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 passes...
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 ...
65 Some of the tasks described below apply to all four types of
66 release of Perl. (blead, RC, final release of maint, final
67 release of blead). Some of these tasks apply only to a subset
68 of these release types. If a step does not apply to a given
69 type of release, you will see a notation to that effect at
70 the beginning of the step.
77 =item Release Candidate (RC)
79 A release candidate is an attempt to produce a tarball that is a close as
80 possible to the final release. Indeed, unless critical faults are found
81 during the RC testing, the final release will be identical to the RC
82 barring a few minor fixups (updating the release date in F<perlhist.pod>,
83 removing the RC status from F<patchlevel.h>, etc). If faults are found,
84 then the fixes should be put into a new release candidate, never directly
88 =item Stable/Maint release (MAINT).
90 A release with an even version number, and subversion number > 0, such as
93 At this point you should have a working release candidate with few or no
96 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
97 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps.
99 =item A blead point release (BLEAD-POINT)
101 A release with an odd version number, such as 5.15.0 or 5.15.1.
103 This isn't for production, so it has less stability requirements than for
104 other release types, and isn't preceded by RC releases. Other than that,
105 it is similar to a MAINT release.
107 =item Blead final release (BLEAD-FINAL)
109 A release with an even version number, and subversion number == 0, such as
110 5.14.0. That is to say, it's the big new release once per year.
112 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
113 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps, even more than for MAINT.
121 Before you can make an official release of perl, there are a few
122 hoops you need to jump through:
124 =head3 PAUSE account with pumpkin status
126 Make sure you have a PAUSE account suitable for uploading a perl release.
127 If you don't have a PAUSE account, then request one:
129 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=request_id
131 Check that your account is allowed to upload perl distros: go to
132 L<https://pause.perl.org/pause/authenquery?ACTION=who_pumpkin> and check that
133 your PAUSE ID is listed there. If not, ask Andreas KE<0xf6>nig to add your ID
134 to the list of people allowed to upload something called perl. You can find
135 Andreas' email address at:
137 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=pause_04imprint
139 =head3 search.cpan.org pumpkin status
141 Make sure that search.cpan.org knows that you're allowed to upload
142 perl distros. Contact Graham Barr to make sure that you're on the right
145 =head3 metacpan.org pumpkin status
147 Make sure that metacpan.org knows that you're allowed to upload
148 perl distros. Send an email to C<noc@metacpan.org> to make sure that you're
151 =head3 rt.perl.org update access
153 Make sure you have permission to close tickets on L<http://rt.perl.org/>
154 so you can respond to bug report as necessary during your stint. If you
155 don't, make an account (if you don't have one) and contact the pumpking
156 with your username to get ticket-closing permission.
158 =head3 git checkout and commit bit
160 You will need a working C<git> installation, checkout of the perl
161 git repository and perl commit bit. For information about working
162 with perl and git, see F<pod/perlgit.pod>.
164 If you are not yet a perl committer, you won't be able to make a
165 release. Have a chat with whichever evil perl porter tried to talk
166 you into the idea in the first place to figure out the best way to
169 =head3 git clone of https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb
171 For updating the L<http://dev.perl.org> web pages, either a Github account or
172 sweet-talking somebody with a Github account into obedience is needed. This
173 is only needed on the day of the release or shortly afterwards.
175 =for checklist skip RC
177 =head3 Quotation for release announcement epigraph
179 I<SKIP this step for RC>
181 For all except an RC release of perl, you will need a quotation
182 to use as an epigraph to your release announcement.
184 =head2 Building a release - advance actions
186 The work of building a release candidate for an even numbered release
187 (BLEAD-FINAL) of perl generally starts several weeks before the first
188 release candidate. Some of the following steps should be done regularly,
189 but all I<must> be done in the run up to a release.
191 =head3 dual-life CPAN module synchronisation
193 To see which core distro versions differ from the current CPAN versions:
195 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -x -a
197 Passing C<-u cpan> (and maybe C<-u undef>) will probably be helpful, since
198 those are the only types of distributions that you can actually affect as a
199 perl release manager (as opposed to a CPAN module maintainer).
