5 release_managers_guide - Releasing a new version of perl 5.x
7 Note that things change at each release, so there may be new things not
8 covered here, or tools may need updating.
10 =head1 MAKING A CHECKLIST
12 If you are preparing to do a release, you can run the
13 F<Porting/make-rmg-checklist> script to generate a new version of this
14 document that starts with a checklist for your release.
16 This script is run as:
18 perl Porting/make-rmg-checklist \
19 --type [BLEAD-POINT or MAINT or ...] > /tmp/rmg.pod
21 You can also pass the C<--html> flag to generate an HTML document instead of
24 perl Porting/make-rmg-checklist --html \
25 --type [BLEAD-POINT or MAINT or ...] > /tmp/rmg.html
29 This document describes the series of tasks required - some automatic, some
30 manual - to produce a perl release of some description, be that a release
31 candidate, or final, numbered release of maint or blead.
33 The release process has traditionally been executed by the current
34 pumpking. Blead releases from 5.11.0 forward are made each month on the
35 20th by a non-pumpking release engineer. The release engineer roster
36 and schedule can be found in Porting/release_schedule.pod.
38 This document both helps as a check-list for the release engineer
39 and is a base for ideas on how the various tasks could be automated
42 The checklist of a typical release cycle is as follows:
44 (5.10.1 is released, and post-release actions have been done)
48 a few weeks before the release, a number of steps are performed,
49 including bumping the version to 5.10.2
51 ...a few weeks pass...
53 perl-5.10.2-RC1 is released
55 perl-5.10.2 is released
57 post-release actions are performed, including creating new
60 ... the cycle continues ...
64 Some of the tasks described below apply to all four types of
65 release of Perl. (blead, RC, final release of maint, final
66 release of blead). Some of these tasks apply only to a subset
67 of these release types. If a step does not apply to a given
68 type of release, you will see a notation to that effect at
69 the beginning of the step.
75 =item Release Candidate (RC)
77 A release candidate is an attempt to produce a tarball that is a close as
78 possible to the final release. Indeed, unless critical faults are found
79 during the RC testing, the final release will be identical to the RC
80 barring a few minor fixups (updating the release date in F<perlhist.pod>,
81 removing the RC status from F<patchlevel.h>, etc). If faults are found,
82 then the fixes should be put into a new release candidate, never directly
86 =item Stable/Maint release (MAINT).
88 A release with an even version number, and subversion number > 0, such as
91 At this point you should have a working release candidate with few or no
94 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
95 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps.
97 Note that for a maint release there are two versions of this guide to
98 consider: the one in the maint branch, and the one in blead. Which one to
99 use is a fine judgement. The blead one will be most up-to-date, while
100 it might describe some steps or new tools that aren't applicable to older
101 maint branches. It is probably best to review both versions of this
102 document, but to most closely follow the steps in the maint version.
104 =item A blead point release (BLEAD-POINT)
106 A release with an odd version number, such as 5.15.0 or 5.15.1.
108 This isn't for production, so it has less stability requirements than for
109 other release types, and isn't preceded by RC releases. Other than that,
110 it is similar to a MAINT release.
112 =item Blead final release (BLEAD-FINAL)
114 A release with an even version number, and subversion number == 0, such as
115 5.14.0. That is to say, it's the big new release once per year.
117 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
118 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps, even more than for MAINT.
126 Before you can make an official release of perl, there are a few
127 hoops you need to jump through:
129 =head3 PAUSE account with pumpkin status
131 Make sure you have a PAUSE account suitable for uploading a perl release.
132 If you don't have a PAUSE account, then request one:
134 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=request_id
136 Check that your account is allowed to upload perl distros: go to
137 L<https://pause.perl.org/pause/authenquery?ACTION=who_pumpkin> and check that
138 your PAUSE ID is listed there. If not, ask Andreas KE<0xf6>nig to add your ID
139 to the list of people allowed to upload something called perl. You can find
140 Andreas' email address at:
142 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=pause_04imprint
144 =head3 search.cpan.org pumpkin status
146 Make sure that search.cpan.org knows that you're allowed to upload
147 perl distros. Contact Graham Barr to make sure that you're on the right
150 =head3 rt.perl.org update access
152 Make sure you have permission to close tickets on L<http://rt.perl.org/>
153 so you can respond to bug report as necessary during your stint. If you
154 don't, make an account (if you don't have one) and contact the pumpking
155 with your username to get ticket-closing permission.
