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 ...
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 When doing a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release, also make sure the
400 C<PERL_API_*> constants in F<patchlevel.h> are in sync with the version
401 you're releasing, unless you're absolutely sure the release you're about to
402 make is 100% binary compatible to an earlier release. When releasing a MAINT
403 perl version, the C<PERL_API_*> constants C<MUST NOT> be changed as we aim
404 to guarantee binary compatibility in maint branches.
406 After editing, regenerate uconfig.h (this must be run on a system with a
409 $ perl regen/uconfig_h.pl
411 This might not cause any new changes.
415 $ git clean -xdf # careful if you don't have local files to keep!
416 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
424 B<review the delta carefully>
426 $ git commit -a -m 'Bump the perl version in various places for 5.x.y'
428 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
429 see if they look similar. See commit f7cf42bb69 for an example of a
430 previous version bump.
432 When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList
433 (as described below in L<"update Module::CoreList">) to reflect the new
436 =head3 update INSTALL
438 Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number;
439 in particular, the "Coexistence with earlier versions of perl 5" section.
441 Be particularly careful with the section "Upgrading from 5.X.Y or earlier".
442 The "X.Y" needs to be changed to the most recent version that we are
443 I<not> binary compatible with.
445 For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, this needs to refer to the last
446 release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
447 release, this would be 5.13.11).
449 For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
450 release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2).
452 =head3 Check copyright years
454 Check that the copyright years are up to date by running:
456 $ ./perl t/porting/copyright.t --now
458 Remedy any test failures by editing README or perl.c accordingly (search for
459 the "Copyright"). If updating perl.c, check if the file's own copyright date in
460 the C comment at the top needs updating, as well as the one printed by C<-v>.
462 =head3 Check more build configurations
464 Try running the full test suite against multiple Perl configurations. Here are
465 some sets of Configure flags you can try:
471 C<-Duseshrplib -Dusesitecustomize>
475 C<-Duserelocatableinc>
483 If you have multiple compilers on your machine, you might also consider
484 compiling with C<-Dcc=$other_compiler>.
486 =head3 update perlport
488 L<perlport> has a section currently named I<Supported Platforms> that
489 indicates which platforms are known to build in the current release.
490 If necessary update the list and the indicated version number.
492 =head3 check a readonly build
494 Even before other prep work, follow the steps in L<build the tarball> and test
495 it locally. Because a perl source tarballs sets many files read-only, it could
496 test differently than tests run from the repository. After you're sure
497 permissions aren't a problem, delete the generated directory and tarballs.
499 =head2 Building a release - on the day
501 This section describes the actions required to make a release
502 that are performed near to, or on the actual release day.
504 =head3 re-check earlier actions
506 Review all the actions in the previous section,
507 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
510 =head3 create a release branch
512 For BLEAD-POINT releases, making a release from a release branch avoids the
513 need to freeze blead during the release. This is less important for
514 BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, and RC releases, since blead will already be frozen in
515 those cases. Create the branch by running
517 git checkout -b release-5.xx.yy
519 =head3 build a clean perl
521 Make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
522 unpushed commits etc):
527 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
529 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
531 =head3 update Module::CoreList
533 =head4 Bump Module::CoreList* $VERSIONs
535 If necessary, bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION> (there's no need to do this for
536 every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
537 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
538 It may also happen that C<Module::CoreList> has been modified in blead, and
539 hence has a new version number already. (But make sure it is not the same
540 number as a CPAN release.)
542 C<$Module::CoreList::TieHashDelta::VERSION> and
543 C<$Module::CoreList::Utils::VERSION> should always be equal to
544 C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>. If necessary, bump those two versions to match
547 =head4 Update C<Module::CoreList> with module version data for the new release.
