1---
2title: Steps to a Successful Release
3category: Contributing
4layout: default
5SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
6---
7
8# Steps to a Successful Release
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101. Add all items to NEWS
112. Update the contributors list in NEWS (`ninja -C build git-contrib`)
123. Update the time and place in NEWS
134. Update hwdb (`ninja -C build update-hwdb`, `ninja -C build update-hwdb-autosuspend`, commit separately).
145. Update syscall numbers (`ninja -C build update-syscall-tables update-syscall-header`).
156. [RC1] Update version and library numbers in `meson.build`
167. Check dbus docs with `ninja -C build update-dbus-docs`
178. Tag the release: `version=vXXX-rcY && git tag -s "${version}" -m "systemd ${version}"`
189. Do `ninja -C build`
1910. Make sure that the version string and package string match: `build/systemctl --version`
2011. Upload the documentation: `ninja -C build doc-sync`
2112. [FINAL] Close the github milestone and open a new one (https://github.com/systemd/systemd/milestones)
2213. "Draft" a new release on github (https://github.com/systemd/systemd/releases/new), mark "This is a pre-release" if appropriate.
2314. Check that announcement to systemd-devel, with a copy&paste from NEWS, was sent. This should happen automatically.
2415. Update IRC topic (`/msg chanserv TOPIC #systemd Version NNN released`)
2516. [FINAL] Push commits to stable, create an empty -stable branch: `git push systemd-stable --atomic origin/main:main origin/main:refs/heads/${version}-stable`, and change the default branch to latest release (https://github.com/systemd/systemd-stable/settings/branches).
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