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.
13 This document describes the series of tasks required - some automatic, some
14 manual - to produce a perl release of some description, be that a release
15 candidate, or final, numbered release of maint or blead.
17 The release process has traditionally been executed by the current
18 pumpking. Blead releases from 5.11.0 forward are made each month on the
19 20th by a non-pumpking release engineer. The release engineer roster
20 and schedule can be found in Porting/release_schedule.pod.
22 This document both helps as a check-list for the release engineer
23 and is a base for ideas on how the various tasks could be automated
26 The outline of a typical release cycle is as follows:
28 (5.10.1 is released, and post-release actions have been done)
32 a few weeks before the release, a number of steps are performed,
33 including bumping the version to 5.10.2
35 ...a few weeks passes...
37 perl-5.10.2-RC1 is released
39 perl-5.10.2 is released
41 post-release actions are performed, including creating new
44 ... the cycle continues ...
49 Some of the tasks described below apply to all four types of
50 release of Perl. (blead, RC, final release of maint, final
51 release of blead). Some of these tasks apply only to a subset
52 of these release types. If a step does not apply to a given
53 type of release, you will see a notation to that effect at
54 the beginning of the step.
61 =item Release Candidate (RC)
63 A release candidate is an attempt to produce a tarball that is a close as
64 possible to the final release. Indeed, unless critical faults are found
65 during the RC testing, the final release will be identical to the RC
66 barring a few minor fixups (updating the release date in F<perlhist.pod>,
67 removing the RC status from F<patchlevel.h>, etc). If faults are found,
68 then the fixes should be put into a new release candidate, never directly
72 =item Stable/Maint release (MAINT).
74 A release with an even version number, and subversion number > 0, such as
77 At this point you should have a working release candidate with few or no
80 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
81 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps.
83 =item A blead point release (BLEAD-POINT)
85 A release with an odd version number, such as 5.15.0 or 5.15.1.
87 This isn't for production, so it has less stability requirements than for
88 other release types, and isn't preceded by RC releases. Other than that,
89 it is similar to a MAINT release.
91 =item Blead final release (BLEAD-FINAL)
93 A release with an even version number, and subversion number == 0, such as
94 5.14.0. That is to say, it's the big new release once per year.
96 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
97 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps, even more than for MAINT.
104 Before you can make an official release of perl, there are a few
105 hoops you need to jump through:
111 Make sure you have a PAUSE account suitable for uploading a perl release.
112 If you don't have a PAUSE account, then request one:
114 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=request_id
116 Check that your account is allowed to upload perl distros: go to
117 L<https://pause.perl.org/pause/authenquery?ACTION=who_pumpkin> and check that
118 your PAUSE ID is listed there. If not, ask Andreas KE<0xf6>nig to add your ID
119 to the list of people allowed to upload something called perl. You can find
120 Andreas' email address at:
122 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=pause_04imprint
124 =item search.cpan.org
126 Make sure that search.cpan.org knows that you're allowed to upload
127 perl distros. Contact Graham Barr to make sure that you're on the right
132 Some release engineering steps require a full mirror of the CPAN.
133 Work to fall back to using a remote mirror via HTTP is incomplete
134 but ongoing. (No, a minicpan mirror is not sufficient)
136 =item git checkout and commit bit
138 You will need a working C<git> installation, checkout of the perl
139 git repository and perl commit bit. For information about working
140 with perl and git, see F<pod/perlgit.pod>.
142 If you are not yet a perl committer, you won't be able to make a
143 release. Have a chat with whichever evil perl porter tried to talk
144 you into the idea in the first place to figure out the best way to
148 =item Quotation for release announcement epigraph
150 I<SKIP this step for RC>
152 For all except an RC release of perl, you will need a quotation
153 to use as an epigraph to your release announcement.
159 =head2 Building a release - advance actions
161 The work of building a release candidate for a numbered release of
162 perl generally starts several weeks before the first release candidate.
163 Some of the following steps should be done regularly, but all I<must> be
164 done in the run up to a release.
