admin/FOR-RELEASE

   1 Tasks needed before the next release.
   2
   3 * TO BE DONE SHORTLY BEFORE RELEASE
   4
   5 ** Either update, test, and support the old w32 build method, or remove it.
   6
   7 ** Manuals
   8 Check for node names using problematic characters:
   9   find doc -name '*.texi' -exec grep '^@node[^,]*[:.()]' {} +
  10 Sadly makeinfo does not warn about such characters.
  11
  12 Check cross-references between the manuals (eg from emacs to elisp)
  13 are correct.  You can use something like the following in the info
  14 directory in the Emacs build tree:
  15
  16 emacs -Q --eval "(progn (require 'info) (setq Info-directory-list '(\".\")))" \
  17   -f info-xref-check-all
  18
  19 Setting Info-directory-list avoids having system info pages confuse
  20 things.  References to external manuals will be flagged as
  21 uncheckable.  You should still check these, and also that each
  22 external manual has an appropriate redirect in the file manual/.htaccess
  23 in the web pages repository.  E.g.:
  24 Redirect /software/emacs/manual/html_mono/automake.html /software/automake/manual/automake.html
  25 Redirect /software/emacs/manual/html_node/automake/ /software/automake/manual/html_node/
  26
  27 Another tool you can use to check links is gnu.org's linc.py:
  28 http://www.gnu.org/server/source/
  29
  30 You run this something like:
  31
  32 cd /path/to/cvs/emacs-www
  33 linc.py -o /path/to/output-dir --url http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ .
  34
  35 Be warned that it is really, really slow (as in, can take ~ a full day
  36 to check the manual/ directory).  It is probably best to run it on a
  37 single directory at a time from eg manual/html_node.  It is very
  38 inefficient, but may reveal a few things that info-xref does not.
  39
  40
  41 make emacs.dvi, elisp.dvi, and deal with any errors (undefined
  42 references etc) in the output.  Break any overfull lines.
  43 Underfull hboxes are not serious, but it can be nice to get rid of
  44 them if a simple rephrasing or rearrangement will work.
  45
  46 Update the master menu and detailed menu (eg the antinews version).
  47 The command texinfo-multiple-files-update can do this, but you
  48 probably want to apply the results selectively (eg the current master
  49 menu has better line-breaks than the automatic version).  It includes
  50 the menu-entry name (if there is one) as well as the node name - using
  51 only the latter looks better.  Also, it doesn't seem to handle nested
  52 includes, so will miss edebug.texi etc.
  53
  54 Check for widow and orphan lines in the printed manual; make sure all
  55 the pages really look ok in the manual as formatted.  Orphans/widows
  56 are cases where the first/last line of a paragraph is on its own at
  57 the end/start of a page, or where the last word in a paragraph is on
  58 its own at the start of a line.  It looks better if you reword/respace
  59 things to avoid these.  (AFAIK, there is no way to find these except
  60 paging through the whole manual.)  This should be the very last thing
  61 you do, since any change can alter the layout.
  62 (Actually, there is probably little point in trying to do this.
  63 It's only really relevant if printed versions of the manuals are going
  64 to be published.  End-users are not likely to print out all 1000+
  65 pages of the manuals, and even if they do, the resulting page breaks
  66 depend on what paper and font size they use.  This also means that if
  67 you _are_ going to do this, it should be done with the paper and font
  68 size that the GNU Press are going to use when they print the manuals.
  69 I think this is different to what you get if you just use eg `make
  70 emacs.pdf' (e.g., enable "smallbook").
  71
  72 ** Check the keybindings in the refcards are correct, and add any new ones.
  73 What paper size are the English versions supposed to be on?
  74 On Debian testing, the packages texlive-lang-czechslovak and
  75 texlive-lang-polish will let you generate the cs-* and sk-* pdfs.
  76 (You may need texlive-lang-cyrillic, texlive-lang-german for others.)
  77 The Makefile rules did not work for me, I had to use something like:
  78 csplain -output-format=pdf cs-refcard
  79
  80 ** Ask maintainers of refcard translations to update them.
  81
  82 Emacs 22 translators:
  83
  84 LANG    Translator            Status
  85 cs      Pavel Janík
  86 de      Sven Joachim
  87 fr      Eric Jacoboni
  88 pl      Włodek Bzyl
  89 pt-br   Rodrigo Real
  90 ru      Alex Ott
  91 sk      Miroslav Vaško
  92
  93 ** For a major release, add a "New in Emacs XX" section to faq.texi.
  94
  95 ** Remove temporary +++/--- lines in NEWS.
  96
  97 ** Try to reorder NEWS: most important things first, related items together.
  98
  99 ** Consider bumping customize-changed-options-previous-release.
 100
 101 ** cusver-check from admin.el can help find new defcustoms missing
 102 :version tags.
 103
 104 * BUGS
 105
 106 ** Check for modes which bind M-s that conflicts with a new global binding M-s
 107 and change key bindings where necessary.  The current list of modes:
 108
 109 1. Gnus binds `M-s' to `gnus-summary-search-article-forward'.
 110
 111 2. Minibuffer binds `M-s' to `next-matching-history-element'
 112    (not useful any more since C-s can now search in the history).
 113
 114 3. `center-line' in Text mode was already moved to the text formatting
 115    keymap as `M-o M-s' (thus this binding is not necessary any more
 116    in `nroff-mode-map' too and can be removed now from the nroff mode
 117    because it can now use the global key binding `M-o M-s' `center-line').