201 You can also run an actual diff of the contents of the modules, comparing core
202 to CPAN, to ensure that there were no erroneous/extraneous changes that need to
203 be dealt with. You do this by not passing the C<-x> option:
205 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -a -o /tmp/corediffs
207 then fix the core, or cajole CPAN authors as appropriate. See also the C<-d>
208 and C<-v> options for more detail (and the C<-u> option as mentioned above).
209 You'll probably want to use the C<-c cachedir> option to avoid repeated CPAN
210 downloads and may want to use C<-m file:///mirror/path> if you made a local
211 CPAN mirror. Note that a minicpan mirror won't actually work, but can provide a
212 good first pass to quickly get a list of modules which definitely haven't
213 changed, to avoid having to download absolutely everything.
215 If you are making a MAINT release, run C<core-cpan-diff> on both blead and
216 maint, then diff the two outputs. Compare this with what you expect, and if
217 necessary, fix things up. For example, you might think that both blead
218 and maint are synchronised with a particular CPAN module, but one might
219 have some extra changes.
221 =head3 How to sync a CPAN module with a cpan/ distro
227 Fetch the most recent version from CPAN.
231 Unpack the retrieved tarball. Rename the old directory; rename the new
232 directory to the original name.
236 Restore any F<.gitignore> file. This can be done by issuing
237 C<git checkout .gitignore> in the F<cpan/Distro> directory.
241 Remove files we do not need. That is, remove any files that match the
242 entries in C<@IGNORE> in F<Porting/Maintainer.pl>, and anything that
243 matches the C<EXCLUDED> section of the distro's entry in the C<%Modules>
248 Restore any files mentioned in the C<CUSTOMIZED> section, using
249 C<git checkout>. Make any new customizations if necessary. Also,
250 restore any files that are mentioned in C<@IGNORE>, but were checked
251 in in the repository anyway.
255 For any new files in the distro, determine whether they are needed.
256 If not, delete them, and list them in either C<EXCLUDED> or C<@INGORE>.
257 Otherwise, add them to C<MANIFEST>, and run C<git add> to add the files
262 For any files that are gone, remove them from C<MANIFEST>, and use
263 C<git rm> to tell git the files will be gone.
267 If the C<MANIFEST> file was changed in any of the previous steps, run
268 C<perl Porting/manisort --output MANIFEST.sort; mv MANIFEST.sort MANIFEST>.
272 For any files that have an execute bit set, either remove the execute
273 bit, or edit F<Porting/exec-bit.txt>
277 Run C<make>, see if C<perl> compiles.
281 Run the tests for the package.
285 Run the tests in F<t/porting>.
289 Update the C<DISTRIBUTION> entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.
293 Run a full configure/build/test cycle.
297 If everything is ok, commit the changes.
301 For entries with a non-simple C<FILES> section, or with a C<MAP>, you
302 may have to take more steps than listed above.
304 F<Porting/sync-with-cpan> is a script that automates most of the steps
305 above; but see the comments at the beginning of the file.
308 =head3 dual-life CPAN module stability
310 Ensure dual-life CPAN modules are stable, which comes down to:
312 for each module that fails its regression tests on $current
313 did it fail identically on $previous?
314 if yes, "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem)
315 else work out why it failed (a bisect is useful for this)
317 attempt to group failure causes
319 for each failure cause
320 is that a regression?
321 if yes, figure out how to fix it
322 (more code? revert the code that broke it)
324 (presumably) it's relying on something un-or-under-documented
325 should the existing behaviour stay?
326 yes - goto "regression"
327 no - note it in perldelta as a significant bugfix
328 (also, try to inform the module's author)
331 =head3 monitor smoke tests for failures
333 Similarly, monitor the smoking of core tests, and try to fix. See
334 L<http://doc.procura.nl/smoke/index.html> for a summary. See also
335 L<http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.daily-build.reports/> which has
338 Similarly, monitor the smoking of perl for compiler warnings, and try to
342 =head3 update perldelta
344 Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.
346 Read F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>, and try to make sure that
347 every section it lists is, if necessary, populated and complete. Copy
348 edit the whole document.
351 =head3 Bump the version number
353 Increase the version number (e.g. from 5.12.0 to 5.12.1).
355 For a BLEAD-POINT release, this can happen on the day of the release. For a
356 release candidate for a stable perl, this should happen a week or two
357 before the first release candidate to allow sufficient time for testing and
358 smoking with the target version built into the perl executable. For
359 subsequent release candidates and the final release, it it not necessary to
360 bump the version further.
362 There is a tool to semi-automate this process:
364 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/bump-perl-version -i 5.10.0 5.10.1
366 Remember that this tool is largely just grepping for '5.10.0' or whatever,
367 so it will generate false positives. Be careful not change text like
368 "this was fixed in 5.10.0"!
370 Use git status and git diff to select changes you want to keep.
372 Be particularly careful with F<INSTALL>, which contains a mixture of
373 C<5.10.0>-type strings, some of which need bumping on every release, and
374 some of which need to be left unchanged.
375 The line in F<INSTALL> about "is binary incompatible with" requires a
376 correct choice of earlier version to declare incompatibility with.
378 When doing a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release, also make sure the
379 C<PERL_API_*> constants in F<patchlevel.h> are in sync with the version
380 you're releasing, unless you're
381 absolutely sure the release you're about to make is 100% binary compatible
382 to an earlier release. When releasing a MAINT perl version, the C<PERL_API_*>
383 constants C<MUST NOT> be changed as we aim to guarantee binary compatibility
386 After editing, regenerate uconfig.h (this must be run on a system with a
389 $ perl regen/uconfig_h.pl
393 $ git clean -xdf # careful if you don't have local files to keep!
394 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
402 B<review the delta carefully>
404 $ git commit -a -m 'Bump the perl version in various places for 5.x.y'
406 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
407 see if they look similar. See commit 8891dd8d for an example of a
408 previous version bump.
410 When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList
411 (as described below in L<"update Module::CoreList">) to reflect the new
415 =head3 update INSTALL
417 Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number;
418 in particular, the "Coexistence with earlier versions of perl 5" section.
420 Be particularly careful with the section "Upgrading from 5.X.Y or earlier".
421 The "X.Y" needs to be changed to the most recent version that we are
422 I<not> binary compatible with.
424 For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, this needs to refer to the last
425 release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
426 release, this would be 5.13.11).
428 For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
429 release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2).
431 =head3 Check more build configurations
433 Check some more build configurations.
435 $ sh Configure -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y -Uinstallusrbinperl \
436 -Duseshrplib -Dusesitecustomize
440 XXX think of other configurations that need testing.
443 =head3 update perlport
445 L<perlport> has a section currently named I<Supported Platforms> that
446 indicates which platforms are known to build in the current release.
447 If necessary update the list and the indicated version number.
451 =head2 Building a release - on the day
453 This section describes the actions required to make a release
454 that are performed on the actual day.
457 =head3 re-check earlier actions
459 Review all the actions in the previous section,
460 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
464 =head3 bump version number
466 For a BLEAD-POINT release, if you did not bump the perl version number as
467 part of I<advance actions>, do that now.
470 =head3 finalize perldelta
472 Finalize the perldelta. In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
473 section, which can be generated with something like:
475 $ perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD
477 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
478 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
479 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
480 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
482 $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perldelta.pod
483 $ spell pod/perldelta.pod
485 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
488 $ ./perl -Ilib ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html pod/perldelta.pod > /tmp/perldelta.html
490 Another good HTML preview option is http://search.cpan.org/pod2html
492 If you make changes, be sure to commit them.
494 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
496 =head3 remove stale perldeltas
498 For the first RC release that is ONLY for a BLEAD-FINAL, the perldeltas
499 from the BLEAD-POINT releases since the previous BLEAD_FINAL should have
500 now been consolidated into the current perldelta, and hence are now just
501 useless clutter. They can be removed using:
503 $ git rm <file1> <file2> ...
