Add documentation for the release process

Fixes #3032.

3 files changed, 81 insertions, 18 deletions

diff --git a/.github/pull_request_template.md b/.github/pull_request_template.md
index edc3b048..4fd9fde8 100644
--- a/.github/pull_request_template.md
+++ b/.github/pull_request_template.md
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-Please make sure to document all user-facing changes in the `CANGELOG.md` file.
+Please make sure to document all user-facing changes in the `CHANGELOG.md` file.
 
 Draft PRs are always welcome, though unless otherwise requested PRs will not be reviewed until all required and optional CI steps are successful and they have left the draft stage.
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a113101c..48b37307 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Direct escape input on Windows using alt
 - Incorrect window size on X11 when waking up from suspend
 
-## 0.4.0-dev
+## 0.4.0
 
 ### Packaging
 
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 0075f322..93217ded 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -11,56 +11,119 @@ Table of Contents:
     2. [Performance](#performance)
     3. [Documentation](#documentation)
     4. [Style](#style)
-4. [Contact](#contact)
+4. [Release Process](#release-process)
+5. [Contact](#contact)
 
 ## Feature Requests
 
-Feature requests should be reported in the [Alacritty issue tracker](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues). To reduce the number of duplicates, please make sure to check the existing [enhancement](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+label%3Aenhancement) and [missing feature](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+label%3A%22B+-+missing+feature%22) issues.
+Feature requests should be reported in the
+[Alacritty issue tracker](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues). To reduce the number of
+duplicates, please make sure to check the existing
+[enhancement](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+label%3Aenhancement)
+and
+[missing feature](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+label%3A%22B+-+missing+feature%22)
+issues.
 
 ## Bug Reports
 
-Bug reports should be reported in the [Alacritty issue tracker](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues).
+Bug reports should be reported in the
+[Alacritty issue tracker](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues).
 
-If a bug was not present in a previous version of Alacritty, providing the exact commit which introduced the regression helps out a lot.
+If a bug was not present in a previous version of Alacritty, providing the exact commit which
+introduced the regression helps out a lot.
 
 ## Patches / Pull Requests
 
 All patches have to be sent on Github as [pull requests](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/pulls).
 
-If you are looking for a place to start contributing to Alacritty, take a look at the [help wanted](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22) and [easy](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22D+-+easy%22) issues.
+If you are looking for a place to start contributing to Alacritty, take a look at the
+[help wanted](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22)
+and
+[easy](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22D+-+easy%22)
+issues.
 
-Please note that the minimum supported version of Alacritty is Rust 1.36.0. All patches are expected to work with the minimum supported version.
+Please note that the minimum supported version of Alacritty is Rust 1.36.0. All patches are expected
+to work with the minimum supported version.
 
 ### Testing
 
-To make sure no regressions were introduced, all tests should be run before sending a pull request. The following command can be run to test Alacritty:
+To make sure no regressions were introduced, all tests should be run before sending a pull request.
+The following command can be run to test Alacritty:
 
 ```
 cargo test
 ```
 
-Additionally if there's any functionality included which would lend itself to additional testing, new tests should be added. These can either be in the form of Rust tests using the `#[test]` annotation, or Alacritty's ref tests.
+Additionally if there's any functionality included which would lend itself to additional testing,
+new tests should be added. These can either be in the form of Rust tests using the `#[test]`
+annotation, or Alacritty's ref tests.
 
-To record a new ref test, a release version of the patched binary should be created and run with the `--ref-test` flag. After closing the Alacritty window, or killing it (`exit` and `^D` do not work), some new files should have been generated in the working directory. Those can then be copied to the `./tests/ref/NEW_TEST_NAME` directory and the test can be enabled by editing the `ref_tests!` macro in the `./tests/ref.rs` file. When fixing a bug, it should be checked that the ref test does not complete correctly with the unpatched version, to make sure the test case is covered properly.
+To record a new ref test, a release version of the patched binary should be created and run with the
+`--ref-test` flag. After closing the Alacritty window, or killing it (`exit` and `^D` do not work),
+some new files should have been generated in the working directory. Those can then be copied to the
+`./tests/ref/NEW_TEST_NAME` directory and the test can be enabled by editing the `ref_tests!` macro
+in the `./tests/ref.rs` file. When fixing a bug, it should be checked that the ref test does not
+complete correctly with the unpatched version, to make sure the test case is covered properly.
 