157 =head3 git checkout and commit bit
159 You will need a working C<git> installation, checkout of the perl
160 git repository and perl commit bit. For information about working
161 with perl and git, see F<pod/perlgit.pod>.
163 If you are not yet a perl committer, you won't be able to make a
164 release. Have a chat with whichever evil perl porter tried to talk
165 you into the idea in the first place to figure out the best way to
168 =head3 git clone of https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb
170 For updating the L<http://dev.perl.org> web pages, either a Github account or
171 sweet-talking somebody with a Github account into obedience is needed. This
172 is only needed on the day of the release or shortly afterwards.
174 =for checklist skip RC
176 =head3 Quotation for release announcement epigraph
178 I<SKIP this step for RC>
180 For all except an RC release of perl, you will need a quotation
181 to use as an epigraph to your release announcement.
183 =head2 Building a release - advance actions
185 The work of building a release candidate for an even numbered release
186 (BLEAD-FINAL) of perl generally starts several weeks before the first
187 release candidate. Some of the following steps should be done regularly,
188 but all I<must> be done in the run up to a release.
190 =head3 dual-life CPAN module synchronisation
192 To see which core distro versions differ from the current CPAN versions:
194 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -x -a
196 However, this only checks whether the version recorded in
197 F<Porting/Maintainers.pl> differs from the latest on CPAN. It doesn't tell you
198 if the code itself has diverged from CPAN.
200 You can also run an actual diff of the contents of the modules, comparing core
201 to CPAN, to ensure that there were no erroneous/extraneous changes that need to
202 be dealt with. You do this by not passing the C<-x> option:
204 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -a -o /tmp/corediffs
206 Passing C<-u cpan> will probably be helpful, since it limits the search to
207 distributions with 'cpan' upstream source. (It's OK for blead upstream to
208 differ from CPAN because those dual-life releases usually come I<after> perl
211 See also the C<-d> and C<-v> options for more detail (and the C<-u> option as
212 mentioned above). You'll probably want to use the C<-c cachedir> option to
213 avoid repeated CPAN downloads and may want to use C<-m file:///mirror/path> if
214 you made a local CPAN mirror. Note that a minicpan mirror won't actually work,
215 but can provide a good first pass to quickly get a list of modules which
216 definitely haven't changed, to avoid having to download absolutely everything.
218 For a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release with 'cpan' upstream, if a CPAN
219 release appears to be ahead of blead, then consider updating it (or asking the
220 relevant porter to do so). (However, if this is a BLEAD-FINAL release or one of
221 the last BLEAD-POINT releases before it and hence blead is in some kind of
222 "code freeze" state (e.g. the sequence might be "contentious changes freeze",
223 then "user-visible changes freeze" and finally "full code freeze") then any
224 CPAN module updates must be subject to the same restrictions, so it may not be
225 possible to update all modules until after the BLEAD-FINAL release.) If blead
226 contains edits to a 'cpan' upstream module, this is naughty but sometimes
227 unavoidable to keep blead tests passing. Make sure the affected file has a
228 CUSTOMIZED entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.
230 If you are making a MAINT release, run C<core-cpan-diff> on both blead and
231 maint, then diff the two outputs. Compare this with what you expect, and if
232 necessary, fix things up. For example, you might think that both blead
233 and maint are synchronised with a particular CPAN module, but one might
234 have some extra changes.
236 =head3 How to sync a CPAN module with a cpan/ distro
242 Fetch the most recent version from CPAN.
246 Unpack the retrieved tarball. Rename the old directory; rename the new
247 directory to the original name.
251 Restore any F<.gitignore> file. This can be done by issuing
252 C<git checkout .gitignore> in the F<cpan/Distro> directory.
256 Remove files we do not need. That is, remove any files that match the
257 entries in C<@IGNORABLE> in F<Porting/Maintainer.pl>, and anything that
258 matches the C<EXCLUDED> section of the distro's entry in the C<%Modules>
263 Restore any files mentioned in the C<CUSTOMIZED> section, using
264 C<git checkout>. Make any new customizations if necessary. Also,
265 restore any files that are mentioned in C<@IGNORE>, but were checked
266 into the repository anyway.
