Update release procedure, keep CHANGELOG up-to-date (#31969)

Co-authored-by: Harmen Stoppels <harmenstoppels@gmail.com>

2 files changed, 43 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f476ad2b3d..f8279ed57b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,21 @@
+# v0.18.1 (2022-07-19)
+
+### Spack Bugfixes
+* Fix several bugs related to bootstrapping (#30834,#31042,#31180)
+* Fix a regression that was causing spec hashes to differ between 
+  Python 2 and Python 3 (#31092)
+* Fixed compiler flags for oneAPI and DPC++ (#30856)
+* Fixed several issues related to concretization (#31142,#31153,#31170,#31226)
+* Improved support for Cray manifest file and `spack external find` (#31144,#31201,#31173,#31186)
+* Assign a version to openSUSE Tumbleweed according to the GLIBC version
+  in the system (#19895) 
+* Improved Dockerfile generation for `spack containerize` (#29741,#31321)
+* Fixed a few bugs related to concurrent execution of commands (#31509,#31493,#31477)  
+
+### Package updates
+* WarpX: add v22.06, fixed libs property (#30866,#31102)
+* openPMD: add v0.14.5, update recipe for @develop (#29484,#31023)
+
 # v0.18.0 (2022-05-28)
 
 `v0.18.0` is a major feature release.
@@ -199,6 +217,15 @@
     * 337 committers to packages
     * 85 committers to core
 
+# v0.17.3 (2022-07-14)
+
+### Spack bugfixes
+
+* Fix missing chgrp on symlinks in package installations (#30743)
+* Allow having non-existing upstreams (#30744, #30746)
+* Fix `spack stage` with custom paths (#30448)
+* Fix failing call for `spack buildcache save-specfile` (#30637)
+* Fix globbing in compiler wrapper (#30699)
 
 # v0.17.2 (2022-04-13)
 
diff --git a/lib/spack/docs/developer_guide.rst b/lib/spack/docs/developer_guide.rst
index 761599c5d9..c4d04cb485 100644
--- a/lib/spack/docs/developer_guide.rst
+++ b/lib/spack/docs/developer_guide.rst
@@ -965,8 +965,13 @@ completed, the steps to make the point release are:
 
       $ git checkout releases/v0.15
 
+#. If a pull request to the release branch named ``Backports vX.Y.Z`` is not already
+   in the project, create it. This pull request ought to be created as early as
+   possible when working on a release project, so that we can build the release
+   commits incrementally, and identify potential conflicts at an early stage.
+
 #. Cherry-pick each pull request in the ``Done`` column of the release
-   project board onto the release branch.
+   project board onto the ``Backports vX.Y.Z`` pull request.
 
    This is **usually** fairly simple since we squash the commits from the
    vast majority of pull requests. That means there is only one commit
@@ -991,7 +996,7 @@ completed, the steps to make the point release are:
 
       It is important to cherry-pick commits in the order they happened,
       otherwise you can get conflicts while cherry-picking. When
-      cherry-picking onto a point release, look at the merge date,
+      cherry-picking look at the merge date,
       **not** the number of the pull request or the date it was opened.
 
       Sometimes you may **still** get merge conflicts even if you have
@@ -1012,15 +1017,19 @@ completed, the steps to make the point release are:
          branch if neither of the above options makes sense, but this can
          require a lot of work. It's seldom the right choice.
 
-#. Bump the version in ``lib/spack/spack/__init__.py``.
+#. When all the commits from the project board are cherry-picked into
+   the ``Backports vX.Y.Z`` pull request, you can push a commit to:
 
-#. Update ``CHANGELOG.md`` with a list of the changes.
+   1. Bump the version in ``lib/spack/spack/__init__.py``.
+   2. Update ``CHANGELOG.md`` with a list of the changes.
 
    This is typically a summary of the commits you cherry-picked onto the
    release branch. See `the changelog from 0.14.1
    <https://github.com/spack/spack/commit/ff0abb9838121522321df2a054d18e54b566b44a>`_.
 
-#. Push the release branch to GitHub.
+#. Merge the ``Backports vX.Y.Z`` PR with the **Rebase and merge** strategy. This
+   is needed to keep track in the release branch of all the commits that were
+   cherry-picked.
 
 #. Make sure CI passes on the release branch, including:
 
@@ -1039,6 +1048,8 @@ completed, the steps to make the point release are:
 
 #. Follow the steps in :ref:`announcing-releases`.
 
+#. Submit a PR to update the CHANGELOG in the `develop` branch
+   with the addition of this point release.
 
 .. _publishing-releases: