-Tasks needed before the next release.
+This document describes the release process used by GNU Emacs.
+
+* RELEASE CYCLE
+
+Each release cycle will be split into two periods.
+
+** Phase one: development
+
+The first phase of the release schedule is the "heads-down" working
+period for new features, on the `master' branch and several feature
+branches.
+
+** Phase two: bugfixes
+
+Shortly before this phase, Emacs developers will be devoted to
+figuring out what features to include in the next release and what
+features to defer to a later release.
+
+At the beginning of this phase, a release branch called "emacs-NN"
+("NN" represents the major version number of the new Emacs release)
+will be cut from `master'.
+
+This phase is spent fixing bugs and eliminating undocumented new
+features on the "emacs-NN" branch.
+
+In parallel to this phase, `master' can receive new features, to be
+released in the next release cycle. From time to time, the master
+branches merges bugfix commits from the "emacs-NN" branch.
+
+* RELEASE-CRITICAL BUGS
+
+Emacs uses the "blocking bug(s)" feature of Debbugs for bugs need to
+be addressed in the next release.
+
+Currently, bug#19759 is the tracking bug for release of 25.1. Say
+bug#123 needs to be fixed for Emacs 25.1. Send a message to
+control@debbugs.gnu.org that says:
+
+ block 19759 by 123
+
+Change "block" to "unblock" to unblock the bug.
* TO BE DONE SHORTLY BEFORE RELEASE
+** Make sure the Copyright date reflects the current year in the source
+files. See `admin/notes/years' for information about maintaining
+copyright years for GNU Emacs.
+
** Make sure the necessary sources and scripts for any generated files
are included in the source tarfile. (They don't need to be installed,
so eg admin/ is fine.)
variables.texi
windows.texi
+* OTHER INFORMATION
+
+For Emacs's versioning scheme, see `admin/notes/versioning'.
+
+For instructions to create pretest or release tarballs, announcements,
+etc., see `admin/make-tarball.txt'.
+
\f
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