 118
 119 4. PCL-CVS binds `M-s' to `cvs-status', and log-edit-mode binds it to
 120    `log-edit-comment-search-forward'.  Perhaps search commands
 121    on the global key binding `M-s' are useless in these modes.
 122
 123 5. Rmail binds `\es' to `rmail-search'/`rmail-summary-search'.
 124
 125
 126 * DOCUMENTATION
 127
 128 ** Check the Emacs Tutorial.
 129
 130 The first line of every tutorial must begin with text ending in a
 131 period (".", ASCII 0x2E) saying "Emacs Tutorial" in the respective
 132 language. This should be followed by "See end for copying conditions",
 133 likewise in the respective language.
 134
 135 After each file name, on the same line or the following line, come the
 136 names of the people who have checked it.
 137
 138 SECTION                  READERS
 139 ----------------------------------
 140 TUTORIAL             cyd
 141 TUTORIAL.bg          ogi
 142 TUTORIAL.cn          xfq
 143 TUTORIAL.cs
 144 TUTORIAL.de          wl
 145 TUTORIAL.eo
 146 TUTORIAL.es
 147 TUTORIAL.fr
 148 TUTORIAL.he          eliz
 149 TUTORIAL.it
 150 TUTORIAL.ja
 151 TUTORIAL.ko
 152 TUTORIAL.nl          Pieter Schoenmakers
 153 TUTORIAL.pl
 154 TUTORIAL.pt_BR
 155 TUTORIAL.ro
 156 TUTORIAL.ru          Alex Ott
 157 TUTORIAL.sk
 158 TUTORIAL.sl          Primoz PETERLIN
 159 TUTORIAL.sv          Mats Lidell
 160 TUTORIAL.th
 161 TUTORIAL.zh
 162
 163 ** Check the manual.
 164
 165 abbrevs.texi      cyd
 166 ack.texi          rgm
 167 anti.texi         cyd
 168 arevert-xtra.texi cyd
 169 basic.texi        cyd
 170 buffers.texi      cyd
 171 building.texi     cyd
 172 calendar.texi     rgm
 173 cal-xtra.texi     rgm
 174 cmdargs.texi      cyd
 175 commands.texi     cyd
 176 custom.texi       cyd
 177 dired.texi        cyd
 178 dired-xtra.texi   rgm
 179 display.texi      cyd
 180 emacs.texi        rgm
 181 emacs-xtra.texi   rgm
 182 emerge-xtra.texi  rgm
 183 entering.texi     cyd
 184 files.texi        cyd
 185 fixit.texi        cyd
 186 fortran-xtra.texi rgm
 187 frames.texi       cyd
 188 glossary.texi     rgm
 189 help.texi         cyd
 190 indent.texi       cyd
 191 killing.texi      cyd
 192 kmacro.texi       cyd
 193 macos.texi        rgm  (can't actually test any of it though)
 194 maintaining.texi  cyd
 195 mark.texi         cyd
 196 mini.texi         rgm
 197 misc.texi         cyd
 198 modes.texi        cyd
 199 msdog.texi        rgm  (can't actually test any of it though)
 200 msdog-xtra.texi   rgm  (can't actually test any of it though)
 201 mule.texi         rgm  (not 100% sure about "Fontsets")
 202 m-x.texi          cyd
 203 package.texi      cyd
 204 picture-xtra.texi rgm
 205 programs.texi     cyd
 206 regs.texi         cyd
 207 rmail.texi        rgm
 208 screen.texi       cyd
 209 search.texi       cyd
 210 sending.texi      cyd
 211 text.texi         cyd
 212 trouble.texi      cyd
 213 vc-xtra.texi      cyd
 214 vc1-xtra.texi     cyd
 215 windows.texi      cyd
 216 xresources.texi   cyd
 217
 218 ** Check the Lisp manual.
 219
 220 abbrevs.texi      rgm
 221 anti.texi         rgm
 222 back.texi         rgm
 223 backups.texi      cyd
 224 buffers.texi      cyd
 225 commands.texi     cyd
 226 compile.texi      cyd
 227 control.texi      cyd
 228 customize.texi    cyd
 229 debugging.texi    cyd
 230 display.texi      cyd
 231 edebug.texi       rgm
 232 elisp.texi
 233 errors.texi       rgm
 234 eval.texi         cyd
 235 files.texi        cyd
 236 frames.texi       cyd
 237 functions.texi    cyd
 238 hash.texi         cyd
 239 help.texi         cyd
 240 hooks.texi        rgm
 241 index.texi
 242 internals.texi    rgm  cyd
 243 intro.texi        cyd
 244 keymaps.texi      cyd
 245 lists.texi        cyd
 246 loading.texi      cyd
 247 macros.texi       cyd
 248 maps.texi         rgm
 249 markers.texi      rgm
 250 minibuf.texi      rgm
 251 modes.texi        cyd
 252 nonascii.texi     cyd
 253 numbers.texi      cyd
 254 objects.texi      cyd
 255 os.texi           cyd
 256 package.texi      rgm
 257 positions.texi    cyd
 258 processes.texi    rgm
 259 searching.texi    rgm
 260 sequences.texi    cyd
 261 streams.texi      cyd
 262 strings.texi      cyd
 263 symbols.texi      cyd
 264 syntax.texi       cyd
 265 text.texi         cyd
 266 tips.texi         rgm
 267 variables.texi    cyd
 268 windows.texi      rgm (skimmed)
 269
 270 \f
 271 Local variables:
 272 mode: outline
 273 coding: utf-8
 274 end: