Update release documents

Remove redundant AUTHORS file in favor of relying
on .mailmap for keeping track of author names.
Move older changelogs to release directory.
Move release checklist to releases README.

Signed-off-by: Derek McGowan <derek@mcgstyle.net>

releases/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+## Registry Release Checklist
+
+10. Compile release notes detailing features added since the last release.
+
+  Add release template file to `releases/` directory. The template is defined
+by containerd's release tool. Name the file using the version, for rc add
+an `-rc` suffix.
+See https://github.com/containerd/containerd/tree/master/cmd/containerd-release
+
+20. Update the `.mailmap` files.
+
+30. Update the version file: `https://github.com/docker/distribution/blob/master/version/version.go`
+
+40. Create a signed tag.
+
+  Choose a tag for the next release, distribution uses semantic versioning
+and expects tags to be formatted as `vx.y.z[-rc.n]`. Run the release tool using
+the release template file and tag to generate the release notes for the tag
+and Github release. To create the tag, you will need PGP installed and a PGP
+key which has been added to your Github account. The comment for the tag will
+be the generate release notes, always compare with previous tags to ensure
+the output is expected and consistent.
+Run `git tag --cleanup=whitespace -s vx.y.z[-rc.n] -F release-notes` to create
+tag and `git -v vx.y.z[-rc.n]` to verify tag, check comment and correct commit
+hash.
+
+50. Push the signed tag
+
+60. Create a new [release](https://github.com/docker/distribution/releases).
+In the case of a release candidate, tick the `pre-release` checkbox. Use
+the generate release notes from the release tool
+
+70. Update the registry binary in the [distribution library image repo](https://github.com/docker/distribution-library-image) by running the update script and  opening a pull request.
+
+80. Update the official image.  Add the new version in the [official images repo](https://github.com/docker-library/official-images) by appending a new version to the `registry/registry` file with the git hash pointed to by the signed tag.  Update the major version to point to the latest version and the minor version to point to new patch release if necessary.
+e.g. to release `2.3.1`
+
+   `2.3.1 (new)`
+
+   `2.3.0 -> 2.3.0` can be removed
+
+   `2 -> 2.3.1`
+
+   `2.3 -> 2.3.1`
+
+90. Build a new distribution/registry image on [Docker hub](https://hub.docker.com/u/distribution/dashboard) by adding a new automated build with the new tag and re-building the images.

releases/v2.5.0-changelog.txt

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+# Changelog
+
+## 2.5.0 (2016-06-14)
+
+#### Storage
+- Ensure uploads directory is cleaned after upload is committed
+- Add ability to cap concurrent operations in filesystem driver
+- S3: Add 'us-gov-west-1' to the valid region list
+- Swift: Handle ceph not returning Last-Modified header for HEAD requests
+- Add redirect middleware
+
+#### Registry
+- Add support for blobAccessController middleware
+- Add support for layers from foreign sources
+- Remove signature store
+- Add support for Let's Encrypt
+- Correct yaml key names in configuration
+
+#### Client
+- Add option to get content digest from manifest get
+
+#### Spec
+- Update the auth spec scope grammar to reflect the fact that hostnames are optionally supported
+- Clarify API documentation around catalog fetch behavior
+
+#### API
+- Support returning HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests)
+
+#### Documentation
+- Update auth documentation examples to show "expires in" as int
+
+#### Docker Image
+- Use Alpine Linux as base image

releases/v2.6.0-changelog.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+# Changelog
+
+## 2.6.0 (2017-01-18)
+
+#### Storage
+- S3: fixed bug in delete due to read-after-write inconsistency
+- S3: allow EC2 IAM roles to be used when authorizing region endpoints
+- S3: add Object ACL Support
+- S3: fix delete method's notion of subpaths
+- S3: use multipart upload API in `Move` method for performance
+- S3: add v2 signature signing for legacy S3 clones
+- Swift: add simple heuristic to detect incomplete DLOs during read ops
+- Swift: support different user and tenant domains
+- Swift: bulk deletes in chunks
+- Aliyun OSS: fix delete method's notion of subpaths
+- Aliyun OSS: optimize data copy after upload finishes
+- Azure: close leaking response body
+- Fix storage drivers dropping non-EOF errors when listing repositories
+- Compare path properly when listing repositories in catalog
+- Add a foreign layer URL host whitelist
+- Improve catalog enumerate runtime
+
+#### Registry
+- Export `storage.CreateOptions` in top-level package
+- Enable notifications to endpoints that use self-signed certificates
+- Properly validate multi-URL foreign layers
+- Add control over validation of URLs in pushed manifests
+- Proxy mode: fix socket leak when pull is cancelled
+- Tag service: properly handle error responses on HEAD request
+- Support for custom authentication URL in proxying registry
+- Add configuration option to disable access logging
+- Add notification filtering by target media type
+- Manifest: `References()` returns all children
+- Honor `X-Forwarded-Port` and Forwarded headers
+- Reference: Preserve tag and digest in With* functions
+- Add policy configuration for enforcing repository classes
+
+#### Client
+- Changes the client Tags `All()` method to follow links
+- Allow registry clients to connect via HTTP2
+- Better handling of OAuth errors in client
+  
+#### Spec
+- Manifest: clarify relationship between urls and foreign layers
+- Authorization: add support for repository classes
+
+#### Manifest
+- Override media type returned from `Stat()` for existing manifests
+- Add plugin mediatype to distribution manifest
+
+#### Docs
+- Document `TOOMANYREQUESTS` error code
+- Document required Let's Encrypt port
+- Improve documentation around implementation of OAuth2
+- Improve documentation for configuration
+
+#### Auth
+- Add support for registry type in scope
+- Add support for using v2 ping challenges for v1
+- Add leeway to JWT `nbf` and `exp` checking
+- htpasswd: dynamically parse htpasswd file
+- Fix missing auth headers with PATCH HTTP request when pushing to default port
+
+#### Dockerfile
+- Update to go1.7
+- Reorder Dockerfile steps for better layer caching
+
+#### Notes
+
+Documentation has moved to the documentation repository at
+`github.com/docker/docker.github.io/tree/master/registry`
+
+The registry is go 1.7 compliant, and passes newer, more restrictive `lint` and `vet` ing.