Create a script that builds the release.

RELEASE-PROCESS.md

 How to release
 ==============
 
+* Check out the master branch in a fresh directory.  Do NOT use your regular repo, as the release
+  script commits changes and if anything goes wrong you'll probably want to trash the whole thing
+  without pushing.
+
 * Run `super-test.sh` on as many platforms as you have available.  Remember that you can easily run
   on any machine available through ssh using `./super-test.sh remote [hostname]`.  Also run in
   clang mode.
 
-* Create a new release branch, named release-VERSION, where VERSION is the current version number
-  except with `-dev` replaced by `.0`.  E.g. 1.1-dev becomes 1.1.0.
-
-* In the master branch, bump the minor version number.
-
-* In the release branch, change the version numbers in both `c++/configure.ac` and
-  `compiler/capnproto-compiler.cabal`, replacing `-dev` with `.0-rc1`.  So, e.g., 1.1-dev becomes
-  1.1.0-rc1.
-
-* Under the `compiler` directory, run `cabal sdist` to build a release candidate tarball.
+* Run `./release.sh candidate`.  This creates a new release branch, updates the version number to
+  `-rc1`, builds release tarballs, copies them to the current directory, then switches back to the
+  master branch and bumps the version number there.
 
-* Under the `c++` directory, use `make distcheck` to build a release candidate tarball.
-
-* Install your release candidates on your local machine.
+* Install your release candidates on your local machine, as if you were a user.
 
 * Go to `c++/samples` in the git repo and run `./test.sh`.  It will try to build against your
   installed copy.
 
+* Push changes to git for both the master and release branches.
+
 * Post the release candidates somewhere public and then send links to the mailing list for people
   to test.  Wait a bit for bug reports.
 
-* If there are any problems, fix them and start a new release candidate `-rc2`, repeating the
-  instructions above, and so on until the problem is fixed.  Make sure to cherry-pick any changes
-  from the release branch back into the mainline.
+* If there are any problems, fix them in master and start a new release candidate by running
+  `./release.sh candidate <commit>...` from the release branch.  This will cherry-pick the specified
+  commits into the release branch and create a new candidate.  Repeat until all problems are fixed.
+  Be sure that any such fixes include tests or process changes so that they don't happen again.
+
+* You should now be ready for an official release.  Run `./release.sh final`.
 
-* You should now be ready for an official release.  Remove the `-rcN` suffix from the verison
-  number and rebuild the release packages one last time.  Post these publicly and update the links
-  on the site.
+* Upload the files and update the download links on the web site.
 
 * Write and publish a blog post discussing what is new.
 
-* Submit the blog post to Hacker News and other places.
+* Submit the blog post to news sites and social media as you see fit.
 
-* If problems are discovered in the release, make a new release branch forked from the current one
-  (not from master) with the micro version incremented by one and fix the problems there.  Repeat
-  the release candidate process if the changes are complicated, or skip it and just publish if the
-  release is simple and obvious.  Blog posts are usually not warranted for minor bugfix releases,
-  but the people reporting the bug should of course be told of the fix.  Be sure to cherry-pick the
-  fix back into the mainline.  If at all possible, include a test with your fix so that it doesn't
-  happen again.  The test may be a unit test, an extension of `super-test.sh`, or a new step in the
-  release process.
+* If problems are discovered in the release, fix them in master and run
+  `./release.sh candidate <commit>...` in the release branch to start a new micro release.  The
+  script automatically sees that the current branch's version no longer contains `-rc`, so it starts
+  a new branch.  Repeat the rest of the process above.  Blog posts are usually not warranted for
+  minor bugfix releases, but the people reporting the bug should of course be told of the fix.

c++/configure.ac

 ## Process this file with autoconf to produce configure.
 
-AC_INIT([Capn Proto],[0.1-dev],[capnproto@googlegroups.com],[capnproto])
+AC_INIT([Capn Proto],[0.1-dev],[capnproto@googlegroups.com],[capnproto-c++])
 
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/capnp/layout.c++])
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])

release.sh

+#! /bin/bash
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+doit() {
+  echo "@@@@ $@"
+  "$@"
+}
+
+BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
+
+case "$BRANCH" in
+  master )
+    if [ "x${1:-}" != xcandidate ]; then
+      echo "Parameter must be 'candidate' when starting from master branch." >&2
+      exit 1
+    fi
+
+    echo "New major release."
+
+    VERSION=$(grep AC_INIT c++/configure.ac | sed -e 's/^.*],\[\([^]]*\)-dev].*$/\1/g')
+
+    echo "Version: $VERSION.0"
+
+    echo "========================================================================="
+    echo "Creating release branch..."
+    echo "========================================================================="
+    doit git checkout -b release-$VERSION.0
+    VERSION_REGEX=${VERSION/./[.]}-dev
+    doit sed -i -e "s/$VERSION_REGEX/$VERSION.0-rc1/g" c++/configure.ac compiler/capnproto-compiler.cabal
+    doit git commit -a -m "Set release branch version to $VERSION.0-rc1."
+
+    echo "========================================================================="
+    echo "Building compiler package..."
+    echo "========================================================================="
+    cd compiler
+    doit cabal configure
+    doit cabal sdist
+    doit cp dist/capnproto-compiler-$VERSION.0.tar.gz ../capnproto-compiler-$VERSION.0-rc1.tar.gz
+    doit cabal clean
+    cd ..
+
+    echo "========================================================================="
+    echo "Building C++ runtime package..."
+    echo "========================================================================="
+    cd c++
+    doit ./setup-autotools.sh
+    doit autoreconf -i
+    doit ./configure
+    doit make dist
+    doit cp capnproto-c++-$VERSION.0-rc1.tar.gz ..
+    doit make maintainer-clean
+    cd ..
+
+    echo "========================================================================="
+    echo "Updating version in master branch..."
+    echo "========================================================================="
+    doit git checkout master
+    declare -a VERSION_ARR=(${VERSION/./ })
+    NEXT_VERSION=${VERSION_ARR[0]}.$((VERSION_ARR[1] + 1))
+    doit sed -i -e "s/$VERSION_REGEX/$NEXT_VERSION-dev/g" c++/configure.ac compiler/capnproto-compiler.cabal
+    doit git commit -a -m "Set mainline version to $NEXT_VERSION-dev."
+
+    echo "========================================================================="
+    echo "Done"
+    echo "========================================================================="
+    echo "Ready to release:"
+    echo "  capnproto-compiler-$VERSION.0-rc1.tar.gz"
+    echo "  capnproto-c++-$VERSION.0-rc1.tar.gz"
+    echo "Don't forget to push changes:"
+    echo "  git push origin master release-$VERSION.0"
+    ;;
+
+  release-* )
+    if [ "x${1:-}" == xcandidate ]; then
+      echo "New release candidate."
+      echo "NOT IMPLEMENTED" >&2
+      exit 1
+    elif [ "x${1:-}" == xfinal ]; then
+      echo "Final release."
+      echo "NOT IMPLEMENTED" >&2
+      exit 1
+    else
+      echo "Parameter must be either 'candidate' or 'final'." >&2
+      exit 1
+    fi
+    ;;
+
+  * )
+    echo "Not a master or release branch." >&2
+    exit 1
+esac