Preparing a release is a fairly straight-forward process despite appearances to the contrary.

Setting up the tools

The python-storm package is made to be built with AutoPPA. AutoPPA eases the process of building packages for all supported releases of Ubuntu. You need to create a ~/.autoppa.conf file with contents similar to:

[storm]
email = Username <username@example.com>
ppa = username
branch = /home/username/src/projects/storm/packaging
repository = /home/username/src/autoppa-builds
releases = dapper hardy karmic lucid maverick

The branch above should be a branch of lp:~storm/storm/packaging. It's best to bzr checkout the branch, to ensure that changes are uploaded back to the master copy. You'll also need something similar to this in your ~/.dput.cf:

[username]
fqdn = ppa.launchpad.net
method = ftp
incoming = ~username/ppa/ubuntu/
login = anonymous
allow_unsigned_uploads = 0

AutoPPA is available from Launchpad.

Are you ready?

1. Make sure all bugs in the current active milestone on Launchpad

   are in the Fix Committed state.

2. Review the Bazaar log and make sure the NEWS file contains information about all the changes made since the last release.

When all the bug fixes and new features are ready in trunk it's time to create the release.

1. Edit storm/__init__.py and set version to the new version.

2. Merge the changes from trunk into the packaging branch.

Preparing release-candidate packages

1. Build the package in your own PPA so that you can test them

   before publishing them. Use the --no-merge option to build test packages: autoppa build --no-merge storm 0.18-1~rc1

This will upload sources to your PPA for the Ubuntu releases specified in ~/.autoppa.conf. When the python-storm packages build you should test them in pristine environments, to make sure they work properly. Amazon's EC2 is good for this kind of testing. If you run into problems you can build the package locally to debug issues (run in the packaging branch):  fakeroot debian/rules binary

1. Commit any changes needed to make the package work to the

   packaging branch.

Preparing a release-candidate tarball

1. Run make release to prepare a tarball (created in the dist directory).

2. This will create dist/storm-0.16.tar.bz2. Unpack it and make sure everything is in place: the README, NEWS, TODO and LICENSE files, the PKG-INFO and other distutils setup files, the debian directory with package source, the storm and tests directories with Python code, the Makefile and the storm.egg-info directory.

Creating and publishing the new tarball and packages

If the tarball and package are in order you can prepare the final build.

1. Use your PPA to rebuild the package, using trunk as the source

   branch, with the new release version: autoppa build storm 0.16-1~storm1

This will upload sources, like before, but it will also create a branch with a revision storing the changes made for the release being built. This changes will be merged to the packaging branch and a tag based on the new version will be added to the new revision to track the release.

1. When the new packages have finished building find them in your PPA and copy them to the Storm Team PPA to publish them.
2. Upload the tarball to Launchpad using the 'Create a release' function from the milestone page. Let Launchpad close the milestone as part of creating the release.
3. After the release is created use the 'Add file' function to upload the tarball. Be sure to also upload a valid GPG signature for it.
4. Write a nice release announcement for the Launchpad page and send a copy of it to the Storm mailing list to announce the release. See the Storm mailing list archive for examples of the announcement.

Prepare to develop the next version

1. If it hasn't already been done, create a milestone for the next version and target bugs that needs to be delivered with it.

2. Bump the version value in the storm/__init__.py.