167 =head3 dual-life CPAN module synchronisation
169 Ensure that dual-life CPAN modules are synchronised with CPAN. Basically,
172 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -a -o /tmp/corediffs
174 to see any inconsistencies between the core and CPAN versions of distros,
175 then fix the core, or cajole CPAN authors as appropriate. See also the
176 C<-d> and C<-v> options for more detail. You'll probably want to use the
177 C<-c cachedir> option to avoid repeated CPAN downloads and may want to
178 use C<-m file:///mirror/path> if you made a local CPAN mirror.
180 To see which core distro versions differ from the current CPAN versions:
182 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -x -a
184 If you are making a MAINT release, run C<core-cpan-diff> on both blead and
185 maint, then diff the two outputs. Compare this with what you expect, and if
186 necessary, fix things up. For example, you might think that both blead
187 and maint are synchronised with a particular CPAN module, but one might
188 have some extra changes.
191 =head3 dual-life CPAN module stability
193 Ensure dual-life CPAN modules are stable, which comes down to:
195 for each module that fails its regression tests on $current
196 did it fail identically on $previous?
197 if yes, "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem)
198 else work out why it failed (a bisect is useful for this)
200 attempt to group failure causes
202 for each failure cause
203 is that a regression?
204 if yes, figure out how to fix it
205 (more code? revert the code that broke it)
207 (presumably) it's relying on something un-or-under-documented
208 should the existing behaviour stay?
209 yes - goto "regression"
210 no - note it in perldelta as a significant bugfix
211 (also, try to inform the module's author)
216 Similarly, monitor the smoking of core tests, and try to fix. See
217 L<http://doc.procura.nl/smoke/index.html> for a summary. See also
218 L<http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.daily-build.reports/> which has
221 Similarly, monitor the smoking of perl for compiler warnings, and try to
227 Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.
229 Read F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>, and try to make sure that
230 every section it lists is, if necessary, populated and complete. Copy
231 edit the whole document.
234 =head3 Bump the version number
236 Increase the version number (e.g. from 5.12.0 to 5.12.1).
238 For a BLEAD-POINT release, this can happen on the day of the release. For a
239 release candidate for a stable perl, this should happen a week or two
240 before the first release candidate to allow sufficient time for testing and
241 smoking with the target version built into the perl executable. For
242 subsequent release candidates and the final release, it it not necessary to
243 bump the version further.
245 There is a tool to semi-automate this process:
247 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/bump-perl-version -i 5.10.0 5.10.1
249 Remember that this tool is largely just grepping for '5.10.0' or whatever,
250 so it will generate false positives. Be careful not change text like
251 "this was fixed in 5.10.0"!
253 Use git status and git diff to select changes you want to keep.
255 Be particularly careful with F<INSTALL>, which contains a mixture of
256 C<5.10.0>-type strings, some of which need bumping on every release, and
257 some of which need to be left unchanged.
258 The line in F<INSTALL> about "is binary incompatible with" requires a
259 correct choice of earlier version to declare incompatibility with.
261 When doing a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release, also make sure the
262 C<PERL_API_*> constants in F<patchlevel.h> are in sync with the version
263 you're releasing, unless you're
264 absolutely sure the release you're about to make is 100% binary compatible
265 to an earlier release. When releasing a MAINT perl version, the C<PERL_API_*>
266 constants C<MUST NOT> be changed as we aim to guarantee binary compatibility
269 After editing, regenerate uconfig.h (this must be run on a system with a
272 $ perl regen/uconfig_h.pl
276 $ git clean -xdf # careful if you don't have local files to keep!
277 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
285 B<review the delta carefully>
287 $ git commit -a -m 'Bump the perl version in various places for 5.x.y'
289 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
290 see if they look similar. See commit 8891dd8d for an example of a
291 previous version bump.
293 When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList
294 (as described below in L<"update Module::CoreList">) to reflect the new
298 =head3 update INSTALL
300 Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number;
301 in particular, the "Coexistence with earlier versions of perl 5" section.
