Release procedure

This page lists the steps in our current libSBML release procedure.

Step 1: Update software on SourceForge

1. Tag the release in SVN (needed for later steps below)
2. Create new release number on sf.net
3. Create zip file for dist (using "make dist")
4. Upload dist to sf.net
5. Follow the procedure for creating and uploading the documentation archives
6. Add a tracker group for the new libSBML release number

Step 2: Update libSBML API documentation on sbml.org

Let X.Y.Z be the new version number. It will also be the directory name of the source code.

1. rsync a copy of the new docs to sbml.org:/tmp/docs
2. rsync a copy of the libSBML sources to sbml.org:/tmp/X.Y.Z
3. ssh sbml.org
4. cd to the Special/Software/libSBML directory of the web directory
5. /bin/rm -rf docs-old
6. mv docs docs-old
7. mv /tmp/docs docs
8. mv /tmp/X.Y.Z .
   • Important: don't forget the "." by itself at the end of the command above.
9. rm latest-stable
10. ln -s X.Y.Z latest-stable
11. Check that the table-of-contents links on http://sbml.org/Software/libSBML point to the right places

Step 3: Update the libSBML web pages

1. Visit the release notes page and edit the link inside the inclusion command to refer to NEWS.txt inside the X.Y.Z directory created above.
2. Edit the libSBML page and click on the various 'Template:' links at the bottom of the page: LibSBMLDownloadURL, LibSBMLStableReleaseDate, LibSBMLStableReleaseNumber, and LibSBMLTOC, and edit them to be correct.
3. Also update the list of contributors near the bottom of the libSBML page, if appropriate.
4. If this is a development release, update the links for the development version on the current releases list page.

Step 4: Prepare the announcement

1. Create an announcement message for sbml-discuss and libsbml-development. Include the list of changes in this release, taken from the NEWS.txt file, plus any other interesting info.
2. Mail it to libsbml-team for review.
3. Wait 24hrs to let everyone in all the time zones have a chance to look at it.

Step 5: Announce

1. Incorporate any feedback from libsbml-team about the announcement.
2. Post to sbml-discuss and libsbml-development about the new release.
3. Add a link to news box on sbml.org
4. Post to Google+
5. Tweet under the sbmlnews account