files (gpg --clearsign). The Alpha md5sums
      should be signed with the snapshot keys, but the other two
      with the release keys (yes, the top-level one includes some
      Alpha files, but I think people will understand).

 - Now double-check by verifying all the signatures on all the
   files.

 - Create subdir `htmldoc' in the release directory, which should
   contain exactly the same set of HTML files that went into
   puttydoc.zip.
    + It also needs a copy of sitestyle.css, because the online
      versions of the HTML docs will link to this (although the
      zipped form should be self-contained).

 - Now the whole release directory should be present and correct.
   Upload to ixion:www/putty/<ver>, upload to
   chiark:ftp/putty-<ver>, and upload to the:www/putty/<ver>.

 - Update the HTTP redirects.
    + Update the one at the:www/putty/htaccess which points the
      virtual subdir `latest' at the actual latest release dir. TEST
      THIS ONE - it's quite important.
    + ixion:www/putty/.htaccess has an individual redirect for each
      version number. Add a new one.

 - Update the FTP symlink (chiark:ftp/putty-latest -> putty-<ver>).

 - Update web site.
   + Adjust front page (`the latest version is <ver>').
   + Adjust Download page similarly.
   + Adjust filename of installer on links in Download page.
   + Adjust header text on Changelog page. (That includes changing
     `are new' in previous version to `were new'!)

 - Update the wishlist. This can be done without touching individual
   items by editing the @releases array in control/bugs2html.

 - Check the Docs page links correctly to the release docs. (It
   should do this automatically, owing to the `latest' HTTP
   redirect.)

 - Check that the web server attaches the right content type to .HLP
   and .CNT files.

 - Run webupdate, so that all the changes on ixion propagate to
   chiark. Important to do this _before_ announcing that the release
   is available.

 - Announce the release!
    + Mail the announcement to putty-announce.
    + Post it to comp.security.ssh.
    + Mention it in <TDHIS> on mono.

 - All done. Probably best to run `cvs up -A' now, or I'll only
   forget in a few days' time and get confused...