Document (re-)deprecation, cancelling deprecation, and re-adding collections; improve new major release docs; remove superfluous freeze docs (#502)

* Document (re-)deprecation, cancelling deprecation, and re-adding collections.

* Remove manual freeze instructions.

Use the automated build process instead, which handles this already.

* Update instructions for new major releases.

* Remove removal block from example.

* Add missing word.

Author: felixfontein

docs/automated-process.md

@@ -155,4 +155,4 @@ next to the release version:
 
 When the new major release has been done, remember to prepare the directory for
 the next major Ansible release. How to do this is described in [Setting up for a
-new major release](new-ansible-and-freezes.md#setting-up-for-a-new-major-release).
+new major release](new-ansible.md#setting-up-for-a-new-major-release).

docs/new-ansible-and-freezes.md

@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+# New Ansible Releases
+
+## Preamble
+
+Releasing new Ansible major versions and frozen releases requires some special
+handling.
+For information about the general release process,
+see [Ansible Release Process](release-process.md).
+
+## Setting up for a new major release
+
+<!-- TODO: Write a script, playbook, or antsibull-build subcommand to automate this -->
+
+After the release of `X.0.0`, it is necessary to create the directory
+structure for Ansible `X+1`.
+
+1. Determine the current major version and next major version:
+
+    ``` sh
+    CURRENT_MAJOR_VERSION=11
+    NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION=12
+    ```
+
+2. Create the major version directory:
+
+    ``` sh
+    mkdir "${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}/"
+    ```
+
+3. Copy over the `ansible.in` and `collection-meta.yaml` files:
+
+    ``` sh
+    cp "${CURRENT_MAJOR_VERSION}/ansible.in" "${CURRENT_MAJOR_VERSION}/collection-meta.yaml" \
+       "${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}/"
+    ```
+
+4. Symlink `${CURRENT_MAJOR_VERSION}.0.0`'s deps file to
+   `${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}/ancestor.deps`:
+
+    ``` sh
+    ln -sr "${CURRENT_MAJOR_VERSION}/ansible-${CURRENT_MAJOR_VERSION}.0.0.deps" \
+       "${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}/ancestor.deps"
+    ```
+
+5. Create a stub `changelog.yaml` file:
+
+    ``` sh
+    cat <<EOF >${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}/changelog.yaml
+    ---
+    ancestor: ${CURRENT_MAJOR_VERSION}.0.0
+    releases: {}
+    EOF
+    ```
+
+6. Create a blank `validate-tags-ignores` file:
+
+    ``` sh
+    touch "${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}/validate-tags-ignores"
+    ```
+
+7. Create a blank `ansible-${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}.constraints` file:
+
+    ``` sh
+    touch "${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}/ansible-${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}.constraints"
+    ```
+
+    You might need to fill this with some initial data.
+
+8. Add the next major version to ansible-build-data's CI:
+
+    Open `.github/workflows/antsibull-build.yml` and add the following block to the
+    matrix:
+
+    ``` yaml
+    - name: Ansible ${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}
+      ansible_version: ${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}.99.0
+      ansible_major_version: ${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}
+    ```
+
+9. Update `collection-meta.yaml` and `ansible.in`:
+
+    1. Find all collection entries from `collections` in `collections-meta.yaml`
+       that have a `removal` entry with `major_version` equal to `${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}`.
+
+        - If the `removal` entry has an `updates` and the last entry is about keeping them (`readded_version` or `cancelled_version`),
+          remove the `removal` entry completely.
+
+        - Otherwise, cut out the collection's entry and paste it into a temporary buffer / file.
+
+    2. For every cut out metadata entry,
+       remove the corresponding entry in `ansible.in`.
+
+    3. For every cut out metadata entry,
+       find the correct place in `removed_collections` in `collections-meta.yaml`
+       to insert the removed part from `collections-meta.yaml` and paste the entry there.
+       Modify the entry as follows:
+
+        - Replace `major_version: ${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}` by `version: ${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}.0.0a1`.
+
+        - Remove `announce_version` if present.
+
+        - Remove `updates` if present.
+
+10. Validate build data:
+
+    ```sh
+    antsibull-build lint-build-data --data-dir "${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}" "${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}"
+    ```
+
+11. Commit the changes:
+
+    ``` sh
+    git add "${NEXT_MAJOR_VERSION}" .github/workflows/antsibull-build.yml
+    ```
+
+12. Submit a PR against [the ansible-build-data repository](https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-build-data/).