Making a release of WebKit/GTK+

• In order to run distcheck, you need ​patched version of make (TODO: need to confirm whether this was fixed in make-3.82)
• Make sure you are up to date and don't have local changes or commits
• Check that the bots are not horribly broken and/or run the layout tests locally and see that they are in reasonable good health
• Fill out an entry in the NEWS file
  • Identify the commit id of the previous release (NEWS file is normally changed only when releasing, so you could get the commit id of the previous release by looking at NEWS history)
  • Summarize major changes briefly in a style similar to other entries in NEWS.
  • You can use ​gtk-release-notes script.
    • Copy the script to Tools/Scripts and run it giving the commit id of the previous release.
    • It returns a list of bugs fixed since the given revision that might be related to the GTK port and the list fo people who fixed every bug.
  • Take special care to note any additions in the API. The following command will show each patch that has changed a public header file since the given version:

    $ find Source/WebKit/gtk/webkit/ -name "webkit*.h" ! -name '*private.h' | xargs git log -p <commit-id-of-previous-release>.. --
    

• Increment version numbers
  • Increment webkit_{minor|micro}_version (release version)
  • Increment LIBWEBKITGTK_VERSION=C:R:A (library version)
    • C (current): increment if the interface has additions, changes, removals.
    • R (revision): increment any time the source changes; set to 0 if you increment CURRENT
    • A (age): increment if any interfaces have been added; set to 0 if any interfaces have been changed or removed. Removal has precedence over adding, so set to 0 if both happened.
  • Increment webkit_user_agent_{major|minor}_version according to the values in ​Source/WebCore/Configurations/Version.xcconfig (user agent version)
• Run "make distcheck"
  • Running "make distcheck" should result in no warnings or errors
  • It should show you something like this:

    ==================================================
    webkit-X.Y.Z archives ready for distribution:
    webkit-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
    ==================================================
    

• Commit the changes to NEWS and configure.ac. It's especially important to mention the new version number in your commit message.
• Tag the release

  svn cp http://svn.webkit.org/repository/webkit/trunk/  http://svn.webkit.org/repository/webkit/releases/WebKitGTK/webkit-[release version]
  

• Upload the tarball to petibonum.igalia.com
• Update the website to add the annoucement and download link
• If there are API changes update the API documentation (FIXME: how?)
• Send a message to announce the new release to ​webkit-gtk@lists.webkit.org with CC: ​gnome-announce-list@gnome.org
• Update the WebKitGTK+ entry of the current modueset in jhbuild repository

Releasing from a stable branch

TODO