3 - Making updates to Preview Release

Now that the initial preview release has been successfully built, you need to make another release to fix reported bugs, plus few minor documentation items didn't make it in properly.

Here is a procedure for making updates to a previous release:

1. Make a branch of the release tag you wish to modify. The new branch is created under the "branches" directory with the name of the release minus any "alpha", "beta" or "rc" post fixes. Just the core module name and the version number. For example when updating "jnetpcap-X.Y.alpha1", the branch name must be "jnetpcap-X.Y" with no postfix.
2. Once the branch is made, you can modify the branch and make updates.
3. Once all the updates are done and you may now make the next release in sequence. Such as going from "alpha1" to "alpha2", or from "alpha2" to "beta1", or from "beta1" to "rc1" or from "rc1" to the "final" release.
4. The release is made using the Making Preview Release procedure, but with a different release name and from a branch directory not from the trunk.

Using the branch directory, allows us to make continues updates to any release that has been previously made. As a matter of fact, it will always be neccessary to make a branch of every release, even if is only to change the build properties to reflect a new stage of release, such as going from "alpha1" to "beta1" even if no bugs or other changes were made. Since every new release always starts out as either an alpha, a beta or a release candidate (rc), it will always be necessary to create a branch in order to make the switch.

The only exception to the above rule, is if there is completely no new development on the main development trunk, and the updates can safely be made there. That approach though, will freeze new code development, possibly for a significant amount of time. It is better to use the branch to free up the trunk to be modified independent of any previously released software.

Any changes made to the branch, eventually need to be merged back into the trunk, so that both are synchronized.