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+.. _tarball-release-process:
+
+QEMU source tarballs and the release management process
+=======================================================
+
+Overview
+--------
+
+Once an official release is tagged in the QEMU git tree by the current
+upstream maintainer (for major releases), or current stable maintainer
+(for stable releases), additional work is needed to generate/publish a
+source tarball for consumption by distros, vendors, and end-users who
+may not use git sources directly. A person involved in producing these
+tarballs is referred to herein as a "release maintainer" (not to be
+confused with the upstream/stable maintainers who are responsible for
+managing/tagging the git trees from which the tarballs are generated).
+
+This documents provides an overview of this release process and is
+mainly intended as a reference for current/prospective release maintainers
+and other individuals involved in the release management process, but it
+may also be useful to consumers of these source tarballs.
+
+Generating source tarballs
+--------------------------
+
+The following example describes the tarball creation process for a
+particular tagged commit in the QEMU source tree, in this case v8.0.0:
+
+  .. code::
+
+     # Check out the tagged commit
+     push ${qemu_git_dir}
+     git checkout v8.0.0
+     popd
+
+     # Generate the .bz2 tarball
+     mkdir ${qemu_build_dir}
+     cd ${qemu_build_dir}
+     ${qemu_git_dir}/configure
+     make qemu-8.0.0.tar.bz2
+
+     # Generate the .xz tarball
+     bzip2 -k -d qemu-8.0.0.tar.bz2
+     xz -9 -k qemu-8.0.0.tar
+
+     # Sign the resulting tarballs
+     gpg -b qemu-8.0.0.tar.bz2
+     gpg -b qemu-8.0.0.tar.xz
+
+Testing source tarballs
+-----------------------
+
+While releases tagged in the QEMU git tree will have undergone the full
+range of CI testing already, the scripts/process to generate the source
+tree contained in a tarball warrant some additional testing to guard
+against regressions being introduced at this stage in the process. At a
+minimum, an all-target build of QEMU using features commonly enabled by
+distros should be performed, e.g.:
+
+  .. code::
+
+     tar jxvf qemu-8.0.0.tar.bz2
+     mkdir qemu-8.0.0-build
+     cd qemu-8.0.0-build
+     ../qemu-8.0.0/configure --extra-cflags=-Wall \
+        --enable-gtk --enable-numa --enable-linux-aio --enable-usb-redir \
+        --enable-virtfs --enable-libusb
+     make
+     make check
+
+Publishing source tarballs
+--------------------------
+
+The publishing process generally involves the following steps:
+
+1) Upload the tarballs and their corresponding signatures to qemu.org's
+   file host. This process may change occasionally due to qemu.org's
+   changing bandwidth/infrastructure needs, so check with the QEMU team on
+   setting up access and getting details on the specific upload process. One
+   fairly constant requirement however is to upload all the required
+   components to the appropriate location, e.g.:
+
+  .. code::
+
+     qemu-8.0.0.tar.bz2
+     qemu-8.0.0.tar.bz2.sig
+     qemu-8.0.0.tar.xz
+     qemu-8.0.0.tar.xz.sig
+
+2) Update the links on the qemu.org download page. This is currently
+   handled automatically when pushing updates to the git repo used to
+   manage the content on qemu.org. An example of the commit
+   corresponding to publishing the QEMU 8.0.0 release can be seen here:
+
+   https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu-web/-/commit/8a2082e67c1b39d41bd526bfa0435de34199d6d9
+
+   Prior to a final release there are usually a number of release
+   candidates tarballs which are also published on qemu.org. An example for
+   QEMU 8.0.0-rc4 can be seen here:
+
+   https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu-web/-/commit/c976cbe248ca76eae9e938f718372a2dba1a21af
+
+3) Send an announcement to the QEMU mailing list. The format may differ
+   slightly for major releases, RCs, and stable stable releases. It may
+   also change a bit based on the preferences of the current release
+   maintainer or other factors.
+
+   For reference, an example announcement for the QEMU 8.0.0 major release
+   can be found here:
+
+   https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2023-04/msg02755.html
+
+   An example announcement for the QEMU 8.0.0-rc4 major release candidate
+   can be found here:
+
+   https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2023-04/msg02026.html
+
+   An example announcement for the QEMU 8.0.2 stable release can be found
+   here:
+
+   https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2023-06/msg00221.html
+
+4) For major releases, add an accompanying blog entry to the git repo used
+   to manage qemu.org. It should generally follow the format of the
+   above-mentioned announcement sent to the QEMU mailing list. Generally
+   this is only done for final releases, and not for RCs, e.g.:
+
+   https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu-web/-/commit/a5cb9e1a81e46b7e431ec3a0c130d0b4bf93d39a
+
+   For stable releases there generally isn't an associated blog entry, but
+   providing one may be worthwhile in some cases for bringing additional
+   attention to releases that address critical functional/security issues.