549 Note that if this is a MAINT release, you should run the following actions
550 from the maint branch, but commit the C<CoreList.pm> changes in
551 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
552 maint release and then your recent commit. XXX need a better example
554 [ Note that the procedure for handling Module::CoreList in maint branches
555 is a bit complex, and the RMG currently don't describe a full and
556 workable approach. The main issue is keeping Module::CoreList
557 and its version number synchronised across all maint branches, blead and
558 CPAN, while having to bump its version number for every RC release.
559 See this brief p5p thread:
561 Message-ID: <20130311174402.GZ2294@iabyn.com>
563 If you can devise a workable system, feel free to try it out, and to
564 update the RMG accordingly!
568 F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
569 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror and/or fall back
570 on HTTP::Tiny to fetch package metadata remotely.
572 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
573 http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN)
575 Then change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
579 Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
581 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
585 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
587 This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
588 badly-indexed CPAN modules unrelated to the modules actually in core.
589 Assuming all goes well, it will update
590 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> and possibly
591 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod> and/or
592 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>.
594 Check those files over carefully:
596 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm
597 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod
598 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm
600 =head4 Bump version in Module::CoreList F<Changes>
602 Also edit Module::CoreList's new version number in its F<Changes> file.
604 =head4 Add Module::CoreList version bump to perldelta
606 Add a perldelta entry for the new Module::CoreList version.
608 =for checklist skip RC
610 =head4 Update C<%Module::CoreList::released> and C<CAVEATS>
612 In addition, if this is a final release (rather than a release candidate):
618 Update this version's entry in the C<%released> hash with today's date.
622 Make sure that the script has correctly updated the C<CAVEATS> section
623 (Note, the C<CAVEATS> section is in
624 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod>)
628 =head4 Commit Module::CoreList changes
630 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
631 (unless this is for MAINT; in which case commit it to blead first, then
632 cherry-pick it back).
634 $ 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
636 =head4 Rebuild and test
638 Build and test to get the changes into the currently built lib directory and to ensure
639 all tests are passing.
641 =head3 finalize perldelta
643 Finalize the perldelta. In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
644 section, which can be generated with something like:
646 $ perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD
648 Fill in the "New/Updated Modules" sections now that Module::CoreList is updated:
650 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl --mode=update pod/perldelta.pod
652 Ideally, also fill in a summary of the major changes to each module for which
653 an entry has been added by F<corelist-perldelta.pl>.
655 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
656 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
657 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
658 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
660 $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perldelta.pod
661 $ spell pod/perldelta.pod
663 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
666 $ ./perl -Ilib ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html pod/perldelta.pod > /tmp/perldelta.html
668 Another good HTML preview option is http://search.cpan.org/pod2html
670 If you make changes, be sure to commit them.
672 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
674 =head3 remove stale perldeltas
676 For the first RC release that is ONLY for a BLEAD-FINAL, the perldeltas
677 from the BLEAD-POINT releases since the previous BLEAD-FINAL should have
678 now been consolidated into the current perldelta, and hence are now just
679 useless clutter. They can be removed using:
681 $ git rm <file1> <file2> ...
683 For example, for RC0 of 5.16.0:
686 $ git rm perldelta515*.pod
688 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL BLEAD-POINT
690 =head3 add recent perldeltas
692 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in any recent perldeltas from
693 blead that have been added since the last release on this branch. This
694 should include any recent maint releases on branches older than your one,
695 but not newer. For example if you're producing a 5.14.x release, copy any
696 perldeltas from recent 5.10.x, 5.12.x etc maint releases, but not from
697 5.16.x or higher. Remember to
699 $ git add <file1> <file2> ...
701 =head3 update and commit perldelta files
703 If you have added or removed any perldelta files via the previous two
704 steps, then edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add/remove them from its table of
705 contents, then run F<Porting/pod_rules.pl> to propagate your changes there
706 into all the other files that mention them (including F<MANIFEST>). You'll
707 need to C<git add> the files that it changes.
