Monitoring package release depend on the infrastructure used.
On sourceforge, that's easy to monitor a package release.
You need to be logged and use links supplied, this will update the Monitoring
section of your profile.

With many packages, an annouce is send from http://freshmeat.net.
It is sometime forgotted and freshmeat page is often late.

Some GNU packages use a common info-gnu mailing list (see at the bottom)
On other cases, an announce mailing list may be available.
Announce list should be not verbose.
I (Gilles) didn't find the proper way for cpan packages announces

3c5x9setup
Archive-Zip		http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Archive/Archive-Zip-1.23.tar.gz
CnxADSL			http://www.zweije.nl.eu.org/~vzweije/accessrunner/
Compress-Zlib		http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Compress/Compress-Zlib-1.42.tar.gz
Digest			http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Digest/Digest-1.08.tar.gz
Digest-HMAC		http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Digest/Digest-HMAC-1.01.tar.gz
Digest-SHA1		http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Digest/Digest-SHA1-2.10.tar.gz
GD			http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/GD/GD-2.12.tar.gz
HTML-Parser		http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/HTML/HTML-Parser-3.45.tar.gz
HTML-Tagset		http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/HTML/HTML-Tagset-3.04.tar.gz
Locale-Maketext-Gettext	http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Locale/Locale-Maketext-Gettext-1.22.tar.gz
Net-DNS			http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Net/Net-DNS-0.60.tar.gz
Net-IP			http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Net/Net-IP-1.25.tar.gz
Net-IPv4Addr		http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Net/Net-IPv4Addr-0.10.tar.gz
Net-Netmask		http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Net/Net-Netmask-1.9015.tar.gz
Net_SSLeay		http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Net/FLORA/Net_SSLeay.pm-1.30.tar.gz
Python			http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.5.1/Python-2.5.1.tar.bz2
Text-Parsewords		http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Text/Text-ParseWords-3.1.tar.gz
URI			http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/URI/URI-1.35.tar.gz
aboot			https://sourceforge.net/projects/aboot/
httpd-2.2.6.tar.gz	http://www.apache.org/foundation/mailinglists.html#foundation-announce (a bit verbose with the numerous projects)
bash			http://freshmeat.net/projects/gnubash (http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bash-announce exist but not updated at all patches)
beep			http://www.johnath.com/beep/beep-1.2.2.tar.gz
bind			http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/sw/bind/bind-lists.php
busybox			http://www.busybox.net/news.html (no announce list) http://freshmeat.net/projects/busybox/ is late
bzip2			http://freshmeat.net/projects/bzip2 http://www.bzip.org (no announce list)
cairo			http://lists.cairographics.org/archives/cairo-announce/ 
capi4k-utils		ftp://ftp.in-berlin.de/pub/capi4linux (no announce list)
ccache			https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/ccache (no announce list, usually not verbose)
cppunit			(??) libreoffice@lists.freedesktop.org
dejavu			https://sourceforge.net/projects/dejavu
dhcpcd			http://roy.marples.name/projects/dhcpcd/wiki (freshmeat exists but is not updated anymore)
distcc			http://freshmeat.net/projects/distcc/
dnsmasq			http://freshmeat.net/projects/dnsmasq
dosfstools		ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/Linux/LOCAL/dosfstools/ (no announce list)
e2fsprogs		https://sourceforge.net/projects/e2fsprogs
eciadsl-usermode	http://eciadsl.flashtux.org (no announce list)
ethtool			http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/network/ethtool
expat			https://sourceforge.net/projects/expat
expect			https://sourceforge.net/projects/expect
ez-ipupdate	 (1/3)Check: http://www.whyi.org/help/software/ez-ipupdate-3.0.11b8.tar.gz
fcdsl	 (1/3)Check: ftp://ftp.avm.de/cardware/fritzcrd.dsl/linux/suse.93/fcdsl-suse93-3.11-07.tar.gz
fcdsl2	 (1/3)Check: ftp://ftp.avm.de/cardware/fritzcrd.dsl_v20/linux/suse.93//fcdsl2-suse93-3.11-07.tar.gz
fcdslsl	 (1/3)Check: ftp://ftp.avm.de/cardware/fritzcrd.dsl_sl/linux/suse.93//fcdslsl-suse93-3.11-07.tar.gz
fcron			http://fcron.free.fr/contact.php#ml
file			http://freshmeat.net/projects/file
flex			https://sourceforge.net/projects/flex
freetype		https://sourceforge.net/projects/freetype
fontconfig		http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/fontconfig (no announce list)
libgd			http://freshmeat.net/projects/gd
gdb			http://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-announce/
gettext			http://freshmeat.net/projects/gettext
gmp			http://gmplib.org/mailman/listinfo/gmp-announce
hdparm			https://sourceforge.net/projects/hdparm
hfsutils	 (1/3)Check: http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/h/hfsutils/hfsutils_3.2.6.orig.tar.gz
iana-etc		http://freshmeat.net/projects/iana-etc/
iftop			http://lists.beasts.org/mailman/listinfo/iftop-users
inetutils		http://freshmeat.net/projects/inetutils
iperf			https://sourceforge.net/projects/iperf
iproute2	 (1/3)Check: http://developer.osdl.org/dev/iproute2/download/iproute2-2.6.20-070313.tar.gz
iptables		https://lists.netfilter.org/mailman/listinfo/netfilter-announce
iptstate		https://sourceforge.net/projects/iptstate
iputils			https://sourceforge.net/projects/iputils
isdn4k-utils	 (1/3)Check: ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/isdn4k-utils.v3.2p1.tar.bz2
kbd			https://lists.altlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/kbd
klibc	 (1/3)Check: http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/k/klibc/klibc_1.5.7.orig.tar.gz