 ### Performance
 
-Alacritty mainly uses the [vtebench](https://github.com/jwilm/vtebench) tool for testing Alacritty's performance. Any change which could have an impact on Alacritty's performance, should be tested with it to prevent potential regressions.
+Alacritty mainly uses the [vtebench](https://github.com/jwilm/vtebench) tool for testing Alacritty's
+performance. Any change which could have an impact on Alacritty's performance, should be tested with
+it to prevent potential regressions.
 
 ### Documentation
 
-Code should be documented where appropriate. The existing code can be used as a guidance here and the general `rustfmt` rules can be followed for formatting.
+Code should be documented where appropriate. The existing code can be used as a guidance here and
+the general `rustfmt` rules can be followed for formatting.
 
-If any change has been made to the `config.rs` file, these changes should also be documented in the example configuration file `alacritty.yml`.
+If any change has been made to the `config.rs` file, these changes should also be documented in the
+example configuration file `alacritty.yml`.
 
-Changes compared to the latest Alacritty release which have a direct effect on the user (opposed to things like code refactorings or documentation/tests) additionally need to be documented in the `CHANGELOG.md`. The existing entries should be used as a style guideline. The change log should be used to document changes from a user-perspective, instead of explaining the technical background (like commit messages). More information about Alacritty's change log format can be found [here](https://keepachangelog.com).
+Changes compared to the latest Alacritty release which have a direct effect on the user (opposed to
+things like code refactorings or documentation/tests) additionally need to be documented in the
+`CHANGELOG.md`. The existing entries should be used as a style guideline. The change log should be
+used to document changes from a user-perspective, instead of explaining the technical background
+(like commit messages). More information about Alacritty's change log format can be found
+[here](https://keepachangelog.com).
 
 ### Style
 
-All Alacritty changes are automatically verified by CI to conform to its rustfmt guidelines. If a CI build is failing because of formatting issues, you can install rustfmt using `rustup component add rustfmt` and then format all code using `cargo fmt`.
+All Alacritty changes are automatically verified by CI to conform to its rustfmt guidelines. If a CI
+build is failing because of formatting issues, you can install rustfmt using `rustup component add
+rustfmt` and then format all code using `cargo fmt`.
+
+# Release Process
+
+Alacritty's release process aims to provide stable and well tested releases without having to hold
+back new features during the testing period.
+
+To achieve these goals, a new branch is created for every new release. Both the release candidates
+and the final version are only comitted and tagged in this branch. The master branch only tracks
+development versions, allowing us to keep the branches completely separate without merging releases
+back into master.
+
+The exact steps for an exemplary `1.2.3` release might look like this:
+ 1. Initially, the version on the latest master is `1.2.3-dev`
+ 2. A new `v1.2.3` branch is created for the release
+ 3. On master, the version is bumped to `1.2.4-dev`
+        and the `-dev` is stripped from previous change log entries
+ 4. In the branch, the version is bumped to `1.2.3-rc1`
+ 5. The new commit in the branch is tagged as `v1.2.3-rc1`
+ 6. A GitHub release is created for the `v1.2.3-rc1` tag
+ 7. The changelog since the last release (stable or RC)
+        is added to the GitHub release description
+ 8. Bug fixes are cherry-picked from master into the branch and steps 4-7
+        are repeated until no major issues are found in the release candidates
+ 9. In the branch, the version is bumped to `1.2.3`
+ 10. The new commit in the branch is tagged as `v1.2.3`
+ 11. A GitHub release is created for the `v1.2.3` tag
+ 12. The changelog since the last stable release (**not** RC)
+        is added to the GitHub release description
 
 # Contact
 
-If there are any outstanding questions about contributing to Alacritty, they can be asked on the [Alacritty issue tracker](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues).
+If there are any outstanding questions about contributing to Alacritty, they can be asked on the
+[Alacritty issue tracker](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues).
 
-As a more immediate and direct form of communication, the Alacritty IRC channel (`#alacritty` on Freenode) can be used to contact many of the Alacritty contributors.
+As a more immediate and direct form of communication, the Alacritty IRC channel (`#alacritty` on
+Freenode) can be used to contact many of the Alacritty contributors.