LilyPond Contributor's Guide: 11.3 Major release checklist

## 11.3 Major release checklist

A “major release” means an update of `x` in `2.x.0`.

### Main requirements

These are the current official guidelines.

- 0 Critical issues for two weeks (14 days) after the latest release candidate.

### Potential requirements

These might become official guidelines in the future.

- Check reg test
- Check all 2ly scripts
- Check for emergencies the docs:

  >     grep FIXME --exclude "misc/*" --exclude "*GNUmakefile" \
  >       --exclude "snippets/*" ????*/*

- Check for altered regtests, and document as necessary:

  >     git diff -u -r release/2.FIRST-CURRENT-STABLE \
  >       -r release/2.LAST-CURRENT-DEVELOPMENT input/regression/

### Housekeeping requirements

Before the release:

- write release notes. note: stringent size requirements for various websites, so be brief.
- Run convert-ly on all files, bump parser minimum version.
- Update lilypond.pot:

  >     make -C $LILYPOND_BUILD_DIR po-replace
  >     mv $LILYPOND_BUILD_DIR/po/lilypond.pot po/

- Make directories on lilypond.org:

  >     ~/download/sources/v2.NEW-STABLE
  >     ~/download/sources/v2.NEW-DEVELOPMENT

Shortly after the release:

- Move all current contributors to previous contributors in ‘`Documentation/en/included/authors.itexi`’.
- Delete old material in ‘`Documentation/en/changes.tely`’, but don’t forget to check it still compiles! Also update the version numbers:

  >     @node Top
  >     @top New features in 2.NEW-STABLE since 2.OLD-STABLE

- Update the version of the search boxes in the Table of Contents sidebar to 2.NEW-DEVELOPMENT (in ‘`Documentation/lilypond-texi2html.init`’).
- Prevent crawlers from indexing the old documentation by adding lines to ‘`Documentation/webserver/robots.txt`’ until:

  >     Disallow: /doc/v2.OLD-STABLE/

  Do not yet add a line for 2.OLD-DEVELOPMENT because the search for the documentation of 2.NEW-STABLE relies on it!

- Update the htaccess redirections (`/latest/`, `/stable/`, etc.) in ‘`Documentation/webserver/lilypond.org.htaccess`’.
- Add a link to the previous stable version’s announcement, list of changes and contributors acknowledgements to the ‘Attic’ page, in ‘`Documentation/en/web/community.itexi`’.
- Add a link to the previous stable version’s documentation to ‘`Documentation/en/web/manuals.itexi`’.

### Unsorted

- submit po template for translation: send url of tarball to coordinator@translationproject.org, mentioning lilypond-VERSION.pot
- Send announcements to...

  News:

  >     comp.music.research
  >     comp.os.linux.announce

  >     comp.text.tex
  >     rec.music.compose

  Mail:

  >     info-lilypond@gnu.org
  >     info-gnu@gnu.org
  >     planet@gnu.org

  >     linux-audio-announce@lists.linuxaudio.org
  >     linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
  >     linux-audio-dev@lists.linuxaudio.org
  >     consortium@lists.linuxaudio.org
  >     planetccrma@ccrma.stanford.edu

  >     tex-music@tug.org

  >     rosegarden-user@lists.sourceforge.net
  >     denemo-devel@gnu.org

  Web (forums):

  >     imslpforums.org
  >     abcusers (Yahoo group)
  >     canorus (Github? Freenode IRC?)
  >     musescore.org/forum
  >     reddit.com/lilypond
  >     linuxquestions.org
  >     Slashdot

  Web (websites and aggregators):

  >     lilypond.org
  >     https://savannah.gnu.org/news/submit.php?group_id=1673
  >     freshmeat.sourceforge.net
  >     linuxtoday.com
  >     lxer.com
  >     fossmint.com
  >     fsdaily.com
  >     freesoftwaremagazine.com
  >     lwn.net
  >     hitsquad.com/smm

  >     in French: linuxfr.org; framalibre.org

#### LilyPond — Contributor’s Guide v2.24.4 (stable-branch).