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 rt.perl.org update access
147 Make sure you have permission to close tickets on L<http://rt.perl.org/>
148 so you can respond to bug report as necessary during your stint. If you
149 don't, make an account (if you don't have one) and contact the pumpking
150 with your username to get ticket-closing permission.
152 =head3 git checkout and commit bit
154 You will need a working C<git> installation, checkout of the perl
155 git repository and perl commit bit. For information about working
156 with perl and git, see F<pod/perlgit.pod>.
158 If you are not yet a perl committer, you won't be able to make a
159 release. Have a chat with whichever evil perl porter tried to talk
160 you into the idea in the first place to figure out the best way to
163 =head3 git clone of https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb
165 For updating the L<http://dev.perl.org> web pages, either a Github account or
166 sweet-talking somebody with a Github account into obedience is needed. This
167 is only needed on the day of the release or shortly afterwards.
169 =for checklist skip RC
171 =head3 Quotation for release announcement epigraph
173 I<SKIP this step for RC>
175 For all except an RC release of perl, you will need a quotation
176 to use as an epigraph to your release announcement.
178 =head2 Building a release - advance actions
180 The work of building a release candidate for an even numbered release
181 (BLEAD-FINAL) of perl generally starts several weeks before the first
182 release candidate. Some of the following steps should be done regularly,
183 but all I<must> be done in the run up to a release.
185 =head3 dual-life CPAN module synchronisation
187 To see which core distro versions differ from the current CPAN versions:
189 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -x -a
191 Passing C<-u cpan> (and maybe C<-u undef>) will probably be helpful, since
192 those are the only types of distributions that you can actually affect as a
193 perl release manager (as opposed to a CPAN module maintainer).
195 You can also run an actual diff of the contents of the modules, comparing core
196 to CPAN, to ensure that there were no erroneous/extraneous changes that need to
197 be dealt with. You do this by not passing the C<-x> option:
199 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -a -o /tmp/corediffs
201 then fix the core, or cajole CPAN authors as appropriate. See also the C<-d>
202 and C<-v> options for more detail (and the C<-u> option as mentioned above).
203 You'll probably want to use the C<-c cachedir> option to avoid repeated CPAN
204 downloads and may want to use C<-m file:///mirror/path> if you made a local
205 CPAN mirror. Note that a minicpan mirror won't actually work, but can provide a
206 good first pass to quickly get a list of modules which definitely haven't
207 changed, to avoid having to download absolutely everything.
209 If you are making a MAINT release, run C<core-cpan-diff> on both blead and
210 maint, then diff the two outputs. Compare this with what you expect, and if
211 necessary, fix things up. For example, you might think that both blead
212 and maint are synchronised with a particular CPAN module, but one might
213 have some extra changes.
215 =head3 How to sync a CPAN module with a cpan/ distro
221 Fetch the most recent version from CPAN.
225 Unpack the retrieved tarball. Rename the old directory; rename the new
226 directory to the original name.
230 Restore any F<.gitignore> file. This can be done by issuing
231 C<git checkout .gitignore> in the F<cpan/Distro> directory.
235 Remove files we do not need. That is, remove any files that match the
236 entries in C<@IGNORE> in F<Porting/Maintainer.pl>, and anything that
237 matches the C<EXCLUDED> section of the distro's entry in the C<%Modules>
242 Restore any files mentioned in the C<CUSTOMIZED> section, using
243 C<git checkout>. Make any new customizations if necessary. Also,
244 restore any files that are mentioned in C<@IGNORE>, but were checked
245 in in the repository anyway.
249 For any new files in the distro, determine whether they are needed.
250 If not, delete them, and list them in either C<EXCLUDED> or C<@INGORE>.
251 Otherwise, add them to C<MANIFEST>, and run C<git add> to add the files
256 For any files that are gone, remove them from C<MANIFEST>, and use
257 C<git rm> to tell git the files will be gone.
261 If the C<MANIFEST> file was changed in any of the previous steps, run
262 C<perl Porting/manisort --output MANIFEST.sort; mv MANIFEST.sort MANIFEST>.
266 For any files that have an execute bit set, either remove the execute
267 bit, or edit F<Porting/exec-bit.txt>
271 Run C<make> (or C<nmake> on Windows), see if C<perl> compiles.
275 Run the tests for the package.
279 Run the tests in F<t/porting>.
283 Update the C<DISTRIBUTION> entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.
287 Run a full configure/build/test cycle.
291 If everything is ok, commit the changes.
295 For entries with a non-simple C<FILES> section, or with a C<MAP>, you
296 may have to take more steps than listed above.
298 F<Porting/sync-with-cpan> is a script that automates most of the steps
299 above; but see the comments at the beginning of the file. In particular,
300 it has not yet been exercised on Windows, but will certainly require a set
301 of Unix tools such as Cygwin, and steps that run C<make> will need to run
305 =head3 dual-life CPAN module stability
307 Ensure dual-life CPAN modules are stable, which comes down to:
309 for each module that fails its regression tests on $current
310 did it fail identically on $previous?
