Steps in doing an ns-3 release

1. check out a clean ns-3-dev somewhere using ns-3-allinone (you will need it)

   - hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-allinone

   - ./download.py

   - ./build.py

   - confirm that the release builds cleanly.

   - cd ns-3-dev

   - ensure that tests pass (./test.py)

   - ensure no regressions (./waf --regression)

2. prepare the source files

   - revise and check in AUTHORS, if needed

   - revise and check in RELEASE_NOTES

   - DO NOT change VERSION at this time

   - confirm that Doxygen builds cleanly and without warnings

     (./waf doxygen), and check in any necessary changes 

3. build an ns-3-allinone distribution

   - change back into the allinone directory

   - ./dist.py

   - this will create an ns-allinone-dev.tar.bz2 tarball

4. test dev tarball on release platforms 

   - ./test.py 

   - ./waf --regression

   - other scripts you can think of

5. once you are happy with the tarball, tag ns-3-dev and ns-3-dev-ref-traces

   - cd into ns-3-dev

   - hg tag "ns-3.x"

   - hg push 

   - cd into ns-3-dev-ref-traces

   - hg tag "ns-3.x"

   - hg push 

6. clone the tagged ns-3-dev and place it on the repository

   - ssh code.nsnam.org; sudo bash; su code;

   - cp -r /home/code/repos/ns-3-dev /home/code/repos/ns-3.x

   - cd /home/code/repos/ns-3.x/.hg and edit the hgrc appropriately:

     "description = ns-3.x release

      name = ns-3.x"

   - clone the ns-3-dev-ref-traces and place it on the repository as above

     but use the name ns-3.x-ref-traces and edit the hgrc appropriately

7. check out a clean version of the new release (ns-3.x) somewhere

   - hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3.x

8. Update the VERSION for this new release

   - change the string 3-dev in the VERSION file to the real version 

     (e.g. 3.7 or 3.7-RC1)  This must agree with the version name you chose in the clone

     for the regression tests to work.

   - hg commit -m "update VERSION to ns-3.x"

   - hg push ssh://code@code.nsnam.org//home/code/repos/ns-3.x

9. Run the tests on the new release (debug and optimized) like a user would

   You need to use ns-3-allinone since you will use that to make the distro

   - hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-allinone ns-3-allinone-3.x-test

   - cd !$

   - ./download.py -n ns-3.x -r ns-3.x-ref-traces

   - ./build.py

   - cd ns-3.x

   - ./test.py

   - ./test.py -g

   - ./waf --regression

   - ./waf --valgrind --regression (for valgrind version)

   - ./waf -d optimized configure

   - ./waf

   - ./test.py

   - ./test.py -g

   - ./waf --regression

   - ./waf --valgrind --regression (for valgrind version)

   - There should be no regression errors at this time

10. Create final tarballs

    You need to work with a clean ns-3-allinone-3.x directory

   - hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-allinone ns-3-allinone-3.x

   - cd !$

   - ./download.py -n ns-3.x -r ns-3.x-ref-traces

   - ./dist.py

   - notice we did not build here

   - this will create an ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2 tarball

11. upload "ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2" to the /var/www/html/releases/ directory on 

   the www.nsnam.org server

   - scp ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2 www.nsnam.org:~

   - ssh www.nsnam.org

   - sudo cp ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2 /var/www/html/releases

   - cd !$

12. give it 644 file permissions, and user/group = apache if it is not already

   - sudo chown apache:apache ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2

   - sudo chmod 644 ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2

13. update web pages on www.nsnam.org (source is in the www/ module)

   - clone the source repo (hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/www)

   - update references to releases in html_src 

     (consider "grep 'ns-3\.' *.html" for a new release)

     (consider "grep 'RCx' *.html" for a new RC)

   - update references to releases in scripts/

   - update roadmap on wiki

   - commit and push changes

14. update the server

   - build and update HTML directory on the server

     -- ssh www.nsnam.org; sudo bash; su nsnam;

     -- run ~/bin/update-html

   - build and update Doxygen directory on the server

     -- edit ~/bin/update-doxygen-release file and change RELEASE variable 

        to the right version number 

     -- run ~/bin/update-doxygen-release

15. build release documentation

   - if this is final release (not RC)

     -- archive old release documentation in /var/www/html/docs/release 

        by creating release specific folder and moving current 

        documenation into this folder

     -- from ns-3.x/doc, enter manual/ testing/ and tutorial directories 

        and build the documentation using make

     -- copy this newly created documentation into 

        /var/www/html/docs/release making sure to copy only the 

        necessary files

16. Final checks

   - check manual, testing, and tutorial documentation links

   - download tarball from web, build and run regression tests for as many

     targets as you can

   - download release from mercurial, build and run regression tests for as

     many targets as you can

   - test and verify until you're confident the release is solid.

17. announce to ns-developers, with summary of release notes