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(maintain.info)Test Releases

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Test Releases
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   When you release a greatly changed new major version of a program,
you might want to do so as a pretest.  This means that you make a tar
file, but send it only to a group of volunteers that you have
recruited.  (Use a suitable GNU mailing list/newsgroup to recruit
them.)  We normally use the FTP server `alpha.gnu.org' for pretests and
prerelease versions.  You can place items on `alpha.gnu.org' by putting
them in the `~ftp/gnu' directory on `fencepost.gnu.org'.

   Once a program gets to be widely used and people expect it to work
solidly, it is a good idea to do pretest releases before each "real"
release.

   If you are about to release version 4.6 but you want to do a pretest
first, call it 4.5.90.  If you need a second pretest, call it 4.5.91,
and so on.  If you are really unlucky and ten pretests are not enough,
after 4.5.99 you could advance to 4.5.990 and so on.

   One thing that you should never do is to release a pretest with the
same version number as the planned real release.  Many people will look
only at the version number (in the tar file name, in the directory name
that it unpacks into, or wherever they can find it) to determine
whether a tar file is the latest version.  People might look at the
test release in this way and mistake it for the real release.
Therefore, always change the number when you release changed code.