303 Be particularly careful with the section "Upgrading from 5.X.Y or earlier".
304 The "X.Y" needs to be changed to the most recent version that we are
305 I<not> binary compatible with.
307 For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, this needs to refer to the last
308 release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
309 release, this would be 5.13.11).
311 For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
312 release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2).
314 =head3 Check more build configurations
316 Check some more build configurations. The check that setuid builds and
317 installs is for < 5.11.0 only.
319 $ sh Configure -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y -Uinstallusrbinperl \
320 -Duseshrplib -Dd_dosuid
322 $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd` make test # or similar for useshrplib
325 $ su -c 'make install'
326 $ ls -l .../bin/sperl
327 -rws--x--x 1 root root 69974 2009-08-22 21:55 .../bin/sperl
329 (Then delete the installation directory.)
331 XXX think of other configurations that need testing.
334 =head3 update perlport
336 L<perlport> has a section currently named I<Supported Platforms> that
337 indicates which platforms are known to build in the current release.
338 If necessary update the list and the indicated version number.
342 =head2 Building a release - on the day
344 This section describes the actions required to make a release
345 that are performed on the actual day.
348 =head3 re-check earlier actions
350 Review all the actions in the previous section,
351 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
355 =head3 bump version number
357 For a BLEAD-POINT release, if you did not bump the perl version number as
358 part of I<advance actions>, do that now.
361 =head3 finalize perldelta
363 Finalize the perldelta. In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
364 section. You can generate a list of contributors with checkAUTHORS.pl.
367 $ git log --pretty=fuller v5.13.${last}..HEAD | \
368 perl Porting/checkAUTHORS.pl --who -
370 Look at the previous L<perldelta> for how to write the opening
371 paragraph of the Acknowledgements section. To get the amount of
372 changed files and number of lines use this command:
374 $ git diff --shortstat v5.15.0..HEAD | \
375 ./perl -Ilib -nE 'my ($files, $insert, $delete) = /(\d+)/ga; say $insert + $delete, " lines of changes across $files files"'
377 Making sure to round off the number of lines changed.
379 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
380 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
381 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
382 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
384 $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perldelta.pod
385 $ spell pod/perldelta.pod
387 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
390 $ ./perl -Ilib ext/Pod-Html/pod2html pod/perldelta.pod > /tmp/perldelta.html
392 Another good HTML preview option is http://search.cpan.org/pod2html
394 If you make changes, be sure to commit them.
397 =head3 build a clean perl
399 Make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
400 unpushed commits etc):
405 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
407 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
410 =head3 update Module::CoreList
412 Update C<Module::CoreList> with module version data for the new release.
414 Note that if this is a MAINT release, you should run the following actions
415 from the maint branch, but commit the C<CoreList.pm> changes in
416 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
417 maint release and then your recent commit. XXX need a better example
419 F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
420 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror or fall back
421 to C<wget> or C<curl> to fetch only package metadata remotely. (If you're
422 on Win32, then installing Cygwin is one way to have commands like C<wget>
423 and C<curl> available.)
425 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
426 http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN)
428 Then change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
432 If this not the first update for this version (e.g. if it was updated
433 when the version number was originally bumped), first edit
434 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> to delete the existing
435 entries for this version from the C<%released> and C<%version> hashes:
436 they will have a key like C<5.010001> for 5.10.1.
438 XXX the edit-in-place functionality of Porting/corelist.pl should
439 be fixed to handle this automatically.
441 Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
443 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
447 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
449 This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
450 badly-indexed CPAN modules unrelated to the modules actually in core.
451 Assuming all goes well, it will update
452 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>.
454 Check that file over carefully:
456 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm
458 If necessary, bump C<$VERSION> (there's no need to do this for
459 every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
460 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
462 Edit the version number in the new C<< 'Module::CoreList' => 'X.YZ' >>
463 entry, as that is likely to reflect the previous version number.
465 Also edit Module::CoreList's new version number in its F<Changes>
468 Add a perldelta entry for the new Module::CoreList version.
470 You should also add the version you're about to release to the
471 L<Module::CoreList/CAVEATS> section which enumerates the perl releases
472 that Module::CoreList covers.
474 In addition, if this is a final release (rather than a release candidate):
480 Update this version's entry in the C<%released> hash with today's date.
484 Make sure that the script has correctly updated the C<CAVEATS> section
488 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
489 (unless this is for MAINT; in which case commit it to blead first, then
490 cherry-pick it back).
492 $ git commit -m 'Update Module::CoreList for 5.x.y' dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm
495 =head3 check MANIFEST
497 Check that the manifest is sorted and correct:
500 $ git clean -xdf # This shouldn't be necessary if distclean is correct
501 $ perl Porting/manicheck
503 If manicheck turns up anything wrong, update MANIFEST and begin this step again.
505 $ ./configure -des -Dusedevel
507 $ git commit -m 'Update MANIFEST' MANIFEST
510 =head3 update perlhist.pod
512 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
514 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:
516 David 5.10.1 2009-Aug-06
518 Make sure that the correct pumpking is listed in the left-hand column, and
519 if this is the first release under the stewardship of a new pumpking, make
520 sure that his or her name is listed in the section entitled
521 C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
523 Be sure to commit your changes:
525 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
528 =head3 update patchlevel.h
530 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>
532 Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
533 a final release, remove it. For example:
535 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
538 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
540 Be sure to commit your change:
542 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
545 =head3 build, test and check a fresh perl
547 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
550 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
552 # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
553 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
557 Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
558 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
559 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
560 paths. Note that as they have been been built from a git working
561 directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
564 Then delete the temporary installation.
567 =head3 push the work so far
569 Push all your recent commits:
571 $ git push origin ....
574 =head3 tag the release
576 Tag the release (e.g.):
578 $ git tag v5.11.0 -m "First release of the v5.11 series!"
580 It is B<VERY> important that from this point forward, you not push
581 your git changes to the Perl master repository. If anything goes
582 wrong before you publish your newly-created tag, you can delete
583 and recreate it. Once you push your tag, we're stuck with it
584 and you'll need to use a new version number for your release.
587 =head3 build the tarball
589 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
590 the tarball and directory name:
592 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
594 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
595 $ git status # and there's nothing lying around
597 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s RC1 # for a release candidate
598 $ perl Porting/makerel -b # for a final release
600 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
601 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them,
602 adds DOS line endings to some, then tars it up as
603 F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. With C<-b>, it also creates a C<tar.bz2> file.
605 If you're getting your tarball suffixed with -uncommitted and you're sure
606 your changes were all committed, you can override the suffix with:
608 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s ''
610 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
613 Optionally, you might want to compress your tarball more. Unix F<gzip>
614 doesn't actually produce the smallest possible DEFLATE output. If you have the
615 AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> port on macports), you can run
617 $ advdef -z -4 ../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz
619 which will probably shrink your tarball by about 5%. Over the lifetime of
620 your distribution this will save a lot of people a small amount of download
621 time and disk space, which adds up.
623 (7-Zip on Windows is the same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the
624 smallest files first time)
627 Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.
629 $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1
632 =head3 test the tarball
638 Copy the tarballs (.gz and possibly .bz2) to a web server somewhere you
643 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
644 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
645 and architectures. The #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org is a good place
646 to find willing victims.
650 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
652 $ ./Configure -des && make all test
656 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
659 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
664 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
665 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
668 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
669 which is why you should test from the tarball.
673 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility:
675 $ ./perl utils/perlivp
677 All tests successful.
682 Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
683 release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
684 have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
685 for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
686 For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
689 cd installdir-5.10.0/
690 find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
691 cd installdir-5.10.1/
692 find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
697 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
699 $ bin/perl -MCPAN -e "shell"
701 If you're running this on Win32 you probably also need a set of Unix
702 command-line tools available for CPAN to function correctly without
703 Perl alternatives like LWP installed. Cygwin is an obvious choice.)
707 Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
708 has dependencies; for example:
713 Check that your perl can run this:
715 $ bin/perl -lwe "use Inline C => q[int f() { return 42;}]; print f"
721 Bootstrap the CPANPLUS client on the clean install:
725 (Again, on Win32 you'll need something like Cygwin installed, but make sure
726 that you don't end up with its various F<bin/cpan*> programs being found on
727 the PATH before those of the Perl that you're trying to test.)