505 For example, for RC0 of 5.16.0:
508 $ git rm perldelta515*.pod
510 All mention to them should also be removed. Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to remove
511 them from its table of contents, then run F<Porting/pod_rules.pl> to
512 propagate your changes there into all the other files that mention them
513 (including F<MANIFEST>). You'll need to C<git add> the files that it changes.
515 Then build a clean perl and do a full test
519 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des
523 Once all tests pass, commit your changes.
525 =head3 build a clean perl
527 If you skipped the previous step (removing the stale perldeltas)
528 make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
529 unpushed commits etc):
534 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
536 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
538 =head3 update Module::CoreList
540 Update C<Module::CoreList> with module version data for the new release.
542 Note that if this is a MAINT release, you should run the following actions
543 from the maint branch, but commit the C<CoreList.pm> changes in
544 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
545 maint release and then your recent commit. XXX need a better example
547 F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
548 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror or fall back
549 to C<wget> or C<curl> to fetch only package metadata remotely. (If you're
550 on Win32, then installing Cygwin is one way to have commands like C<wget>
551 and C<curl> available.)
553 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
554 http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN)
556 Then change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
560 If this is not the first update for this version (e.g. if it was updated
561 when the version number was originally bumped), first edit
562 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> to delete the existing
563 entries for this version from the C<%released> and C<%version> hashes:
564 they will have a key like C<5.010001> for 5.10.1.
566 XXX the edit-in-place functionality of Porting/corelist.pl should
567 be fixed to handle this automatically.
569 Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
571 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
575 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
577 This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
578 badly-indexed CPAN modules unrelated to the modules actually in core.
579 Assuming all goes well, it will update
580 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>.
582 Check that file over carefully:
584 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm
586 If this is a .0 Perl version, add the appropriate lines in F<Corelist.pm>
587 to alias "5.nnn000" to "5.nnn" in each hash. (If feeling energetic,
588 amend F<corelist.pl> to automate this.)
590 =head4 Bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>
592 If necessary, bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION> (there's no need to do this for
593 every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
594 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
595 It may also happen that C<Module::CoreList> has been modified in blead, and
596 hence has a new version number already. (But make sure it is not the same
597 number as a CPAN release.)
599 Edit the version number in the new C<< 'Module::CoreList' => 'X.YZ' >>
600 entry, as that is likely to reflect the previous version number.
602 =head4 Bump version in Module::CoreList F<Changes>
604 Also edit Module::CoreList's new version number in its F<Changes>
607 =head4 Add Module::CoreList version bump to perldelta
609 Add a perldelta entry for the new Module::CoreList version.
611 =for checklist skip RC
613 =head4 Update C<%Module::CoreList::released> and C<CAVEATS>
615 In addition, if this is a final release (rather than a release candidate):
621 Update this version's entry in the C<%released> hash with today's date.
625 Make sure that the script has correctly updated the C<CAVEATS> section
626 (Note, the C<CAVEATS> section is in
627 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod>)
631 =head4 Commit Module::CoreList changes
633 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
634 (unless this is for MAINT; in which case commit it to blead first, then
635 cherry-pick it back).
637 $ git commit -m 'Update Module::CoreList for 5.x.y' dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod
639 =for checklist skip RC
641 =head3 update perlhist.pod
643 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
645 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:
647 David 5.10.1 2009-Aug-06
649 Make sure that the correct pumpking is listed in the left-hand column, and
650 if this is the first release under the stewardship of a new pumpking, make
651 sure that his or her name is listed in the section entitled
652 C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
654 Be sure to commit your changes:
656 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
658 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
660 =head3 update patchlevel.h
662 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>
664 Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
665 a final release, remove it. For example:
667 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
670 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
672 Be sure to commit your change:
674 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
677 =head3 build, test and check a fresh perl
679 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
682 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
684 # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
685 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
689 Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
690 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
691 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
692 paths. Note that as they have been been built from a git working
693 directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
694 commits. (Note that for an odd-numbered version, perl will install
695 itself as C<perl5.x.y>). C<perl -v> will identify itself as:
697 This is perl 5, version X, subversion Y (v5.X.Y (v5.X.Z-NNN-deadbeef))
699 where 5.X.Z is the latest tag, Z the number of commits since this tag,
700 and C<< deadbeef >> commit of that tag.
