doc: update release howto

this changes the doc from rst to a markdown file and adds
steps for signing the windows and macOS installers

docs/release-howto.md

+# Release procedure
+
+## Prepare source code repo for release
+
+1. Generate the changelog and update the `CHANGELOG` file
+
+```
+$ git log --format="- %s" <last_release_tag>..HEAD
+```
+2. Open a Merge request with the above change
+3. Create an annotated tag for the release version, the version for the app is taken from the o/p of `git desribe`
+
+```
+# tag should point to the commit that updated the CHANGELOG file
+$ git tag -a 0.24.8 HEAD
+```
+
+## Build Installers for Windows and MacOS
+
+### Steps to build the windows installer (needs Windows 10 or higher):
+
+1. Generate the installer `.exe` file
+
+```
+$ make vendor # make sure to set the PROVIDER env variable to the correct provider
+$ make build
+$ make installer
+```
+2. Sign the installer:
+
+```
+PS> signtool sign /f .\leap.pfx /tr http://timestamp.digicert.com /td SHA256 /fd SHA256 /p <password_for_cert> <path_to_installer.exe>
+
+```
+
+### Steps to build the MacOS installer (needs MacOS 12 or higher):
+
+1. Generate the installer `.app` file
+
+```
+$ make vendor # make sure to set the PROVIDER env variable to the correct provider
+$ make build
+$ make installer
+```
+
+2.Sign the MacOS installer:
+
+```
+$ export CODESIGN_IDENTITY=<codesign_id>
+$ codesign --sign "${CODESIGN_IDENTITY}" --options runtime --timestamp --force <path_to_installer.app/Content/MacOS/installer_executable>
+
+```
+3. Create DMG to upload for Apple notarization
+
+```
+$ mkdir -p build/installer/out && cp -R build/installer/<installer.app> build/installer/out
+$ cd build/installer
+$ hdiutil create -volname <installer_name> -srcfolder out -ov -format UDZO <output_dmg_name.dmg>
+```
+
+4. Upload DMG for notarization
+
+```
+$ export APP_PASSWORD=<app_password>
+$ xcrun notarytool submit --verbose --apple-id=<appleid> --team-id=<teamid> --password ${APP_PASSWORD} --wait --timeout 30m <path_to_dmg>
+
+# To get logs or the notarization response for debugging
+$ xcrun notarytool logs <notarization_id> --apple-id=<appleid> --team-id=<teamid> --password ${APP_PASSWORD}
+```
+
+>**IMPORTANT:** Upload builds, renew the *-latest* symlinks and their `lastver` files
+
+>**NOTE:** Update packages for Ubuntu in the [leapcodes PPA](./build-ppa.md)
+

docs/release-howto.rst

-Release procedure
-=====================
-1. Bump the static release file in `pkg/version`. After a release, this should read something like `0.21.2+git`. This file is used to generate version strings from tarballs.
-
-2. Tag the release
-3. Build the latest builder image:
-
-```
-make builder_image
-```
-
-3. Build the snap package:
-
-With everything ready on the docker image, this one should be built "in a snap"
-(badum-tsss).
-
-```
-make package_snap_in_docker
-```
-
-4. Build the windows installer:
-
-(TBD)
-
-5. Build the OSX package: 
-
-(TBD)
-
-6. Build the debian package:
-
-(TBD)
-
-7. Upload builds, renew the *-latest* symlinks and their `lastver` files (important!)