krb5			http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/kerberos-announce
less			http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/less-announce.html
libcap	 (1/3)Check: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/security/linux-privs/kernel-2.4/libcap-1.10.tar.gz
libnet			https://sourceforge.net/projects/libnet-dev
libpcap			https://cod.sandelman.ca/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr/domain=lists.tcpdump.org
libpng			https://sourceforge.net/projects/libpng
libusb			https://sourceforge.net/projects/libusb
libwww-perl	 (1/3)Check: http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Net/libwww-perl-5.805.tar.gz
libxml2  (1/3)Check: http://xmlsoft.org/sources/libxml2-2.7.1.tar.gz
linux	 (1/3)Check: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.22.tar.bz2
linux	 (1/3)Check: http://www.grsecurity.net/grsecurity-2.1.10-2.6.19.2-200701222307.patch.gz
linux-atm		https://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-atm
logrotate	 (1/3)Check: http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/logrotate/logrotate_3.7.orig.tar.gz
logwatch		https://sourceforge.net/projects/logwatch
lzo			http://www.oberhumer.com/opensource/lzo/
macutils	 (1/3)Check: http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/m/macutils/macutils_2.0b3.orig.tar.gz
memtest			http://www.memtest.org/#ml
miboot	 (1/3)Check: http://people.debian.org/~luther//miboot/miboot_1.0d4.orig.tar.gz
mklibs	 (1/3)Check: http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/m/mklibs/mklibs_0.1.26.tar.gz
mktemp	 (1/3)Check: ftp://ftp.mktemp.org/pub/mktemp/mktemp-1.5.tar.gz
module-init-tools	 (1/3)Check: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/jcm/module-init-tools/module-init-tools-3.4.tar.bz2
nasm			http://www.nasm.us/
net-tools		https://sourceforge.net/projects/net-tools
newt	 (1/3)Check: http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/n/newt/newt_0.52.2.orig.tar.gz
noip_updater	 (1/3)Check: http://www.no-ip.com/client/linux/noip_updater_v1.6.tar.gz
ntp			http://support.ntp.org/bin/view/Main/ReleaseNotifications
openssh	 (1/3)Check: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/OpenSSH/portable/openssh-4.7p1.tar.gz
openssl	 (1/3)Check: http://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-0.9.8g.tar.gz
openswan		http://lists.openswan.org/mailman/listinfo/announce
openvpn	 (1/3)Check: http://openvpn.net/release/openvpn-2.0.9.tar.gz
pciutils		http://freshmeat.net/projects/pciutils/
pcmciautils	 (1/3)Check: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/pcmciautils-014.tar.bz2
pcre			https://sourceforge.net/projects/pcre
perl	 (1/3)Check: http://www.cpan.org/src/perl-5.8.8.tar.bz2
pixman			http://lists.cairographics.org/archives/cairo-announce/ 
pkg-config	 (1/3)Check: http://pkgconfig.freedesktop.org/releases/pkg-config-0.20.tar.gz
popt	 (1/3)Check: http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/utils/rpm.org/dist/rpm-4.1.x/popt-1.7.tar.gz
powerpc-utils	 (1/3)Check: http://penguinppc.org/bootloaders/quik/powerpc-utils-1.1.3.tar.gz
ppp	 (1/3)Check: http://samba.org/ftp/ppp/ppp-2.4.3.tar.gz
pptp			https://sourceforge.net/projects/pptpclient
procps			https://sourceforge.net/projects/procps-ng
psmisc			https://sourceforge.net/projects/psmisc
pulsar			https://sourceforge.net/projects/openadsl
quik	 (1/3)Check: http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/q/quik/quik_2.1.orig.tar.gz
rp-pppoe	 (1/3)Check: http://www.roaringpenguin.com/files/download/rp-pppoe-3.8.tar.gz
rrdtool			https://lists.oetiker.ch/cgi-bin/listinfo
rsrce	 (1/3)Check: http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/r/rsrce/rsrce_0.1.orig.tar.gz
setserial		https://sourceforge.net/projects/setserial
shadow	 (1/3)Check: ftp://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/lfs/lfs-packages/conglomeration/shadow/shadow-4.0.18.1.tar.bz2
silo	 (1/3)Check: http://www.sparc-boot.org/pub/silo/silo-1.4.13.tar.bz2
slang	 (1/3)Check: ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/unix/misc/slang/v2.0//slang-2.0.7.tar.bz2
smartmontools		https://sourceforge.net/projects/smartmontools
sparc-utils	 (1/3)Check: ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/s/sparc-utils/sparc-utils_1.9.orig.tar.gz
speedtouch		https://sourceforge.net/projects/speedtouch
squid			http://www.squid-cache.org/Support/mailing-lists.html#squid-announce
squid-graph		https://sourceforge.net/projects/squid-graph
strace			https://sourceforge.net/projects/strace
syslinux		http://freshmeat.net/projects/syslinux/
sysvinit	 (1/3)Check: ftp://ftp.cistron.nl/pub/people/miquels/sysvinit/sysvinit-2.86.tar.gz
tcl			https://sourceforge.net/projects/tcl
tcpdump	 (		https://cod.sandelman.ca/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr/domain=lists.tcpdump.org
traceroute		https://sourceforge.net/projects/traceroute
udev	 (1/3)Check: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev-113.tar.bz2 http://freshmeat.net/projects/udev/ is late
unzip			https://sourceforge.net/projects/infozip
usbutils		http://sourceforge.net/project/filemodule_monitor.php?filemodule_id=142529
util-linux		http://git.kernel.org/?p=utils/util-linux-ng/util-linux-ng.git http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#util-linux-ng (no announce list)
vim			http://freshmeat.net/projects/vim/
vlan			http://freshmeat.net/projects/vlan/
wanpipe	 (1/3)Check: ftp://ftp.sangoma.com/linux/current_wanpipe/wanpipe-2.3.4-3.tgz
which			http://www.xs4all.nl/~carlo17/which/
wireless_tools	 (1/3)Check: http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/wireless_tools.28.tar.gz
yaboot			http://freshmeat.net/projects/httppenguinppc.orgprojectsyaboot/
zlib			https://sourceforge.net/projects/libpng