270 For any new files in the distro, determine whether they are needed.
271 If not, delete them, and list them in either C<EXCLUDED> or C<@INGORE>.
272 Otherwise, add them to C<MANIFEST>, and run C<git add> to add the files
277 For any files that are gone, remove them from C<MANIFEST>, and use
278 C<git rm> to tell git the files will be gone.
282 If the C<MANIFEST> file was changed in any of the previous steps, run
283 C<perl Porting/manisort --output MANIFEST.sort; mv MANIFEST.sort MANIFEST>.
287 For any files that have an execute bit set, either remove the execute
288 bit, or edit F<Porting/exec-bit.txt>
292 Run C<make> (or C<nmake> on Windows), see if C<perl> compiles.
296 Run the tests for the package.
300 Run the tests in F<t/porting>.
304 Update the C<DISTRIBUTION> entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.
308 Run a full configure/build/test cycle.
312 If everything is ok, commit the changes.
316 For entries with a non-simple C<FILES> section, or with a C<MAP>, you
317 may have to take more steps than listed above.
319 F<Porting/sync-with-cpan> is a script that automates most of the steps
320 above; but see the comments at the beginning of the file. In particular,
321 it has not yet been exercised on Windows, but will certainly require a set
322 of Unix tools such as Cygwin, and steps that run C<make> will need to run
325 =head3 dual-life CPAN module stability
327 Ensure dual-life CPAN modules are stable, which comes down to:
329 for each module that fails its regression tests on $current
330 did it fail identically on $previous?
331 if yes, "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem)
332 else work out why it failed (a bisect is useful for this)
334 attempt to group failure causes
336 for each failure cause
337 is that a regression?
338 if yes, figure out how to fix it
339 (more code? revert the code that broke it)
341 (presumably) it's relying on something un-or-under-documented
342 should the existing behaviour stay?
343 yes - goto "regression"
344 no - note it in perldelta as a significant bugfix
345 (also, try to inform the module's author)
347 =head3 monitor smoke tests for failures
349 Similarly, monitor the smoking of core tests, and try to fix. See
350 L<http://doc.procura.nl/smoke/index.html> and L<http://perl5.test-smoke.org/>
351 for a summary. See also
352 L<http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.daily-build.reports/> which has
355 Similarly, monitor the smoking of perl for compiler warnings, and try to
358 =head3 update perldelta
360 Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.
362 Read F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>, and try to make sure that
363 every section it lists is, if necessary, populated and complete. Copy
364 edit the whole document.
366 You won't be able to automatically fill in the "Updated Modules" section until
367 after Module::CoreList is updated (as described below in
368 L<"update Module::CoreList">).
370 =head3 Bump the version number
372 Do not do this yet for a BLEAD-POINT release! You will do this at the end of
375 Increase the version number (e.g. from 5.12.0 to 5.12.1).
377 For a release candidate for a stable perl, this should happen a week or two
378 before the first release candidate to allow sufficient time for testing and
379 smoking with the target version built into the perl executable. For
380 subsequent release candidates and the final release, it is not necessary to
381 bump the version further.
383 There is a tool to semi-automate this process:
385 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/bump-perl-version -i 5.10.0 5.10.1
387 Remember that this tool is largely just grepping for '5.10.0' or whatever,
388 so it will generate false positives. Be careful not change text like
389 "this was fixed in 5.10.0"!
391 Use git status and git diff to select changes you want to keep.
393 Be particularly careful with F<INSTALL>, which contains a mixture of
394 C<5.10.0>-type strings, some of which need bumping on every release, and
395 some of which need to be left unchanged.
396 The line in F<INSTALL> about "is binary incompatible with" requires a
397 correct choice of earlier version to declare incompatibility with.
399 For the first RC release leading up to a BLEAD-FINAL release, update the
400 description of which releases are now "officially" supported in
401 F<pod/perlpolicy.pod>.
403 When doing a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release, also make sure the
404 C<PERL_API_*> constants in F<patchlevel.h> are in sync with the version
405 you're releasing, unless you're absolutely sure the release you're about to
406 make is 100% binary compatible to an earlier release. When releasing a MAINT
407 perl version, the C<PERL_API_*> constants C<MUST NOT> be changed as we aim
408 to guarantee binary compatibility in maint branches.
410 After editing, regenerate uconfig.h (this must be run on a system with a
413 $ perl regen/uconfig_h.pl
415 This might not cause any new changes.
419 $ git clean -xdf # careful if you don't have local files to keep!
420 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
428 B<review the delta carefully>
430 $ git commit -a -m 'Bump the perl version in various places for 5.x.y'
432 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
433 see if they look similar. See commit f7cf42bb69 for an example of a
434 previous version bump.
436 When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList
437 (as described below in L<"update Module::CoreList">) to reflect the new
440 =head3 update INSTALL
442 Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number;
443 in particular, the "Coexistence with earlier versions of perl 5" section.
445 Be particularly careful with the section "Upgrading from 5.X.Y or earlier".
446 The "X.Y" needs to be changed to the most recent version that we are
447 I<not> binary compatible with.
449 For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, this needs to refer to the last
450 release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
451 release, this would be 5.13.11).
453 For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
454 release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2).
456 =head3 Check copyright years
458 Check that the copyright years are up to date by running:
460 $ ./perl t/porting/copyright.t --now
462 Remedy any test failures by editing README or perl.c accordingly (search for
463 the "Copyright"). If updating perl.c, check if the file's own copyright date in
464 the C comment at the top needs updating, as well as the one printed by C<-v>.
466 =head3 Check more build configurations
468 Try running the full test suite against multiple Perl configurations. Here are
469 some sets of Configure flags you can try:
475 C<-Duseshrplib -Dusesitecustomize>
479 C<-Duserelocatableinc>
487 If you have multiple compilers on your machine, you might also consider
488 compiling with C<-Dcc=$other_compiler>.
490 =head3 update perlport
492 L<perlport> has a section currently named I<Supported Platforms> that
493 indicates which platforms are known to build in the current release.
494 If necessary update the list and the indicated version number.
496 =head3 check a readonly build
498 Even before other prep work, follow the steps in L<build the tarball> and test
499 it locally. Because a perl source tarballs sets many files read-only, it could
500 test differently than tests run from the repository. After you're sure
501 permissions aren't a problem, delete the generated directory and tarballs.
503 =head2 Building a release - on the day
505 This section describes the actions required to make a release
506 that are performed near to, or on the actual release day.
508 =head3 re-check earlier actions
510 Review all the actions in the previous section,
511 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
514 =head3 create a release branch
516 For BLEAD-POINT releases, making a release from a release branch avoids the
517 need to freeze blead during the release. This is less important for
518 BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, and RC releases, since blead will already be frozen in
519 those cases. Create the branch by running
521 git checkout -b release-5.xx.yy
523 =head3 build a clean perl
525 Make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
526 unpushed commits etc):
531 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
533 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
535 =head3 update Module::CoreList
537 =head4 Bump Module::CoreList* $VERSIONs
539 If necessary, bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION> (there's no need to do this for
540 every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
541 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
542 It may also happen that C<Module::CoreList> has been modified in blead, and
543 hence has a new version number already. (But make sure it is not the same
544 number as a CPAN release.)
546 C<$Module::CoreList::TieHashDelta::VERSION> and
547 C<$Module::CoreList::Utils::VERSION> should always be equal to
548 C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>. If necessary, bump those two versions to match
551 =head4 Update C<Module::CoreList> with module version data for the new release.
553 Note that if this is a MAINT release, you should run the following actions
554 from the maint branch, but commit the C<CoreList.pm> changes in
555 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
556 maint release and then your recent commit. XXX need a better example
558 [ Note that the procedure for handling Module::CoreList in maint branches
559 is a bit complex, and the RMG currently don't describe a full and
560 workable approach. The main issue is keeping Module::CoreList
561 and its version number synchronised across all maint branches, blead and
562 CPAN, while having to bump its version number for every RC release.
563 See this brief p5p thread:
565 Message-ID: <20130311174402.GZ2294@iabyn.com>
567 If you can devise a workable system, feel free to try it out, and to
568 update the RMG accordingly!
572 F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
573 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror and/or fall back
574 on HTTP::Tiny to fetch package metadata remotely.
576 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
577 http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN)
579 Then change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
583 Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
585 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
589 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
591 This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
592 badly-indexed CPAN modules unrelated to the modules actually in core.
593 Assuming all goes well, it will update
594 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> and possibly
595 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod> and/or
596 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>.
598 Check those files over carefully:
600 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm
601 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod
602 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm
604 =head4 Bump version in Module::CoreList F<Changes>
606 Also edit Module::CoreList's new version number in its F<Changes> file.
608 =head4 Add Module::CoreList version bump to perldelta
610 Add a perldelta entry for the new Module::CoreList version.
612 =for checklist skip RC
614 =head4 Update C<%Module::CoreList::released> and C<CAVEATS>
616 For any release except an RC:
622 Update this version's entry in the C<%released> hash with today's date.
626 Make sure that the script has correctly updated the C<CAVEATS> section
627 (Note, the C<CAVEATS> section is in
628 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod>)
632 =head4 Commit Module::CoreList changes
634 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
635 (unless this is for MAINT; in which case commit it to blead first, then
636 cherry-pick it back).
638 $ git commit -m 'Update Module::CoreList for 5.x.y' dist/Module-CoreList/Changes dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm
640 =head4 Rebuild and test
642 Build and test to get the changes into the currently built lib directory and to ensure
643 all tests are passing.
645 =head3 finalize perldelta
647 Finalize the perldelta. In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
648 section, which can be generated with something like:
650 $ perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD
652 Fill in the "New/Updated Modules" sections now that Module::CoreList is updated:
654 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl --mode=update pod/perldelta.pod
656 Ideally, also fill in a summary of the major changes to each module for which
657 an entry has been added by F<corelist-perldelta.pl>.
659 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
660 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
661 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
662 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
664 $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perldelta.pod
665 $ spell pod/perldelta.pod
667 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
670 $ ./perl -Ilib ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html pod/perldelta.pod > /tmp/perldelta.html
672 Another good HTML preview option is http://search.cpan.org/pod2html
674 If you make changes, be sure to commit them.
676 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
678 =head3 remove stale perldeltas
680 For the first RC release that is ONLY for a BLEAD-FINAL, the perldeltas
681 from the BLEAD-POINT releases since the previous BLEAD-FINAL should have
682 now been consolidated into the current perldelta, and hence are now just
683 useless clutter. They can be removed using:
685 $ git rm <file1> <file2> ...
687 For example, for RC0 of 5.16.0:
690 $ git rm perldelta515*.pod
692 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL BLEAD-POINT
694 =head3 add recent perldeltas
696 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in any recent perldeltas from
697 blead that have been added since the last release on this branch. This
698 should include any recent maint releases on branches older than your one,
699 but not newer. For example if you're producing a 5.14.x release, copy any
700 perldeltas from recent 5.10.x, 5.12.x etc maint releases, but not from
701 5.16.x or higher. Remember to
703 $ git add <file1> <file2> ...
705 =head3 update and commit perldelta files
707 If you have added or removed any perldelta files via the previous two
708 steps, then edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add/remove them from its table of
709 contents, then run F<Porting/pod_rules.pl> to propagate your changes there
710 into all the other files that mention them (including F<MANIFEST>). You'll
711 need to C<git add> the files that it changes.
713 Then build a clean perl and do a full test
717 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des
721 Once all tests pass, commit your changes.
723 =head3 build a clean perl
725 If you skipped the previous step (adding/removing perldeltas),
726 again, make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
727 unpushed commits etc):
732 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
734 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
736 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL BLEAD-POINT
738 =head3 synchronise from blead's perlhist.pod
740 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in the latest
741 F<pod/perlhist.pod> from blead; this will include details of newer
742 releases in all branches. In theory, blead's version should be a strict
743 superset of the one in this branch, but it's probably safest to diff them
744 first to ensure that there's nothing in this branch that was forgotten
747 $ diff pod/perlhist.pod ..../blead/pod/perlhist.pod
748 $ cp ..../blead/pod/perlhist.pod pod/
749 $ git commit -m 'sync perlhist from blead' pod/perlhist.pod
751 =for checklist skip RC
753 =head3 update perlhist.pod
755 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
757 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:
759 David 5.10.1 2009-Aug-06
761 List yourself in the left-hand column, and if this is the first release
762 that you've ever done, make sure that your name is listed in the section
763 entitled C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
765 I<If you're making a BLEAD-FINAL release>, also update the "SELECTED
766 RELEASE SIZES" section with the output of
767 F<Porting/perlhist_calculate.pl>.
769 Be sure to commit your changes:
771 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
773 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
775 =head3 update patchlevel.h
777 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>
779 Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
780 a final release, remove it. For example:
782 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
785 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
787 Be sure to commit your change:
789 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
791 =head3 run makemeta to update META files
793 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/makemeta
795 Be sure to commit any changes (if applicable):
797 $ git status # any changes?
798 $ git commit -m 'Update META files' META.*
800 =head3 build, test and check a fresh perl
802 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
805 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
807 # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
808 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
812 Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
813 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
814 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
815 paths. Note that as they have been built from a git working
816 directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
817 commits. (Note that for an odd-numbered version, perl will install
818 itself as C<perl5.x.y>). C<perl -v> will identify itself as:
820 This is perl 5, version X, subversion Y (v5.X.Y (v5.X.Z-NNN-gdeadbeef))
822 where 5.X.Z is the latest tag, NNN the number of commits since this tag,
823 and C<< deadbeef >> commit of that tag.
825 Then delete the temporary installation.
827 =head3 create the release tag
829 Create the tag identifying this release (e.g.):
831 $ git tag v5.11.0 -m "First release of the v5.11 series!"
