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Software Release Practice HOWTO

Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>

2.2, 11 January 2000

This HOWTO describes good release practices for Linux open-source projects. By following these practices, you will make it as easy as possible for users to build your code and use it, and for other developers to understand your code and cooperate with you to improve it. This document is a must-read for novice developers. Experienced developers should review it when they are about to release a new project. It will be revised periodically to reflect the evolution of good-practice standards.

1. Introduction

1.1 Why this document?
1.2 New versions of this document

2. Good project- and archive- naming practice

2.1 Use GNU-style names with a stem and major.minor.patch numbering.
2.2 But respect local conventions where appropriate
2.3 Try hard to choose a name prefix that is unique and easy to type

3. Good licensing and copyright practice: the theory

3.1 Open source and copyrights
3.2 What qualifies as open source

4. Good licensing and copyright practice: the practice

4.1 Make yourself or the FSF the copyright holder
4.2 Use a license conformant to the Open Source Definition
4.3 Don't write your own license if you can possibly avoid it.

5. Good development practice

5.1 Write either pure ANSI C or a portable scripting language
5.2 Follow good C portability practices
5.3 Use autoconf/automake/autoheader
5.4 Sanity-check your code before release
5.5 Sanity-check your documentation and READMEs before release

6. Good distribution-making practice

6.1 Make sure tarballs always unpack into a single new directory
6.2 Have a README
6.3 Respect and follow standard file naming practices
6.4 Provide RPMs

7. Good communication practice

7.1 Announce to c.o.l.a
7.2 Announce to a relevant topic newsgroup
7.3 Have a website
7.4 Host project mailing lists
7.5 Release to major archives

8. Good project-management practice

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