709 Then build a clean perl and do a full test
713 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des
717 Once all tests pass, commit your changes.
719 =head3 build a clean perl
721 If you skipped the previous step (adding/removing perldeltas),
722 again, make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
723 unpushed commits etc):
728 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
730 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
732 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL BLEAD-POINT
734 =head3 synchronise from blead's perlhist.pod
736 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in the latest
737 F<pod/perlhist.pod> from blead; this will include details of newer
738 releases in all branches. In theory, blead's version should be a strict
739 superset of the one in this branch, but it's probably safest to diff them
740 first to ensure that there's nothing in this branch that was forgotten
743 $ diff pod/perlhist.pod ..../blead/pod/perlhist.pod
744 $ cp ..../blead/pod/perlhist.pod pod/
745 $ git commit -m 'sync perlhist from blead' pod/perlhist.pod
747 =for checklist skip RC
749 =head3 update perlhist.pod
751 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
753 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:
755 David 5.10.1 2009-Aug-06
757 Make sure that the correct pumpking is listed in the left-hand column, and
758 if this is the first release under the stewardship of a new pumpking, make
759 sure that his or her name is listed in the section entitled
760 C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
762 I<If you're making a BLEAD-FINAL release>, also update the "SELECTED
763 RELEASE SIZES" section with the output of
764 F<Porting/perlhist_calculate.pl>.
766 Be sure to commit your changes:
768 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
770 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
772 =head3 update patchlevel.h
774 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>
776 Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
777 a final release, remove it. For example:
779 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
782 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
784 Be sure to commit your change:
786 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
788 =head3 run makemeta to update META files
790 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/makemeta
792 Be sure to commit any changes (if applicable):
794 $ git status # any changes?
795 $ git commit -m 'Update META files' META.*
797 =head3 build, test and check a fresh perl
799 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
802 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
804 # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
805 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
809 Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
810 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
811 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
812 paths. Note that as they have been built from a git working
813 directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
814 commits. (Note that for an odd-numbered version, perl will install
815 itself as C<perl5.x.y>). C<perl -v> will identify itself as:
817 This is perl 5, version X, subversion Y (v5.X.Y (v5.X.Z-NNN-gdeadbeef))
819 where 5.X.Z is the latest tag, NNN the number of commits since this tag,
820 and C<< deadbeef >> commit of that tag.
822 Then delete the temporary installation.
824 =head3 create the release tag
826 Create the tag identifying this release (e.g.):
828 $ git tag v5.11.0 -m "First release of the v5.11 series!"
830 It is B<VERY> important that from this point forward, you not push
831 your git changes to the Perl master repository. If anything goes
832 wrong before you publish your newly-created tag, you can delete
833 and recreate it. Once you push your tag, we're stuck with it
834 and you'll need to use a new version number for your release.
836 =head3 build the tarball
838 Before you run the following, you might want to install 7-Zip (the
839 C<p7zip-full> package under Debian or the C<p7zip> port on MacPorts) or
840 the AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> package under Debian,
841 or the C<advancecomp> port on macports - 7-Zip on Windows is the
842 same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the smallest files
843 first time). These compress about 5% smaller than gzip and bzip2.
844 Over the lifetime of your distribution this will save a lot of
845 people a small amount of download time and disk space, which adds
848 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
849 the tarball and directory name:
851 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
853 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
854 $ git status # and there's nothing lying around
856 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s RC1 # for a release candidate
857 $ perl Porting/makerel -b # for a final release
859 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
860 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them, then
861 tars it up as F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. With C<-b>, it also creates a
864 If you're getting your tarball suffixed with -uncommitted and you're sure
865 your changes were all committed, you can override the suffix with:
867 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s ''
869 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
872 Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.
874 $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1
876 =head3 test the tarball
878 Once you have a tarball it's time to test the tarball (not the repository).
880 =head4 Copy the tarball to a web server
882 Copy the tarballs (.gz and possibly .bz2) to a web server somewhere you
885 =head4 Download the tarball to another machine
887 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
888 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
889 and architectures. The #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org is a good place
890 to find willing victims.