731 Install an XS module, for example:
735 $ bin/perl -MDBI -e 1
740 Check that the L<perlbug> utility works. Try the following:
744 Subject: test bug report
745 Local perl administrator [yourself]:
751 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
752 Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]:
753 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): q
755 and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
756 the "Locally applied patches" section. If everything appears okay, then
757 delete the file, and try it again, this time actually submitting the bug
758 report. Check that it shows up, then remember to close it!
763 =head3 monitor smokes
765 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
766 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
768 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
771 Note that for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases this may not be practical. It takes a
772 long time for the smokers to catch up, especially the Win32
773 smokers. This is why we have a RC cycle for I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
774 releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases sometimes the best you can do is
775 to plead with people on IRC to test stuff on their platforms, fire away,
776 and then hope for the best.
779 =head3 upload to PAUSE
781 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
782 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
783 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
785 https://pause.perl.org/
787 (Login, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')
789 If your workstation is not connected to a high-bandwidth,
790 high-reliability connection to the Internet, you should probably use the
791 "GET URL" feature (rather than "HTTP UPLOAD") to have PAUSE retrieve the
792 new release from wherever you put it for testers to find it. This will
793 eliminate anxious gnashing of teeth while you wait to see if your
794 15 megabyte HTTP upload successfully completes across your slow, twitchy
795 cable modem. You can make use of your home directory on dromedary for
796 this purpose: F<http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~USERNAME> maps to
797 F</home/USERNAME/public_html>, where F<USERNAME> is your login account
798 on dromedary. I<Remember>: if your upload is partially successful, you
799 may need to contact a PAUSE administrator or even bump the version of perl.
801 Upload both the .gz and .bz2 versions of the tarball.
803 Wait until you receive notification emails from the PAUSE indexer
804 confirming that your uploads have been received. IMPORTANT -- you will
805 probably get an email that indexing has failed, due to module permissions.
806 This is considered normal.
808 Do not proceed any further until you are sure that your tarballs are on
809 CPAN. Check your authors directory on one of the "fast" CPAN mirrors
810 (e.g., cpan.hexten.net
811 or cpan.cpantesters.org) to confirm that your uploads have been successful.
816 Now that you've shipped the new perl release to PAUSE, it's
817 time to publish the tag you created earlier to the public git repo (e.g.):
819 $ git push origin tag v5.11.0
822 =head3 disarm patchlevel.h
824 I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>
826 Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,
828 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
831 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
833 Be sure to commit your change:
835 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
836 $ git push origin ....
840 =head3 announce to p5p
842 Mail p5p to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
845 =head3 update epigraphs.pod
847 Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
850 =head3 Module::CoreList nagging
852 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
854 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
860 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
862 Create a new perldelta.
864 B<Note>: currently, the buildtoc below must be run in a I<built> perl source
865 directory, as at least one of the pod files it expects to find is
866 autogenerated: perluniprops.pod. But you can't build perl if you've added
867 the new perldelta file and not updated toc. So, make sure you have a built
868 perl (with a pod/perluniprops.pod file) now, I<before> continuing.
870 First, update the F<pod/.gitignore> file to ignore the next
871 release's generated F<pod/perlNNNdelta.pod> file rather than this release's
872 one which we are about to set in stone (where NNN is the perl version number
873 without the dots. i.e. 5135 for 5.13.5).
