Describe the kernel-style stable branches (qdl-X.Y.y) agreed for
shipping urgent fixes independently of master: cut the branch from
the release tag immediately after tagging, backport fixes that landed
on master with cherry-pick -x through stable-targeted pull requests
(CI runs on those unchanged), and cut point releases (vX.Y.Z) from
the branch with the same flow as a normal release.
Signed-off-by: Igor Opaniuk <igor.opaniuk@oss.qualcomm.com>
Preparation for linting every markdown file in the tree: surround the
sign-off example in AGENTS.md with the blank lines the linter wants,
and flatten the RELEASING.md table of contents - its single top-level
entry only repeated the document title, and the nested indentation
tripped the linter's list-indent rule under kramdown.
While at it, replace the literal Signed-off-by example with the
'git commit -s' command that produces it. checkpatch validates
anything shaped like a signature tag on any patch line - added,
removed and context lines alike - so any patch touching these lines
trips 'Unrecognized email address' on the $(git config ...)
placeholders. Documenting the command instead keeps trailer-shaped
text out of the file entirely, with no checkpatch exceptions needed.
Signed-off-by: Igor Opaniuk <igor.opaniuk@oss.qualcomm.com>
Cutting a release has so far been an informal, tribal-knowledge effort:
the exact steps, the tag conventions, which hardware/driver combinations
must be validated, and how the GitHub release is assembled from CI
artifacts.
Add RELEASING.md to formalize and standardize that process so any
maintainer can cut a release the same way. It documents, end to end:
- how to populate CHANGELOG.md from the merged PRs and start testing;
- opening the changelog PR and tagging release candidates;
- the validation matrix (HIL suite across Windows+QUD, Windows+WinUSB,
Linux and macOS) plus manual VIP validation, and rc-tag iteration;
- applying the final immutable release tag (with a note on the
annotated vs lightweight tag history);
- creating the GitHub release from the existing Buildtest artifacts,
with release notes extracted straight from CHANGELOG.md.
Signed-off-by: Igor Opaniuk <igor.opaniuk@oss.qualcomm.com>
Igor Opaniuk