892 =head4 Check that F<Configure> works
894 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
896 $ ./Configure -des && make all test
898 =head4 Run the test harness and install
900 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
903 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
906 =head4 Check C<perl -v> and C<perl -V>
908 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
909 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
912 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
913 which is why you should test from the tarball.
915 =head4 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility
917 $ ./perl utils/perlivp
919 All tests successful.
922 =head4 Compare the installed paths to the last release
924 Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
925 release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
926 have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
927 for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
928 For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
931 cd installdir-5.10.0/
932 find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
933 cd installdir-5.10.1/
934 find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
937 =head4 Bootstrap the CPAN client
939 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
943 =head4 Install the Inline module with CPAN and test it
945 Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
946 has dependencies; for example:
951 Check that your perl can run this:
953 $ bin/perl -lwe "use Inline C => q[int f() { return 42;}]; print f"
957 =head4 Make sure that perlbug works
959 Test L<perlbug> with the following:
963 Subject: test bug report
964 Local perl administrator [yourself]:
970 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
971 Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]:
972 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): q
974 and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
975 the "Locally applied patches" section. If everything appears okay, then
976 delete the file, and try it again, this time actually submitting the bug
977 report. Check that it shows up, then remember to close it!
979 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
981 =head3 monitor smokes
983 XXX This is probably irrelevant if working on a release branch, though
984 MAINT or RC might want to push a smoke branch and wait.
986 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
987 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
989 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
992 Note that for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases this may not be practical. It takes a
993 long time for the smokers to catch up, especially the Win32
994 smokers. This is why we have a RC cycle for I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
995 releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases sometimes the best you can do is
996 to plead with people on IRC to test stuff on their platforms, fire away,
997 and then hope for the best.
999 =head3 upload to PAUSE
1001 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
1002 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
1003 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
1005 https://pause.perl.org/
1007 (Login, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')
1009 If your workstation is not connected to a high-bandwidth,
1010 high-reliability connection to the Internet, you should probably use the
1011 "GET URL" feature (rather than "HTTP UPLOAD") to have PAUSE retrieve the
1012 new release from wherever you put it for testers to find it. This will
1013 eliminate anxious gnashing of teeth while you wait to see if your
1014 15 megabyte HTTP upload successfully completes across your slow, twitchy
1015 cable modem. You can make use of your home directory on dromedary for
1016 this purpose: F<http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~USERNAME> maps to
1017 F</home/USERNAME/public_html>, where F<USERNAME> is your login account
1018 on dromedary. I<Remember>: if your upload is partially successful, you
1019 may need to contact a PAUSE administrator or even bump the version of perl.
1021 Upload both the .gz and .bz2 versions of the tarball.
1023 Do not proceed any further until you are sure that your tarballs are on CPAN.
1024 Check your authors directory www.cpan.org (the globally balanced "fast"
1025 mirror) to confirm that your uploads have been successful.
1027 =for checklist skip RC BLEAD-POINT
1029 =head3 wait for indexing
1031 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and BLEAD-POINT>
1033 Wait until you receive notification emails from the PAUSE indexer
1034 confirming that your uploads have been received. IMPORTANT -- you will
1035 probably get an email that indexing has failed, due to module permissions.
1036 This is considered normal.
1038 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1040 =head3 disarm patchlevel.h
1042 I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>
1044 Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,
1046 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
1049 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
1051 Be sure to commit your change:
1053 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
1055 =head3 announce to p5p
1057 Mail p5p to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
1059 Use the template at Porting/release_announcement_template.txt
1061 Send a carbon copy to C<noc@metacpan.org>
1063 =head3 merge release branch back to blead
1065 Merge the (local) release branch back into master now, and delete it.
1069 git merge release-5.xx.yy
1071 git branch -d release-5.xx.yy
1073 Note: The merge will create a merge commit if other changes have been pushed
1074 to blead while you've been working on your release branch. Do NOT rebase your
1075 branch to avoid the merge commit (as you might normally do when merging a
1076 small branch into blead) since doing so will invalidate the tag that you
1079 =head3 publish the release tag
1081 Now that you've shipped the new perl release to PAUSE and pushed your changes
1082 to the Perl master repository, it's time to publish the tag you created
1085 $ git push origin tag v5.11.0
1087 =head3 update epigraphs.pod
1089 Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
1090 Your release announcement will probably not have reached the web-visible
1091 archives yet, so you won't be able to include the customary link to the
1092 release announcement yet.
