Release tracking ticket for GHC 8.8.1

This is the release checklist for the %8.8.1 milestone. See #16816 for the template that this was derived from.

Pre-release checklist

• Remove the release notes for the previous release (e.g. docs/users_guide/8.6.*-notes.rst)
• Make release branch (e.g. ghc-8.8)
• Make post-release branch (e.g. ghc-8.9-start)
• Submodules on released tags:
  • libraries/Cabal: version 3.0.0.0 (on -rc3)
  • libraries/Win32: version 2.6.1.0
  • libraries/binary: version 0.8.7.0
  • libraries/bytestring: version 0.10.10.0
  • libraries/containers: version 0.6.2.1
  • libraries/deepseq: version 1.4.4.0 ([ ] revision pushed)
  • libraries/directory: version 1.3.3.2 ([ ] revision pushed)
  • libraries/filepath: version 1.4.2.1 ([ ] revision pushed)
  • libraries/haskeline: version 0.7.5.0 ([ ] revision pushed)
  • libraries/mtl: version 2.2.2
  • libraries/parsec: version 3.1.14.0 (on -rc)
  • libraries/pretty: version 1.1.3.6
  • libraries/process: version 1.6.5.1 ([x] tag pushed)
  • libraries/terminfo: version 0.4.1.4
  • libraries/text: version 1.2.4.0 (on -rc)
  • libraries/time: version 1.9.3
  • libraries/transformers: version 0.5.6.2
  • libraries/unix: version 2.7.2.2
  • libraries/xhtml: version 3000.2.2.1
  • utils/haddock: version todo
  • utils/hsc2hs: version todo
• Non-released submodules up-to-date:
  • nofib
  • libffi-tarballs
  • libraries/integer-gmp/gmp/gmp-tarballs
• Release notes written
• Release notes linked in index.rst
• autoconf scripts updated
• LlvmVersion in configure.ac is targetting intended LLVM version
• Release notes mentions LLVM version requirement
• llvm-targets file updated
• Changelogs updated:
  • libraries/ghc-prim
  • libraries/integer-gmp
  • libraries/integer-simple
  • libraries/hpc
  • libraries/base: Version 4.13.0.0
  • libraries/ghc-boot
  • libraries/ghc-boot-th
• Verify that the ~"backport needed" label has no more issues/merge requests needing backport
• Verify that all CI builds are green before moving to release checklist

Release checklist

• Make tag
• Wait until builds finish
• Fetch release artifacts TODO: documentation
• Sign and push release artifacts to downloads.haskell.org [TODO: documentation]
• Release/revise GHC-maintained libraries on Hackage [TODO: documentation]
  • libraries/base
  • libraries/ghc-prim
  • libraries/array
  • libraries/stm
  • libraries/ghc-heap
  • libraries/ghc-compact
  • libraries/ghc-boot
  • libraries/ghc-boot-th
  • libraries/hpc
  • libraries/libiserv
  • libraries/template-haskell
  • libraries/integer-gmp
  • libraries/integer-simple
• Update ghc/homepage>:
  • Write download page (see ghc/homepage>)
  • Add news item to index.html
  • Add link to download.shtml
  • Look over changes locally
  • Add release announcement to GHC blog
  • Push changes to master
• Announce on: GHC developers <ghc-devs@haskell.org>, GHC Users <glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org>, Haskell Cafe <haskell-cafe@haskell.org>
• Announce on: Haskell Discourse, /r/haskell, Twitter
• Update latest symlink on downloads.haskell.org
• Ensure that the Migration page is up-to-date

Post-release checklist

• Update the Wiki status page
• Update the language pragma history
• Mark milestone as closed
• Update the VersionHistory wiki page
• Set RELEASE=NO