"make" process for a release

I'm interested to know the preparation steps used to prepare sablevm 
and sable-classpath for packaging as a "release".

The reason is that I occasionally run into tool problems on one or 
other of our systems when I make a local change and move it to various 
platforms. Each has an appropriate development environment and can 
build a "release" version. But sometimes the changes require auto* 
tools (autoconf, automake etc) and these are not always available.

I've tried to do this on my "master" version and then distribute this 
to my other platforms. Mostly this works properly, but on some 
occasions I must have goofed somewhere. Since I know they can all build 
a release, I'd like to get my master copy to that same state. So, what 
steps do I take to do that?

Thanks.....Peter