Release Procedure

1. Prepare the release

Update version info

• CMakeLists.txt – for CMake
• NEWS – "changes since " => "changes in "
• git commit -a

Check autotools build

• cd src
• ./bootstrap
• ./configure --enable-parport --enable-linuxspi --enable-linuxgpii --enable-doc – prepare for docs with all programmers
• make distcheck – on *BSD, use GNU make (or run make -k)
• result: avrdude-version.tar.gz – but that's nowhere used?

Build docs

• cd [src/]doc
• make – on *BSD, use GNU make
• result: avrdude.pdf, avrdude-html/
• keep them somewhere for later

run CMake build

• cd ../..
• ./build.sh
• this is already tested by CI anyway

2. Do the release

If all went well so far:

Tag and push it

• git tag vnewvers – always start with a lowercase letter v, followed by major number dot minor number
• git push --tags
• CI should prepare Github release now, and publish it

3. Post-release actions

Update version info for post-release

• NEWS: add template lines for "changes since "
• git commit -a
• git push

Update docs

Official documentation is located on Github pages, and automatically updated there from a branch named onlinedocs.

• git checkout onlinedocs
• mkdir docs/newrelease – no v here, just major dot minor number
• cd docs/newrelease
• cp ../../src/doc/avrdude-html/* . – the docs previously built
• cp ../../src/doc/avrdude.pdf .
• cd ..
• $EDITOR index.html
• add links to new newvers/avrdude.html and newvers/avrdude.pdf
• git add newvers
• git add index.html
• git commit
• git push
• cd ..
• git checkout main – just don't forget to switch away from the docs branch

Verify and sign the release archives

• download source archives (.tar.gz and .zip) from Github release area
• verify they are correct (unpack, and compare against local tree ...)
• gpg --sign --detach for both archives
• include GPG signatures in release assets

Increment libavrdude version

• $EDITOR src/CMakeLists.txt # for VERSION and SOVERSION
• git commit src/CMakeLists.txt -m"Increment libavrdude version"
• git push