Steps in doing an ns-3 release

1. check out a clean ns-3-dev somewhere using ns-3-allinone (you will need it)
   - hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-allinone
   - ./download.py
   - ./build.py
   - confirm that the release builds cleanly.
   - cd ns-3-dev
   - ensure that tests pass (./test.py)
   - ensure no regressions (./waf --regression)
2. prepare the source files
   - revise and check in AUTHORS, if needed
   - revise and check in RELEASE_NOTES
   - DO NOT change VERSION at this time
   - confirm that Doxygen builds cleanly and without warnings
     (./waf doxygen), and check in any necessary changes 
3. build an ns-3-allinone distribution
   - change back into the allinone directory
   - ./dist.py
   - this will create an ns-allinone-dev.tar.bz2 tarball
4. test dev tarball on release platforms 
   - ./test.py 
   - ./waf --regression
   - other scripts you can think of
5. once you are happy with the tarball, tag ns-3-dev and ns-3-dev-ref-traces
   - cd into ns-3-dev
   - hg tag "ns-3.x"
   - hg push 
   - cd into ns-3-dev-ref-traces
   - hg tag "ns-3.x"
   - hg push 
6. clone the tagged ns-3-dev and place it on the repository
   - ssh code.nsnam.org; sudo bash; su code;
   - cp -r /home/code/repos/ns-3-dev /home/code/repos/ns-3.1x
   - cd /home/code/repos/ns-3.x/.hg and edit the hgrc appropriately:
     "description = ns-3.x release
      name = ns-3.x"
   - clone the ns-3-dev-ref-traces and place it on the repository as above
     but use the name ns-3.x-ref-traces and edit the hgrc appropriately
7. check out a clean version of the new release (ns-3.x) somewhere
   - hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3.x
8. Update the VERSION for this new release
   - change the string 3-dev in the VERSION file to the real version 
     (e.g. 3.7 or 3.7-RC1)  This must agree with the version name you chose in the clone
     for the regression tests to work.
   - hg commit -m "update VERSION to ns-3.x"
   - hg push ssh://code@code.nsnam.org//home/code/repos/ns-3.x

9. Run the tests on the new release (debug and optimized) like a user would
   You need to use ns-3-allinone since you will use that to make the distro
   - hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-allinone ns-3-allinone-3.x
   - cd !$
   - ./download.py -n ns-3.x -r ns-3.x-ref-traces
   - ./build.py
   - cd ns-3.x
   - ./test.py
   - ./test.py -g
   - ./waf --regression
   - ./waf --valgrind --regression (for valgrind version)
   - ./waf -d optimized configure
   - ./waf
   - ./test.py
   - ./test.py -g
   - ./waf --regression
   - ./waf --valgrind --regression (for valgrind version)
   - There should be no regression errors at this time
10. Create final tarballs
   - cd into ns-3-allinone level
   - ./dist.py
   - this will create an ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2 tarball
11. upload "ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2" to the /var/www/html/releases/ directory on 
   the www.nsnam.org server
   - scp ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2 www.nsnam.org:~
   - ssh www.nsnam.org
   - sudo cp ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2 /var/www/html/releases
   - cd !$
12. give it 644 file permissions, and user/group = apache if it is not already
   - sudo chown apache:apache ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2
   - sudo chmod 644 ns-allinone-3.x.tar.bz2
13. update web pages on www.nsnam.org (source is in the www/ module)
   - clone the source repo (hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/www)
   - update references to releases in html_src 
     (consider "grep 'ns-3\.' *.html" for a new release)
     (consider "grep 'RCx' *.html" for a new RC)
   - update references to releases in scripts/

   - update roadmap on wiki
   - commit and push changes
14. update the server
   - build and update HTML directory on the server
     -- ssh www.nsnam.org; sudo bash; su nsnam;
     -- run ~/bin/update-html
   - build and update Doxygen directory on the server
     -- edit ~/bin/update-doxygen-release file and change RELEASE variable 
        to the right version number 
     -- run ~/bin/update-doxygen-release
15. Final checks
   - download tarball from web, build and run regression tests for as many
     targets as you can
   - download release from mercurial, build and run regression tests for as
     many targets as you can
   - test and verify until you're confident the release is solid.
16. announce to ns-developers, with summary of release notes