311 if yes, "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem)
312 else work out why it failed (a bisect is useful for this)
314 attempt to group failure causes
316 for each failure cause
317 is that a regression?
318 if yes, figure out how to fix it
319 (more code? revert the code that broke it)
321 (presumably) it's relying on something un-or-under-documented
322 should the existing behaviour stay?
323 yes - goto "regression"
324 no - note it in perldelta as a significant bugfix
325 (also, try to inform the module's author)
328 =head3 monitor smoke tests for failures
330 Similarly, monitor the smoking of core tests, and try to fix. See
331 L<http://doc.procura.nl/smoke/index.html> and L<http://perl5.test-smoke.org/>
332 for a summary. See also
333 L<http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.daily-build.reports/> which has
336 Similarly, monitor the smoking of perl for compiler warnings, and try to
340 =head3 update perldelta
342 Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.
344 Read F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>, and try to make sure that
345 every section it lists is, if necessary, populated and complete. Copy
346 edit the whole document.
349 =head3 Bump the version number
351 Do not do this yet for a BLEAD-POINT release! You will do this at the end of
354 Increase the version number (e.g. from 5.12.0 to 5.12.1).
356 For a 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
391 This might not cause any new changes.
395 $ git clean -xdf # careful if you don't have local files to keep!
396 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
404 B<review the delta carefully>
406 $ git commit -a -m 'Bump the perl version in various places for 5.x.y'
408 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
409 see if they look similar. See commit 0e79a3d1bc for an example of a
410 previous version bump.
412 When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList
413 (as described below in L<"update Module::CoreList">) to reflect the new
417 =head3 update INSTALL
419 Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number;
420 in particular, the "Coexistence with earlier versions of perl 5" section.
422 Be particularly careful with the section "Upgrading from 5.X.Y or earlier".
423 The "X.Y" needs to be changed to the most recent version that we are
424 I<not> binary compatible with.
426 For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, this needs to refer to the last
427 release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
428 release, this would be 5.13.11).
430 For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
431 release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2).
433 =head3 Check more build configurations
435 Check some more build configurations.
437 $ sh Configure -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y -Uinstallusrbinperl \
438 -Duseshrplib -Dusesitecustomize
442 XXX think of other configurations that need testing.
445 =head3 update perlport
447 L<perlport> has a section currently named I<Supported Platforms> that
448 indicates which platforms are known to build in the current release.
449 If necessary update the list and the indicated version number.
453 =head2 Building a release - on the day
455 This section describes the actions required to make a release
456 that are performed on the actual day.
459 =head3 re-check earlier actions
461 Review all the actions in the previous section,
462 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
466 =head3 create a release branch
468 For BLEAD-POINT releases, making a release from a release branch avoids the
469 need to freeze blead during the release. This is less important for
470 BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, and RC releases, since blead will already be frozen in
471 those cases. Create the branch by running
473 git checkout -b release-5.xx.yy
476 =head3 finalize perldelta
478 Finalize the perldelta. In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
479 section, which can be generated with something like:
481 $ perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD
483 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
484 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
485 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
486 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
488 $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perldelta.pod
489 $ spell pod/perldelta.pod
491 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
494 $ ./perl -Ilib ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html pod/perldelta.pod > /tmp/perldelta.html
496 Another good HTML preview option is http://search.cpan.org/pod2html
498 If you make changes, be sure to commit them.
500 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
502 =head3 remove stale perldeltas
504 For the first RC release that is ONLY for a BLEAD-FINAL, the perldeltas
505 from the BLEAD-POINT releases since the previous BLEAD_FINAL should have
506 now been consolidated into the current perldelta, and hence are now just
507 useless clutter. They can be removed using:
509 $ git rm <file1> <file2> ...
511 For example, for RC0 of 5.16.0:
514 $ git rm perldelta515*.pod
516 All mention to them should also be removed. Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to remove
517 them from its table of contents, then run F<Porting/pod_rules.pl> to
518 propagate your changes there into all the other files that mention them
519 (including F<MANIFEST>). You'll need to C<git add> the files that it changes.
521 Then build a clean perl and do a full test
525 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des
529 Once all tests pass, commit your changes.
531 =head3 build a clean perl
533 If you skipped the previous step (removing the stale perldeltas)
534 make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
535 unpushed commits etc):
540 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
542 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
544 =head3 update Module::CoreList
546 Update C<Module::CoreList> with module version data for the new release.
548 Note that if this is a MAINT release, you should run the following actions
549 from the maint branch, but commit the C<CoreList.pm> changes in
550 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
551 maint release and then your recent commit. XXX need a better example
553 F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
554 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror or fall back
555 to C<wget> or C<curl> to fetch only package metadata remotely. (If you're
556 on Win32, then installing Cygwin is one way to have commands like C<wget>
557 and C<curl> available.)