GNU packages should be announced on http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu. Some have too another announce mailing list
autoconf		http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/autotools-announce
automake		http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/autotools-announce
binutils		http://www.gnu.org/software/binutils	(no special announce list)
bison			http://www.gnu.org/software/bison	(no special announce list)
coreutils		http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/coreutils-announce
cpio			http://savannah.gnu.org/news/?group=cpio (no special announce list)
dejagnu			http://www.gnu.org/software/dejagnu	(no special announce list)
diffutils		http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/diffutils	(no special announce list)
findutils		http://www.gnu.org/software/findutils	(no special announce list)
freetype		https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/freetype-announce
gawk			http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/?C=M;O=D http://freshmeat.net/projects/gawk is late
gcc			http://gcc.gnu.org/lists.html#subscribe
gdb			http://sourceware.org/lists.html#gdb
glibc			http://sourceware.org/lists.html#glibc	(no special announce list)
grep			http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/grep	(no special announce list)
groff			http://www.gnu.org/software/groff	(no special announce list)
gzip			http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gzip	(no special announce list)
libtool			https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/autotools-announce
m4			http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/m4-announce, https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/autotools-announce
make			http://www.gnu.org/software/make	(no special announce list)
mtools			http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-mtools
nano			http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-nano
ncurses			http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses	(no special announce list)
parted			http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/parted	(no special announce list)
patch			http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/patch	(no special announce list)
readline		http://www.gnu.org/software/readline	(no special announce list)
sed			http://www.gnu.org/software/sed		(no special announce list)
tar			http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/tar	(no special announce list)

gnupg			http://www.gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.en.html
libgcrypt		http://www.gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.en.html
libgpg-error		http://www.gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.en.html


Packages announced on http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-announce-list (a bit verbose)
glib
pango