702 Then delete the temporary installation.
705 =head3 push the work so far
707 Push all your recent commits:
709 $ git push origin ....
712 =head3 tag the release
714 Tag the release (e.g.):
716 $ git tag v5.11.0 -m "First release of the v5.11 series!"
718 It is B<VERY> important that from this point forward, you not push
719 your git changes to the Perl master repository. If anything goes
720 wrong before you publish your newly-created tag, you can delete
721 and recreate it. Once you push your tag, we're stuck with it
722 and you'll need to use a new version number for your release.
725 =head3 build the tarball
727 Before you run the following, you might want to install 7-Zip (the
728 C<p7zip-full> package under Debian or the C<p7zip> port on MacPorts) or
729 the AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> package under Debian,
730 or the C<advancecomp> port on macports - 7-Zip on Windows is the
731 same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the smallest files
732 first time). These compress about 5% smaller than gzip and bzip2.
733 Over the lifetime of your distribution this will save a lot of
734 people a small amount of download time and disk space, which adds
737 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
738 the tarball and directory name:
740 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
742 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
743 $ git status # and there's nothing lying around
745 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s RC1 # for a release candidate
746 $ perl Porting/makerel -b # for a final release
748 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
749 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them,
750 adds DOS line endings to some, then tars it up as
751 F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. With C<-b>, it also creates a C<tar.bz2> file.
753 If you're getting your tarball suffixed with -uncommitted and you're sure
754 your changes were all committed, you can override the suffix with:
756 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s ''
758 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
761 Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.
763 $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1
766 =head3 test the tarball
768 Once you have a tarball it's time to test the tarball (not the repository).
770 =head4 Copy the tarball to a web server
772 Copy the tarballs (.gz and possibly .bz2) to a web server somewhere you
775 =head4 Download the tarball to another machine
777 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
778 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
779 and architectures. The #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org is a good place
780 to find willing victims.
782 =head4 Check that F<Configure> works
784 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
786 $ ./Configure -des && make all test
788 =head4 Run the test harness and install
790 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
793 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
796 =head4 Check C<perl -v> and C<perl -V>
798 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
799 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
802 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
803 which is why you should test from the tarball.
805 =head4 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility
807 $ ./perl utils/perlivp
809 All tests successful.
812 =head4 Compare the installed paths to the last release
814 Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
815 release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
816 have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
817 for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
818 For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
821 cd installdir-5.10.0/
822 find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
823 cd installdir-5.10.1/
824 find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
827 =head4 Test the CPAN client
829 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
831 $ bin/perl -MCPAN -e "shell"
833 If you're running this on Win32 you probably also need a set of Unix
834 command-line tools available for CPAN to function correctly without
835 Perl alternatives like LWP installed. Cygwin is an obvious choice.)
837 =head4 Install the Inline module and test it
839 Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
840 has dependencies; for example:
845 Check that your perl can run this:
847 $ bin/perl -lwe "use Inline C => q[int f() { return 42;}]; print f"
851 =head4 Bootstrap the CPANPLUS client
853 Bootstrap the CPANPLUS client on the clean install:
857 (Again, on Win32 you'll need something like Cygwin installed, but make sure
858 that you don't end up with its various F<bin/cpan*> programs being found on
859 the PATH before those of the Perl that you're trying to test.)
861 =head4 Install the DBI module with CPANPLUS
865 $ bin/perl -MDBI -e 1
868 =head4 Make sure that perlbug works
870 Test L<perlbug> with the following:
874 Subject: test bug report
875 Local perl administrator [yourself]:
881 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
882 Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]:
883 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): q
885 and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
886 the "Locally applied patches" section. If everything appears okay, then
887 delete the file, and try it again, this time actually submitting the bug
888 report. Check that it shows up, then remember to close it!
