From 9ba848820915a8181c0718221a80a8a2ddde2ed7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shirong Lu <73147033+happysnaker@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2026 20:40:36 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] docs: update release process per maintainer feedback

Reflects the maintainer's preferred workflow using the GitHub UI
for drafting releases, which publishes the tag atomically with the
release and shows the PR list before picking a version number.

Closes #434
---
 RELEASING.md | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 31 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 RELEASING.md

diff --git a/RELEASING.md b/RELEASING.md
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+# Releasing pflag
+
+This document describes how to create a new pflag release.
+
+## Method 1: GitHub UI (recommended by maintainers)
+
+1. Go to the [releases page](https://github.com/spf13/pflag/releases)
+2. Click **"Draft a new release"**
+3. Click **"Generate release notes"** — this shows the merged PRs since the last tag, which helps determine the next version (minor vs patch)
+4. Choose the tag version (e.g., `v1.0.8`) — the tag will be created when the release is published
+5. Review the generated notes, then publish
+
+This method has the advantage that the tag and release are published atomically, and the PR list helps pick the right version number before tagging.
+
+## Method 2: GitHub CLI
+
+```bash
+git checkout master
+git pull origin master
+
+# Tag and push
+git tag v1.0.8
+git push origin v1.0.8
+
+# Create release with auto-generated notes
+gh release create v1.0.8 --generate-notes
+```
+
+## Notes
+
+pflag follows [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/). Check the [releases page](https://github.com/spf13/pflag/releases) for the latest tag.