833 It is B<VERY> important that from this point forward, you not push
834 your git changes to the Perl master repository. If anything goes
835 wrong before you publish your newly-created tag, you can delete
836 and recreate it. Once you push your tag, we're stuck with it
837 and you'll need to use a new version number for your release.
839 =head3 build the tarball
841 Before you run the following, you might want to install 7-Zip (the
842 C<p7zip-full> package under Debian or the C<p7zip> port on MacPorts) or
843 the AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> package under Debian,
844 or the C<advancecomp> port on macports - 7-Zip on Windows is the
845 same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the smallest files
846 first time). These compress about 5% smaller than gzip and bzip2.
847 Over the lifetime of your distribution this will save a lot of
848 people a small amount of download time and disk space, which adds
851 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
852 the tarball and directory name:
854 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
855 $ make distclean # make sure distclean works
856 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
857 # git clean should not output anything!
858 $ git status # and there's nothing lying around
860 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s RC1 # for a release candidate
861 $ perl Porting/makerel -b # for a final release
863 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
864 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them, then
865 tars it up as F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. With C<-b>, it also creates a
868 If you're getting your tarball suffixed with -uncommitted and you're sure
869 your changes were all committed, you can override the suffix with:
871 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s ''
873 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
876 Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.
878 $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1
880 =head3 test the tarball
882 Once you have a tarball it's time to test the tarball (not the repository).
884 =head4 Copy the tarball to a web server
886 Copy the tarballs (.gz and possibly .bz2) to a web server somewhere you
889 =head4 Download the tarball to another machine
891 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
892 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
893 and architectures. The #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org is a good place
894 to find willing victims.
896 =head4 Check that F<Configure> works
898 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
900 $ ./Configure -des && make all test
902 # Or for a development release:
903 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make all test
905 =head4 Run the test harness and install
907 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
910 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
913 =head4 Check C<perl -v> and C<perl -V>
915 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
916 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
919 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
920 which is why you should test from the tarball.
922 =head4 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility
924 $ ./perl utils/perlivp
926 All tests successful.
929 =head4 Compare the installed paths to the last release
931 Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
932 release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
933 have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
934 for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
935 For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
938 cd installdir-5.10.0/
939 find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
940 cd installdir-5.10.1/
941 find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
944 =head4 Bootstrap the CPAN client
946 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
953 =head4 Install the Inline module with CPAN and test it
955 Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
956 has dependencies; for example:
958 CPAN> install Inline::C
961 Check that your perl can run this:
963 $ bin/perl -lwe "use Inline C => q[int f() { return 42;}]; print f"
967 =head4 Make sure that perlbug works
969 Test L<perlbug> with the following:
973 Subject: test bug report
974 Local perl administrator [yourself]:
980 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
981 Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]:
982 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): q
984 and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
985 the "Locally applied patches" section. If everything appears okay, then
986 delete the file, and try it again, this time actually submitting the bug
987 report. Check that it shows up, then remember to close it!
989 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
991 =head3 monitor smokes
993 XXX This is probably irrelevant if working on a release branch, though
994 MAINT or RC might want to push a smoke branch and wait.
996 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
997 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
999 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
1000 back and fix things.
1002 Note that for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases this may not be practical. It takes a
1003 long time for the smokers to catch up, especially the Win32
1004 smokers. This is why we have a RC cycle for I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
1005 releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases sometimes the best you can do is
1006 to plead with people on IRC to test stuff on their platforms, fire away,
1007 and then hope for the best.
1009 =head3 upload to PAUSE
1011 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
1012 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
1013 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
1015 https://pause.perl.org/
1017 (Login, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')
1019 If your workstation is not connected to a high-bandwidth,
1020 high-reliability connection to the Internet, you should probably use the
1021 "GET URL" feature (rather than "HTTP UPLOAD") to have PAUSE retrieve the
1022 new release from wherever you put it for testers to find it. This will
1023 eliminate anxious gnashing of teeth while you wait to see if your
1024 15 megabyte HTTP upload successfully completes across your slow, twitchy
1025 cable modem. You can make use of your home directory on dromedary for
1026 this purpose: F<http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~USERNAME> maps to
1027 F</home/USERNAME/public_html>, where F<USERNAME> is your login account
1028 on dromedary. I<Remember>: if your upload is partially successful, you
1029 may need to contact a PAUSE administrator or even bump the version of perl.
1031 Upload both the .gz and .bz2 versions of the tarball.
1033 Do not proceed any further until you are sure that your tarballs are on CPAN.
1034 Check your authors directory www.cpan.org (the globally balanced "fast"
1035 mirror) to confirm that your uploads have been successful.
