Yocto Project Release Checklist

Major Release

- Week prior to build of release candidate

 - Updates to the following packages will have occurred. DO NO PANIC, these come late in the release cycle
    - wic 
    - meta-yocto-bsp 
    - meta-yocto
    - linux-firmware 
    - bootloaders (grub, syslinux, u-boot, gummiboot, etc..) 
    - hwdata 
    - pciutils 
    - util-linux 
    - i2c-tools 
    - alsa 
    - graphics drivers 
    - cryptodev 
    - systemtap
    - perf
    - linux-yocto

- Prior to build of the first release candidate

 -  Is DISTRO_VERSION updated in poky.conf?
 -  Is SDK_VERSION updated in poky.conf?
 -  Is SANITY_TESTED_DISTROS updated in poky.conf?
 -  Are yocto-docs merged to the release branch?
 -  Has bitbake -f -c distrodata universe been run?
 -  Has an updated distro_alias.inc patch been accepted?

- After the final release candidate has returned from QA and is approved

 - Have we checked and updated all tarballs if needed using consistent naming conventions?
 - Have we removed rpm and deb directories?
 - Have we cleaned up image directories and removed duplicate entries?
 - Have we moved eclipse archives to their proper spots?
 - Have we published the ADT? (Deprecated with Yocto 2.0 release and later.)
 - Have we produced an md5sum file for the entire build?
 - Have we begun the mirror sync 5 days prior to release?
 - Have we checked that the mirror sync is working?
 - Have we created release notes?
 - Have release notes been signed?
 - Have the release notes been copied to the downloads directory? 
 - Does it have a link to the QA tests?
 - Have we tagged the needed repos?
 - Have we inserted the easter egg?
 - Have we packaged the bsps?
 - Have we put them up on the yoctoproject.org website? (Release page and BSP pages.)
 - Have we tested their downloads?
 - Have we verified the README for each release on the website?
 - Have we sent out the release email?