890 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
892 =head3 monitor smokes
894 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
895 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
897 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
900 Note that for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases this may not be practical. It takes a
901 long time for the smokers to catch up, especially the Win32
902 smokers. This is why we have a RC cycle for I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
903 releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases sometimes the best you can do is
904 to plead with people on IRC to test stuff on their platforms, fire away,
905 and then hope for the best.
908 =head3 upload to PAUSE
910 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
911 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
912 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
914 https://pause.perl.org/
916 (Login, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')
918 If your workstation is not connected to a high-bandwidth,
919 high-reliability connection to the Internet, you should probably use the
920 "GET URL" feature (rather than "HTTP UPLOAD") to have PAUSE retrieve the
921 new release from wherever you put it for testers to find it. This will
922 eliminate anxious gnashing of teeth while you wait to see if your
923 15 megabyte HTTP upload successfully completes across your slow, twitchy
924 cable modem. You can make use of your home directory on dromedary for
925 this purpose: F<http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~USERNAME> maps to
926 F</home/USERNAME/public_html>, where F<USERNAME> is your login account
927 on dromedary. I<Remember>: if your upload is partially successful, you
928 may need to contact a PAUSE administrator or even bump the version of perl.
930 Upload both the .gz and .bz2 versions of the tarball.
932 Do not proceed any further until you are sure that your tarballs are on
933 CPAN. Check your authors directory on one of the "fast" CPAN mirrors
934 (e.g., cpan.hexten.net
935 or cpan.cpantesters.org) to confirm that your uploads have been successful.
937 =for checklist skip RC
939 =head3 wait for indexing
941 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
943 Wait until you receive notification emails from the PAUSE indexer
944 confirming that your uploads have been received. IMPORTANT -- you will
945 probably get an email that indexing has failed, due to module permissions.
946 This is considered normal.
951 Now that you've shipped the new perl release to PAUSE, it's
952 time to publish the tag you created earlier to the public git repo (e.g.):
954 $ git push origin tag v5.11.0
956 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
958 =head3 disarm patchlevel.h
960 I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>
962 Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,
964 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
967 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
969 Be sure to commit your change:
971 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
972 $ git push origin ....
976 =head3 announce to p5p
978 Mail p5p to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
980 Use the template at Porting/release_announcement_template.txt
982 Send a carbon copy to C<noc@metacpan.org>
984 =head3 update epigraphs.pod
986 Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
987 Your release announcement will probably not have reached the web-visible
988 archives yet, so you won't be able to include the customary link to the
989 release announcement yet.
991 =head3 blog about your epigraph
993 If you have a blog, please consider writing an entry in your blog explaining
994 why you chose that particular quote for your epigraph.
996 =for checklist skip RC
998 =head3 Module::CoreList nagging
1000 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1002 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
1005 =for checklist skip RC
1007 =head3 new perldelta
1009 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1011 Create a new perldelta.
1017 Confirm that you have a clean checkout with no local changes.
1021 Run F<Porting/new-perldelta.pl>
1025 Run the C<git add> commands it outputs to add new and modified files.
1029 Verify that the build still works, by running C<./Configure> and
1030 C<make test_porting>. (On Win32, run C<nmake> and
1031 C<nmake test TEST_FILES="porting\*.t ..\lib\diagnostics.t">.)
1035 If F<t/porting/podcheck.t> spots errors in the new F<pod/perldelta.pod>,
1036 run C<./perl -MTestInit t/porting/podcheck.t | less> for more detail.
1037 Skip to the end of its test output to see the options it offers you.
1041 When C<make test_porting> passes, commit the new perldelta.
1045 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
1046 see if they look similar. See commit e3c71926d3 for an example of a
1047 previous version bump.
1049 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1053 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
1055 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1056 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
1057 in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
1059 First, add a new feature bundle to F<regen/feature.pl>, initially by just
1060 copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION (after the __END__
1063 "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1064 + "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1066 Run F<regen/feature.pl> to propagate the changes to F<lib/feature.pm>.
