Add RELEASE.md

RELEASE.md

@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+# Release Workflow
+Before submitting a new release, make sure all relevant pull requests and local branches have been merged to the `master`
+branch. All tests must pass before a release is tagged.
+
+## 1. AUTHORS
+Update the [AUTHORS] and [.mailmap] file
+
+``` bash
+git checkout master
+git log --use-mailmap | grep ^Author: | cut -f2- -d' ' | sort | uniq > AUTHORS
+git commit -am "Update AUTHORS"
+```
+
+## 2. Changelog
+Update [CHANGELOG.md] with all relevant information.
+
+## 3. Version
+Version numbers are incremented regarding the [SemVer 1.0.0] specification. 
+Update the version number in the following files:
+
+* `version.yml`
+* `vendor/github.com/elastic/beats/dev-tools/packer/version.yml`
+
+## 4. Build
+Build packages:
+
+``` bash
+export SNAPSHOT=false
+make package
+```
+
+Create dashboard zip files:
+
+``` bash
+export SNAPSHOT=false
+make package-dashboards
+```
+
+## 5. Git Tag
+Commit all changes to the `master` branch
+
+``` bash
+git commit -v -a -m "Release version <VERSION>"
+git push
+```
+
+Tag the release
+
+``` bash
+git tag -m "Version <VERSION>" v<VERSION>
+```
+
+Push tags
+
+``` bash
+git push --tags
+```
+
+[SemVer 1.0.0]: http://semver.org/spec/v1.0.0.html
+[CHANGELOG.md]: CHANGELOG.md
+[AUTHORS]: AUTHORS
+[.mailmap]: .mailmap