1 Tasks needed before the next release.
3 * TO BE DONE SHORTLY BEFORE RELEASE
5 ** Make sure the necessary sources and scripts for any generated files
6 are included in the source tarfile. (They don't need to be installed,
10 Check for node names using problematic characters:
11 find doc -name '*.texi' -exec grep '^@node[^,]*[:.()]' {} +
12 Sadly makeinfo does not warn about such characters.
14 Check cross-references between the manuals (eg from emacs to elisp)
15 are correct. You can use something like the following in the info
16 directory in the Emacs build tree:
18 emacs -Q --eval "(progn (require 'info) (setq Info-directory-list '(\".\")))" \
19 -f info-xref-check-all
21 Setting Info-directory-list avoids having system info pages confuse
22 things. References to external manuals will be flagged as
23 uncheckable. You should still check these, and also that each
24 external manual has an appropriate redirect in the file manual/.htaccess
25 in the web pages repository. E.g.:
26 Redirect /software/emacs/manual/html_mono/automake.html /software/automake/manual/automake.html
27 Redirect /software/emacs/manual/html_node/automake/ /software/automake/manual/html_node/
29 Another tool you can use to check links is gnu.org's linc.py:
30 http://www.gnu.org/server/source/
32 You run this something like:
34 cd /path/to/cvs/emacs-www
35 linc.py -o /path/to/output-dir --url http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ .
37 Be warned that it is really, really slow (as in, can take ~ a full day
38 to check the manual/ directory). It is probably best to run it on a
39 single directory at a time from eg manual/html_node. It is very
40 inefficient, but may reveal a few things that info-xref does not.
43 make emacs.dvi, elisp.dvi, and deal with any errors (undefined
44 references etc) in the output. Break any overfull lines.
45 Underfull hboxes are not serious, but it can be nice to get rid of
46 them if a simple rephrasing or rearrangement will work.
48 Update the master menu and detailed menu (eg the antinews version).
49 The command texinfo-multiple-files-update can do this, but you
50 probably want to apply the results selectively (eg the current master
51 menu has better line-breaks than the automatic version). It includes
52 the menu-entry name (if there is one) as well as the node name - using
53 only the latter looks better. Also, it doesn't seem to handle nested
54 includes, so will miss edebug.texi etc.
56 Check for widow and orphan lines in the printed manual; make sure all
57 the pages really look ok in the manual as formatted. Orphans/widows
58 are cases where the first/last line of a paragraph is on its own at
59 the end/start of a page, or where the last word in a paragraph is on
60 its own at the start of a line. It looks better if you reword/respace
61 things to avoid these. (AFAIK, there is no way to find these except
62 paging through the whole manual.) This should be the very last thing
63 you do, since any change can alter the layout.
64 (Actually, there is probably little point in trying to do this.
65 It's only really relevant if printed versions of the manuals are going
66 to be published. End-users are not likely to print out all 1000+
67 pages of the manuals, and even if they do, the resulting page breaks
68 depend on what paper and font size they use. This also means that if
69 you _are_ going to do this, it should be done with the paper and font
70 size that the GNU Press are going to use when they print the manuals.
71 I think this is different to what you get if you just use eg `make
72 emacs.pdf' (e.g., enable "smallbook").
74 ** Check the keybindings in the refcards are correct, and add any new ones.
75 What paper size are the English versions supposed to be on?
76 On Debian testing, the packages texlive-lang-czechslovak and
77 texlive-lang-polish will let you generate the cs-* and sk-* pdfs.
78 (You may need texlive-lang-cyrillic, texlive-lang-german for others.)
79 The Makefile rules did not work for me, I had to use something like:
80 csplain -output-format=pdf cs-refcard
82 ** Ask maintainers of refcard translations to update them.
86 LANG Translator Status
95 ** For a major release, add a "New in Emacs XX" section to faq.texi.
97 ** Remove temporary +++/--- lines in NEWS.
99 ** Try to reorder NEWS: most important things first, related items together.
101 ** Consider bumping customize-changed-options-previous-release.
103 ** cusver-check from admin.el can help find new defcustoms missing
108 ** Check for modes which bind M-s that conflicts with a new global binding M-s
109 and change key bindings where necessary. The current list of modes:
111 1. Gnus binds `M-s' to `gnus-summary-search-article-forward'.
113 2. Minibuffer binds `M-s' to `next-matching-history-element'
114 (not useful any more since C-s can now search in the history).
116 3. `center-line' in Text mode was already moved to the text formatting
117 keymap as `M-o M-s' (thus this binding is not necessary any more
118 in `nroff-mode-map' too and can be removed now from the nroff mode
119 because it can now use the global key binding `M-o M-s' `center-line').
121 4. PCL-CVS binds `M-s' to `cvs-status', and log-edit-mode binds it to
122 `log-edit-comment-search-forward'. Perhaps search commands
123 on the global key binding `M-s' are useless in these modes.
125 5. Rmail binds `\es' to `rmail-search'/`rmail-summary-search'.
130 ** Check the Emacs Tutorial.
132 The first line of every tutorial must begin with text ending in a
133 period (".", ASCII 0x2E) saying "Emacs Tutorial" in the respective
134 language. This should be followed by "See end for copying conditions",
135 likewise in the respective language.
137 After each file name, on the same line or the following line, come the
138 names of the people who have checked it.
141 ----------------------------------
154 TUTORIAL.nl Pieter Schoenmakers
160 TUTORIAL.sl Primoz PETERLIN
161 TUTORIAL.sv Mats Lidell
220 ** Check the Lisp manual.
255 numbers.texi Paul Eggert (24.4)