Merge pull request #907 from PowerShell/andschwa/releasing

Add releasing documentation

docs/releasing/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+Preparing
+=========
+
+Open PowerShell releases use [Semantic Versioning][semver]. Until we hit 1.0,
+each sprint results in a bump to the minor version number, and interim bugfix
+releases bump the patch number.
+
+When a particular commit is chosen as a release, we create an
+[annotated tag][tag] that names the release and list the major changes since the
+previous release. An annotated tag has a message (like a commit), and is *not*
+the same as a lightweight tag. Create one with `git tag -a vX.Y.Z`. Our
+convention is to prepend the `v` to the semantic version. The summary (first
+line) of the annotated tag message should be the full release title, e.g.
+'v0.3.0 alpha release of Open PowerShell'.
+
+When the annotated tag is finalized, push it with `git push --tags`. GitHub will
+see the tag and present it as an option when creating a new [release][]. Start
+the release, use the annotated tag's summary as the title, and save the release
+as a draft while you upload the binary packages.
+
+[semver]: http://semver.org/
+[tag]: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Tagging
+[release]: https://help.github.com/articles/creating-releases/
+
+Building Packages
+=================
+
+Linux / OS X
+------------
+
+The `PowerShellGitHubDev` module contains a `Start-PSPackage` function to build
+Linux packages. It requires that `Start-PSBuild -Publish` has been run. The
+output *must* be published so that it includes the runtime. This function will
+automatically deduce the correct version from the most recent annotated tag
+(using `git describe`), and if not specified, will build a package for the
+current platform.
+
+At this time, Linux packages must be built on Linux, and OS X packages on OS X;
+however, an RPM can be created on Ubuntu. This requires installing the `rpm`
+package, building with `-Runtime centos.7.1-x64`, and packaging with `-Type rpm`.
+
+The `Start-PSBuild` function relies on the [Effing Package Management][fpm]
+project, which makes building packages for any (non-Windows) platform a breeze.
+Follow their readme to install FPM.
+
+To modify any property of the packages, edit the `Start-PSPackage` function.
+Please also refer to the function for details on the package properties (such as
+the description, maintainer, vendor, URL, license, category, dependencies, and
+file layout).
+
+[fpm]: https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
+
+Windows
+-------
+
+We do not yet create Windows installers. However, Open PowerShell is
+self-contained. Thus a ZIP archive of the resulting `Start-PSBuild -Publish`
+output will contain all the necessary dependencies and the `powershell.exe`
+executable.