Here are most of the steps we (maintainers) follow when making a release.

* Start from a clean, up-to-date git directory on "master":

    make -k maintainer-clean || { ./configure && make maintainer-clean; }

    git checkout master

    git pull origin master

* Ensure that the latest stable versions of autoconf, automake, etc.

  are in your PATH.  See the buildreq list in bootstrap.conf for

  the complete list of tools.

* Ensure that you have no uncommitted diffs.  This should produce no

  output:

    git diff

* Ensure that you've pushed all changes that belong in the release:

    git push origin master

* Check that the NixOS/Hydra autobuilder is reporting all is well:

    http://hydra.nixos.org/jobset/gnu/bison-master

* Run the following command to download any new translations:

    ./bootstrap && ./configure

* Pre-release testing: ensure that the following command succeeds:

    make check syntax-check distcheck

* To (i) set the date, version number, and release TYPE on line 3 of

  NEWS, (ii) commit that, and (iii) tag the release, run

    # "TYPE" must be stable, beta or alpha

    make release-commit RELEASE='X.Y TYPE'

* Run the following to create release tarballs.  Your choice selects the

  corresponding upload-to destination in the emitted gnupload command.

  The different destinations are specified in cfg.mk.  See the definitions

  of gnu_ftp_host-{alpha,beta,stable}.

    make release RELEASE='X.Y TYPE'

* Test the tarball.  Copy it to a few odd-ball systems and ensure that

  it builds and passes all tests.

* While that's happening, write the release announcement that you will

  soon post.  Start with the template, $HOME/announce-bison-X.Y

  that was just created by that "make" command.

Once all the builds and tests have passed,

* Run the gnupload command that was suggested by your "make release"

  run above, or run

    make upload RELEASE='X.Y TYPE'

* Wait a few minutes (maybe up to 30?) and then use the release URLs to

  download all tarball/signature pairs and use gpg --verify to ensure

  that they're all valid.

* Push the NEWS-updating changes and the new tag:

    v=$(cat .prev-version)

    git push origin master tag v$v

* Announce it on Savannah first, so you can include the savannah.org

  announcement link in the email message.

  Go to the news-submission form:

    https://savannah.gnu.org/news/submit.php?group=bison

  If it does not work, then enable "News" for the project via this link:

    https://savannah.gnu.org/project/admin/editgroupfeatures.php?group=bison

  Write something like the following:

    Subject: bison-X.Y released [stable]

    +verbatim+

    ...paste the announcement here...

    -verbatim-

  Then go here to approve it:

    https://savannah.gnu.org/news/approve.php?group=bison

* Send the announcement email message.

* After each non-alpha release, run

    make web-manual-update

  to update the on-line manual accessible at

    http://www.gnu.org/software/bison/manual/