This how to is under development but it might help. Feel free to contribute.

• Are the translations up to date, are the translator aware of you going to release.
• All patches are applied and all known critical bugs fixed.
• Do you have the feeling: “Yes, this code ready to be released upon the world, everyone should be able to enjoy it” ;)

1. Release information: ChangeLog, NEWS.
2. Common information: README, AUTHORS, THANKS, TODO (when present).

1. Edit the configure script template configure.in.in or configure.ac.in.
2. Set the package version (<package>_version_major, <package>_version_minor and <package>_version_micro) to the version you want to release.
3. Remove git from <package>_version_tag.
4. Check the build dependencies.

1. Run ./autogen.sh.
2. Run make distcheck
3. Check auto generated files: INSTALL, COPYING
4. If at this stage everything works, commit all changes for release to master.
5. Now you are ready to tag the current master:
   

   git tag -a <package>-<version>
   git push
   git push --tags

   You can sign tags with a GPG key by adding an additional parameter to the git tag command. For more information about tagging read the git-tag manual.

6. Now you can release the package using the xfce release manager. Folow the instructions on that site.

1. Edit configure.in.in or configure.ac.in.
2. Reset <package>_version_tag to git.