1037 =for checklist skip RC BLEAD-POINT
1039 =head3 wait for indexing
1041 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and BLEAD-POINT>
1043 Wait until you receive notification emails from the PAUSE indexer
1044 confirming that your uploads have been received. IMPORTANT -- you will
1045 probably get an email that indexing has failed, due to module permissions.
1046 This is considered normal.
1048 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1050 =head3 disarm patchlevel.h
1052 I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>
1054 Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,
1056 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
1059 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
1061 Be sure to commit your change:
1063 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
1065 =head3 announce to p5p
1067 Mail p5p to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
1069 Use the template at Porting/release_announcement_template.txt
1071 Send a carbon copy to C<noc@metacpan.org>
1073 =head3 merge release branch back to blead
1075 Merge the (local) release branch back into master now, and delete it.
1079 git merge release-5.xx.yy
1081 git branch -d release-5.xx.yy
1083 Note: The merge will create a merge commit if other changes have been pushed
1084 to blead while you've been working on your release branch. Do NOT rebase your
1085 branch to avoid the merge commit (as you might normally do when merging a
1086 small branch into blead) since doing so will invalidate the tag that you
1089 =head3 publish the release tag
1091 Now that you've shipped the new perl release to PAUSE and pushed your changes
1092 to the Perl master repository, it's time to publish the tag you created
1095 $ git push origin tag v5.11.0
1097 =head3 update epigraphs.pod
1099 Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
1100 You can include the customary link to the release announcement even before your
1101 message reaches the web-visible archives by looking for the X-List-Archive
1102 header in your message after receiving it back via perl5-porters.
1104 =head3 blog about your epigraph
1106 If you have a blog, please consider writing an entry in your blog explaining
1107 why you chose that particular quote for your epigraph.
1109 =for checklist skip RC
1111 =head3 Module::CoreList nagging
1113 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1115 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
1118 =for checklist skip RC
1120 =head3 new perldelta
1122 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1124 Create a new perldelta.
1130 Confirm that you have a clean checkout with no local changes.
1134 Run F<Porting/new-perldelta.pl>
1138 Run the C<git add> commands it outputs to add new and modified files.
1142 Verify that the build still works, by running C<./Configure> and
1143 C<make test_porting>. (On Win32 use the appropriate make utility).
1147 If F<t/porting/podcheck.t> spots errors in the new F<pod/perldelta.pod>,
1148 run C<./perl -MTestInit t/porting/podcheck.t | less> for more detail.
1149 Skip to the end of its test output to see the options it offers you.
1153 When C<make test_porting> passes, commit the new perldelta.
1157 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
1158 see if they look similar. See commit ba03bc34a4 for an example of a
1159 previous version bump.
1161 =for checklist skip MAINT RC
1165 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and MAINT>
1167 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1168 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
1169 in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
1171 First, add a new feature bundle to F<regen/feature.pl>, initially by just
1172 copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION (after the __END__
1175 "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1176 + "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1178 Run F<regen/feature.pl> to propagate the changes to F<lib/feature.pm>.
1180 Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
1181 in the remaining files and test and commit.
1183 If this was a BLEAD-POINT release, then just follow the section
1184 L<"Bump the version number">.
1186 After bumping the version, follow the section L<"update INSTALL"> to
1187 ensure all version number references are correct.
1189 =head3 clean build and test
1191 Run a clean build and test to make sure nothing obvious is broken.
1193 In particular, F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> is intentionally exempted
1194 from podchecker tests, to avoid false positives about placeholder text.
1195 However, once it's copied to F<pod/perldelta.pod> the contents can now
1196 cause test failures. Problems should resolved by doing one of the
1203 Replace placeholder text with correct text.
1207 If the problem is from a broken placeholder link, you can add it to the
1208 array C<@perldelta_ignore_links> in F<t/porting/podcheck.t>. Lines
1209 containing such links should be marked with C<XXX> so that they get
1210 cleaned up before the next release.
1214 Following the instructions output by F<t/porting/podcheck.t> on how to
1215 update its exceptions database.
1221 Finally, push any commits done above.
1223 $ git push origin ....
1225 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1227 =head3 create maint branch
1229 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
1231 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1232 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then create a new maint branch based on
1233 the commit tagged as the current release.
1235 Assuming you're using git 1.7.x or newer:
1237 $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
1238 $ git push origin -u maint-5.12
1241 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1243 =head3 make the maint branch available in the APC
1245 Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
1246 receive its changes.