1094 =head3 blog about your epigraph
1096 If you have a blog, please consider writing an entry in your blog explaining
1097 why you chose that particular quote for your epigraph.
1099 =for checklist skip RC
1101 =head3 Module::CoreList nagging
1103 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1105 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
1108 =for checklist skip RC
1110 =head3 new perldelta
1112 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1114 Create a new perldelta.
1120 Confirm that you have a clean checkout with no local changes.
1124 Run F<Porting/new-perldelta.pl>
1128 Run the C<git add> commands it outputs to add new and modified files.
1132 Verify that the build still works, by running C<./Configure> and
1133 C<make test_porting>. (On Win32 use the appropriate make utility).
1137 If F<t/porting/podcheck.t> spots errors in the new F<pod/perldelta.pod>,
1138 run C<./perl -MTestInit t/porting/podcheck.t | less> for more detail.
1139 Skip to the end of its test output to see the options it offers you.
1143 When C<make test_porting> passes, commit the new perldelta.
1147 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
1148 see if they look similar. See commit ba03bc34a4 for an example of a
1149 previous version bump.
1151 =for checklist skip MAINT RC
1155 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and MAINT>
1157 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1158 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
1159 in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
1161 First, add a new feature bundle to F<regen/feature.pl>, initially by just
1162 copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION (after the __END__
1165 "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1166 + "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1168 Run F<regen/feature.pl> to propagate the changes to F<lib/feature.pm>.
1170 Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
1171 in the remaining files and test and commit.
1173 If this was a BLEAD-POINT release, then just follow the section
1174 L<"Bump the version number">.
1176 After bumping the version, follow the section L<"update INSTALL"> to
1177 ensure all version number references are correct.
1179 =head3 clean build and test
1181 Run a clean build and test to make sure nothing obvious is broken.
1183 In particular, F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> is intentionally exempted
1184 from podchecker tests, to avoid false positives about placeholder text.
1185 However, once it's copied to F<pod/perldelta.pod> the contents can now
1186 cause test failures. Problems should resolved by doing one of the
1193 Replace placeholder text with correct text.
1197 If the problem is from a broken placeholder link, you can add it to the
1198 array C<@perldelta_ignore_links> in F<t/porting/podcheck.t>. Lines
1199 containing such links should be marked with C<XXX> so that they get
1200 cleaned up before the next release.
1204 Following the instructions output by F<t/porting/podcheck.t> on how to
1205 update its exceptions database.
1211 Finally, push any commits done above.
1213 $ git push origin ....
1215 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1217 =head3 create maint branch
1219 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
1221 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1222 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then create a new maint branch based on
1223 the commit tagged as the current release.
1225 Assuming you're using git 1.7.x or newer:
1227 $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
1228 $ git push origin -u maint-5.12
1231 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1233 =head3 make the maint branch available in the APC
1235 Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
1236 receive its changes.
1238 $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
1239 ? /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1240 $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1242 And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.
1244 XXX Who are the sysadmins? Contact info?
1246 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT RC
1248 =head3 copy perldelta.pod to blead
1250 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>
1252 Copy the perldelta.pod for this release into blead; for example:
1255 $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod # for example
1256 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
1258 Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:
1260 perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
1262 Then rebuild various files:
1264 $ perl Porting/pod_rules.pl
1266 Finally, commit and push:
1268 $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'
1269 $ git push origin ....
