Re: Making releases

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Reuben Thomas wrote on Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 05:17:44PM CET:
> On 16 March 2011 16:09, Jim Meyering wrote:
> > Reuben Thomas wrote:
> >>
> >> 1. It doesn't upload the release tarball &c. itself, it emits commands
> >> to do so. Why?
> >
> > Uploading is final.
> > Once you do it, you may have trouble undoing it,
> > so I prefer merely to emit the command.
> 
> Prompting for one's GPG passphrase gets around this.

Please don't rely on such hacks to avoid automatic upload.
It is very important to be able to double-check everything
before things are cast in stone.  I've been burnt before
(but I don't use the gnulib method (yet)).

> > I usually say a few words about the release in place of FIXME.
> > That makes it a little more human.
> 
> Sure, but is there a reason not to have this text in NEWS or supply it
> in some other way that doesn't force another manual step?

Yes.  For example, I may want to thank people in the announcement,
highlight some things differently than I would in a NEWS file.  Or
repeat something from an older release that users reading NEWS would
easily be able to find.

Cheers,
Ralf