1068 Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
1069 in the remaining files and test and commit.
1072 =head3 clean build and test
1074 Run a clean build and test to make sure nothing obvious is broken.
1076 In particular, F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> is intentionally exempted
1077 from podchecker tests, to avoid false positives about placeholder text.
1078 However, once it's copied to F<pod/perldelta.pod> the contents can now
1079 cause test failures. Problems should resolved by doing one of the
1086 Replace placeholder text with correct text.
1090 If the problem is from a broken placeholder link, you can add it to the
1091 array C<@perldelta_ignore_links> in F<t/porting/podcheck.t>. Lines
1092 containing such links should be marked with C<XXX> so that they get
1093 cleaned up before the next release.
1097 Following the instructions output by F<t/porting/podcheck.t> on how to
1098 update its exceptions database.
1104 Finally, push any commits done above.
1106 $ git push origin ....
1108 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1110 =head3 create maint branch
1112 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
1114 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1115 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then create a new maint branch based on
1116 the commit tagged as the current release.
1118 Assuming you're using git 1.7.x or newer:
1120 $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
1121 $ git push origin -u maint-5.12
1124 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1126 =head3 make the maint branch available in the APC
1128 Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
1129 receive its changes.
1131 $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
1132 ? /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1133 $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1135 And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.
1137 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT RC
1139 =head3 copy perldelta.pod to other branches
1141 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>
1143 Copy the perldelta.pod for this release into the other branches; for
1146 $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod # for example
1147 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
1149 Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:
1151 perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
1153 Then rebuild various files:
1155 $ perl pod/buildtoc --build-all
1159 $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'
1162 =head3 update perlhist.pod in other branches
1164 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
1165 F<perlhist.pod> on other branches
1171 =head3 bump RT version number
1173 Log into http://rt.perl.org/ and check whether the new version is in the RT
1174 fields C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In>. The easiest way to determine this is
1175 to go to L<https://rt.perl.org/rt3/Search/Build.html> and click on the drop
1176 downs next to the C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In> labels.
1178 If the new version is not listed there, send an email to C<perlbug-admin at
1179 perl.org> requesting this.
1183 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some
1184 much-needed rest and relaxation>.
1186 Thanks for releasing perl!
1189 =head2 Building a release - the day after
1191 =head3 link announcement in epigraphs.pod
1193 Add, to your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod>, a link to the release
1194 announcement in the web-visible mailing list archive. Commit it.
1196 =head3 check tarball availability
1198 Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
1199 and is properly indexed:
1205 Check your author directory under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/>
1206 to ensure that the tarballs are available on the website.
1210 Check C</src> on CPAN (on a fast mirror) to ensure that links to
1211 the new tarballs have appeared. There should be links in C</src/5.0>
1212 (which is accumulating all new versions), links in C</src> (which shows
1213 only the latest version on each branch), and an appropriate mention in
1214 C</src/README.html> (which describes the latest versions).
1216 These links should appear automatically, some hours after upload.
1217 If they don't, or the C<README.html> description is inadequate,
1218 ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1222 Check L<http://www.cpan.org/src/> to ensure that the C</src> updates
1223 have been correctly mirrored to the website.
1224 If they haven't, ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1228 Check L<http://search.cpan.org> to see if it has indexed the distribution.
1229 It should be visible at a URL like C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl-5.10.1/>.
1233 =for checklist skip RC
1235 =head3 update dev.perl.org
1237 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
1239 In your C<perlorg> repository, link to the new release. For a new
1240 latest-maint release, edit F<docs/shared/tpl/stats.html>. Otherwise,
1241 edit F<docs/dev/perl5/index.html>.
1243 Then make a pull request to Leo Lapworth. If this fails for some reason
1244 and you cannot cajole anybody else into submitting that change, you can
1245 mail Leo as last resort.
1247 This repository can be found on L<github|https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb>.
1254 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html,
1255 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.