1271 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1273 =head3 copy perlhist.pod entries to blead
1275 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
1276 F<perlhist.pod> on blead. e.g.
1280 =head3 bump RT version number
1282 Log into http://rt.perl.org/ and check whether the new version is in the RT
1283 fields C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In>. The easiest way to determine this is to
1284 open up any ticket for modification and check the drop downs next to the
1285 C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In> labels.
1287 Here, try this link: L<https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Modify.html?id=10000>
1289 If the new version is not listed there, send an email to C<perlbug-admin at
1290 perl.org> requesting this.
1294 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some
1295 much-needed rest and relaxation>.
1297 Thanks for releasing perl!
1299 =head2 Building a release - the day after
1301 =head3 link announcement in epigraphs.pod
1303 Add, to your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod>, a link to the release
1304 announcement in the web-visible mailing list archive. Commit it.
1306 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, RC
1308 =head3 update Module::CoreList
1310 I<After a BLEAD-POINT release only>
1312 After Module::CoreList has shipped to CPAN by the maintainer, update
1313 Module::CoreList in the source so that it reflects the new blead
1320 Update F<Porting/Maintainers.pl> to list the new DISTRIBUTION on CPAN,
1321 which should be identical to what is currently in blead.
1325 Bump the $VERSION in F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>,
1326 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/TieHashDelta.pm> and
1327 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>.
1331 If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
1333 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
1337 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
1339 This will update F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>,
1340 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod> and
1341 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm> as it did before,
1342 but this time adding new sections for the next BLEAD-POINT release.
1346 Add the new $Module::CoreList::VERSION to
1347 F<dist/Module-CoreList/Changes>.
1351 Update F<pod/perldelta.pod> to mention the upgrade to Module::CoreList.
1355 Remake perl to get your changed .pm files propagated into F<lib/> and
1356 then run at least the F<dist/Module-CoreList/t/*.t> tests and the
1357 test_porting makefile target to check that they're ok.
1363 $ ./perl -Ilib -MModule::CoreList -le 'print Module::CoreList->find_version($]) ? "ok" : "not ok"'
1365 and check that it outputs "ok" to prove that Module::CoreList now knows
1366 about blead's current version.
1370 Commit and push your changes.
1374 =head3 check tarball availability
1376 Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
1377 and is properly indexed:
1383 Check your author directory under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/>
1384 to ensure that the tarballs are available on the website.
1388 Check C</src> on CPAN (on a fast mirror) to ensure that links to
1389 the new tarballs have appeared: There should be links in C</src/5.0>
1390 (which is accumulating all new versions), and (for BLEAD-FINAL and
1391 MAINT only) an appropriate mention in C</src/README.html> (which describes
1392 the latest versions in each stable branch, with links).
1394 The C</src/5.0> links should appear automatically, some hours after upload.
1395 If they don't, or the C</src> description is inadequate,
1396 ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1400 Check L<http://www.cpan.org/src/> to ensure that the C</src> updates
1401 have been correctly mirrored to the website.
1402 If they haven't, ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1406 Check L<http://search.cpan.org> to see if it has indexed the distribution.
1407 It should be visible at a URL like C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl-5.10.1/>.
1411 =for checklist skip RC
1413 =head3 update dev.perl.org
1415 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
1417 In your C<perlweb> repository, link to the new release. For a new
1418 latest-maint release, edit F<docs/shared/tpl/stats.html>. Otherwise,
1419 edit F<docs/dev/perl5/index.html>.
1421 Then make a pull request to Leo Lapworth. If this fails for some reason
1422 and you cannot cajole anybody else into submitting that change, you can
1423 mail Leo as last resort.
1425 This repository can be found on L<github|https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb>.
1427 =head3 update release manager's guide
1429 Go over your notes from the release (you did take some, right?) and update
1430 F<Porting/release_managers_guide.pod> with any fixes or information that
1431 will make life easier for the next release manager.
1438 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html,
1439 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.