875 $ (edit pod/.gitignore )
876 $ git add pod/.gitignore
878 Then, move the existing F<pod/perldelta.pod> to F<pod/perlNNNdelta.pod>,
879 and edit the moved delta file to change the C<NAME> from C<perldelta> to
880 C<perlNNNdelta>. For example, assuming you just released 5.10.1, and are
881 about to create the 5.10.2 perldelta:
883 $ rm pod/perl5101delta.pod # remove the auto-generated file, if any
884 $ git mv pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod
885 $ (edit pod/perl5101delta.pod to retitle)
886 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
888 Then create a new empty perldelta.pod file for the new release; see
889 F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>. You should be able to do this by
890 just copying in a skeleton template and then doing a quick fix up of the
891 version numbers. Then commit the move and the new file.
893 $ cp -i Porting/perldelta_template.pod pod/perldelta.pod
894 $ (edit pod/perldelta.pod)
895 $ git add pod/perldelta.pod
896 $ git commit -m 'create perldelta for 5.10.2'
898 =head3 update perldelta TOC and references
900 Now you need to update various tables of contents related to perldelta,
901 most of which can be generated automatically.
903 Edit F<pod.lst>: add the new entry for the perlNNNdelta file for the
904 current version (the file that will be symlinked to perldelta).
906 Manually create a temporary link to the new delta file; normally this is
907 done from the Makefile, but the Makefile is updated by buildtoc, and
908 buildtoc won't run without the file there:
910 $ ln -s perldelta.pod pod/perl5102delta.pod
912 Run C<perl pod/buildtoc --build-all> to update the F<perldelta> version in
918 vms/descrip_mms.template
925 $ git commit -a -m 'update TOC for perlNNNdelta'
927 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
928 see if they look similar. See commit dd885b5 for an example of a
929 previous version bump.
934 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
936 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
937 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
938 in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
940 First, add a new feature bundle to F<lib/feature.pm>, initially by just
941 copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION; e.g.
943 "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
944 + "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
946 Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
947 in the remaining files and test and commit.
952 Finally, push any commits done above.
954 $ git push origin ....
957 =head3 create maint branch
959 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
961 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
962 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then create a new maint branch based on
963 the commit tagged as the current release.
965 Assuming you're using git 1.7.x or newer:
967 $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
968 $ git push origin -u maint-5.12
971 =head3 make the maint branch available in the APC
973 Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
976 $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
977 ? /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
978 $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
980 And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.
983 =head3 copy perldelta.pod to other branches
985 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>
987 Copy the perldelta.pod for this release into the other branches; for
990 $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod # for example
991 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
993 Edit F<pod.lst> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:
995 perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
997 Then rebuild various files:
999 $ perl pod/buildtoc --build-all
1003 $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'
1006 =head3 update perlhist.pod in other branches
1008 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
1009 F<perlhist.pod> on other branches
1015 =head3 bump RT version number
1017 Log into http://rt.perl.org/ and check whether the new version is
1018 in the RT fields C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In>. If not, send an
1019 email to C<perlbug-admin at perl.org> requesting this.
1023 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some
1024 much-needed rest and relaxation>.
1026 Thanks for releasing perl!
1029 =head2 Building a release - the day after
1031 =head3 check tarball availability
1033 Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
1034 and is properly indexed:
1040 Check your author directory under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/>
1041 to ensure that the tarballs are available on the website.
1045 Check C</src> on CPAN (on a fast mirror) to ensure that links to
1046 the new tarballs have appeared. There should be links in C</src/5.0>
1047 (which is accumulating all new versions), links in C</src> (which shows
1048 only the latest version on each branch), and an appropriate mention in
1049 C</src/README.html> (which describes the latest versions).
1051 These links should appear automatically, some hours after upload.
1052 If they don't, or the C<README.html> description is inadequate,
1053 ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1057 Check L<http://www.cpan.org/src/> to ensure that the C</src> updates
1058 have been correctly mirrored to the website.
1059 If they haven't, ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1063 Check L<http://search.cpan.org> to see if it has indexed the distribution.
1064 It should be visible at a URL like C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl-5.10.1/>.
1069 =head3 update dev.perl.org
1071 I<This step ONLY for BLEAD-POINT and MAINT>
1073 Ask Leo Lapworth to update L<http://dev.perl.org/perl5/>.
1079 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html,
1080 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.