1248 $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
1249 ? /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1250 $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1252 And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.
1254 XXX Who are the sysadmins? Contact info?
1256 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT RC
1258 =head3 copy perldelta.pod to blead
1260 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>
1262 Copy the perldelta.pod for this release into blead; for example:
1265 $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod # for example
1266 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
1268 Don't forget to set the NAME correctly in the new file (e.g. perl5101delta
1269 rather than perldelta).
1271 Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:
1273 perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
1275 Then rebuild various files:
1277 $ perl Porting/pod_rules.pl
1279 Finally, commit and push:
1281 $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'
1282 $ git push origin ....
1284 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1286 =head3 copy perlhist.pod entries to blead
1288 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
1289 F<perlhist.pod> on blead. e.g.
1293 =head3 bump RT version number
1295 Log into http://rt.perl.org/ and check whether the new version is in the RT
1296 fields C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In>. The easiest way to determine this is to
1297 open up any ticket for modification and check the drop downs next to the
1298 C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In> labels.
1300 Here, try this link: L<https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Modify.html?id=10000>
1302 If the new version is not listed there, send an email to C<perlbug-admin at
1303 perl.org> requesting this.
1307 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some
1308 much-needed rest and relaxation>.
1310 Thanks for releasing perl!
1312 =head2 Building a release - the day after
1314 =head3 link announcement in epigraphs.pod
1316 Add, to your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod>, a link to the release
1317 announcement in the web-visible mailing list archive. Commit it.
1319 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, RC
1321 =head3 update Module::CoreList
1323 I<After a BLEAD-POINT release only>
1325 After Module::CoreList has shipped to CPAN by the maintainer, update
1326 Module::CoreList in the source so that it reflects the new blead
1333 Update F<Porting/Maintainers.pl> to list the new DISTRIBUTION on CPAN,
1334 which should be identical to what is currently in blead.
1338 Bump the $VERSION in F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>,
1339 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/TieHashDelta.pm> and
1340 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>.
1344 If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
1346 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
1350 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
1352 This will update F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>,
1353 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod> and
1354 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm> as it did before,
1355 but this time adding new sections for the next BLEAD-POINT release.
1359 Add the new $Module::CoreList::VERSION to
1360 F<dist/Module-CoreList/Changes>.
1364 Update F<pod/perldelta.pod> to mention the upgrade to Module::CoreList.
1368 Remake perl to get your changed .pm files propagated into F<lib/> and
1369 then run at least the F<dist/Module-CoreList/t/*.t> tests and the
1370 test_porting makefile target to check that they're ok.
1376 $ ./perl -Ilib -MModule::CoreList -le 'print Module::CoreList->find_version($]) ? "ok" : "not ok"'
1378 and check that it outputs "ok" to prove that Module::CoreList now knows
1379 about blead's current version.
1383 Commit and push your changes.
1387 =head3 check tarball availability
1389 Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
1390 and is properly indexed:
1396 Check your author directory under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/>
1397 to ensure that the tarballs are available on the website.
1401 Check C</src> on CPAN (on a fast mirror) to ensure that links to
1402 the new tarballs have appeared: There should be links in C</src/5.0>
1403 (which is accumulating all new versions), and (for BLEAD-FINAL and
1404 MAINT only) an appropriate mention in C</src/README.html> (which describes
1405 the latest versions in each stable branch, with links).
1407 The C</src/5.0> links should appear automatically, some hours after upload.
1408 If they don't, or the C</src> description is inadequate,
1409 ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1413 Check L<http://www.cpan.org/src/> to ensure that the C</src> updates
1414 have been correctly mirrored to the website.
1415 If they haven't, ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1419 Check L<http://search.cpan.org> to see if it has indexed the distribution.
1420 It should be visible at a URL like C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl-5.10.1/>.
1424 =for checklist skip RC
1426 =head3 update dev.perl.org
1428 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
1430 In your C<perlweb> repository, link to the new release. For a new
1431 latest-maint release, edit F<docs/shared/tpl/stats.html>. Otherwise,
1432 edit F<docs/dev/perl5/index.html>.
1434 Then make a pull request to Leo Lapworth. If this fails for some reason
1435 and you cannot cajole anybody else into submitting that change, you can
1436 mail Leo as last resort.
1438 This repository can be found on L<github|https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb>.
1440 =head3 update release manager's guide
1442 Go over your notes from the release (you did take some, right?) and update
1443 F<Porting/release_managers_guide.pod> with any fixes or information that
1444 will make life easier for the next release manager.
1451 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html,
1452 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.