This document describes the basic release process/work flow for
Lintian.


Preparing and doing a release
=============================

Run the full test suite while the distribution is still set to
UNRELEASED to ensure everything and all tests are green.  Once
complete, replace the placeholder in the changelog with the
actual tags changed.  This two line script may be helpful:

  $ LAST_VERSION_RELEASED=2.5.20
  $ perl -p -i -e \
   "s,\s+XXX: generate tag summary with private/generate-tag-summary\Z,$(private/generate-tag-summary $LAST_VERSION_RELEASED..HEAD)" \
    debian/changelog

Then set the distribution (e.g. via dch -r) and run the "scripts" test
suite again.  This may appear redundant at first, but some of the
tests react differently when the distribution is not UNRELEASED
(e.g. changelog-format checks that you remembered the step above).

Build the package and run lintian on itself, cleaning up or overriding
issues that have not been fixed during development.  If you do code
changes, remember to set the distribution back to UNRELEASED!
Otherwise, some checks on the code will be skipped (e.g. critic).

Sign and upload upload the package.  Historically, the Lintian
maintainers have included the (unsigned) changes file in the signed
git tag (see e.g. the 2.4.3 tag or the 2.5.19 tag).  If/When doing
this, it may be prudent to wait for the upload to be accepted before
pushing the new tag (so that the checksums in the signed tag match
those of the uploaded files).

Once the upload has been accepted and the commit has been tagged, you
may want to "open" the next entry in the changelog.  The rationale for
this is that it makes tests go back to "regular" development mode.  At
the same time, the "tag-summary" reminder can be re-added.  See commit
a9c67f2 as an example of how it is done.


To update lintian on lintian.debian.org, please see the README in
/srv/lintian.debian.org on lintian.debian.org.  NOTE: if Lintian has
obtained any new dependencies, these must be installed by DSA before
updating lintian.debian.org (send a patch to DSA for their metapackge
for lintian.debian.org).