559 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
560 http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN)
562 Then change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
566 If this is not the first update for this version (e.g. if it was updated
567 when the version number was originally bumped), first edit
568 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> to delete the existing
569 entries for this version from the C<%released> and C<%version> hashes:
570 they will have a key like C<5.010001> for 5.10.1.
572 XXX the edit-in-place functionality of Porting/corelist.pl should
573 be fixed to handle this automatically.
575 Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
577 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
581 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
583 This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
584 badly-indexed CPAN modules unrelated to the modules actually in core.
585 Assuming all goes well, it will update
586 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>.
588 Check that file over carefully:
590 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm
592 =head4 Bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>
594 If necessary, bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION> (there's no need to do this for
595 every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
596 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
597 It may also happen that C<Module::CoreList> has been modified in blead, and
598 hence has a new version number already. (But make sure it is not the same
599 number as a CPAN release.)
601 Edit the version number in the new C<< 'Module::CoreList' => 'X.YZ' >>
602 entry, as that is likely to reflect the previous version number.
604 =head4 Bump version in Module::CoreList F<Changes>
606 Also edit Module::CoreList's new version number in its F<Changes>
609 =head4 Add Module::CoreList version bump to perldelta
611 Add a perldelta entry for the new Module::CoreList version.
613 =for checklist skip RC
615 =head4 Update C<%Module::CoreList::released> and C<CAVEATS>
617 In addition, if this is a final release (rather than a release candidate):
623 Update this version's entry in the C<%released> hash with today's date.
627 Make sure that the script has correctly updated the C<CAVEATS> section
628 (Note, the C<CAVEATS> section is in
629 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod>)
633 =head4 Commit Module::CoreList changes
635 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
636 (unless this is for MAINT; in which case commit it to blead first, then
637 cherry-pick it back).
639 $ git commit -m 'Update Module::CoreList for 5.x.y' dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod
641 =for checklist skip RC
643 =head3 update perlhist.pod
645 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
647 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:
649 David 5.10.1 2009-Aug-06
651 Make sure that the correct pumpking is listed in the left-hand column, and
652 if this is the first release under the stewardship of a new pumpking, make
653 sure that his or her name is listed in the section entitled
654 C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
656 Be sure to commit your changes:
658 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
660 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
662 =head3 update patchlevel.h
664 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>
666 Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
667 a final release, remove it. For example:
669 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
672 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
674 Be sure to commit your change:
676 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
679 =head3 build, test and check a fresh perl
681 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
684 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
686 # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
687 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
691 Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
692 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
693 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
694 paths. Note that as they have been been built from a git working
695 directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
696 commits. (Note that for an odd-numbered version, perl will install
697 itself as C<perl5.x.y>). C<perl -v> will identify itself as:
699 This is perl 5, version X, subversion Y (v5.X.Y (v5.X.Z-NNN-gdeadbeef))
701 where 5.X.Z is the latest tag, NNN the number of commits since this tag,
702 and C<< deadbeef >> commit of that tag.
704 Then delete the temporary installation.
707 =head3 push the work so far
709 Push all your recent commits:
711 $ git push origin ....
714 =head3 tag the release
716 Tag the release (e.g.):
718 $ git tag v5.11.0 -m "First release of the v5.11 series!"
720 It is B<VERY> important that from this point forward, you not push
721 your git changes to the Perl master repository. If anything goes
722 wrong before you publish your newly-created tag, you can delete
723 and recreate it. Once you push your tag, we're stuck with it
724 and you'll need to use a new version number for your release.
727 =head3 build the tarball
729 Before you run the following, you might want to install 7-Zip (the
730 C<p7zip-full> package under Debian or the C<p7zip> port on MacPorts) or
731 the AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> package under Debian,
732 or the C<advancecomp> port on macports - 7-Zip on Windows is the
733 same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the smallest files
734 first time). These compress about 5% smaller than gzip and bzip2.
735 Over the lifetime of your distribution this will save a lot of
736 people a small amount of download time and disk space, which adds
739 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
740 the tarball and directory name:
742 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
744 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
745 $ git status # and there's nothing lying around
747 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s RC1 # for a release candidate
748 $ perl Porting/makerel -b # for a final release
750 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
751 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them,
752 adds DOS line endings to some, then tars it up as
753 F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. With C<-b>, it also creates a C<tar.bz2> file.
755 If you're getting your tarball suffixed with -uncommitted and you're sure
756 your changes were all committed, you can override the suffix with:
758 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s ''
760 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
763 Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.
765 $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1
768 =head3 test the tarball
770 Once you have a tarball it's time to test the tarball (not the repository).
772 =head4 Copy the tarball to a web server
774 Copy the tarballs (.gz and possibly .bz2) to a web server somewhere you
777 =head4 Download the tarball to another machine
779 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
780 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
781 and architectures. The #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org is a good place
782 to find willing victims.
784 =head4 Check that F<Configure> works
786 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
788 $ ./Configure -des && make all test
790 =head4 Run the test harness and install
792 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
795 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
798 =head4 Check C<perl -v> and C<perl -V>
800 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
801 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
804 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
805 which is why you should test from the tarball.
807 =head4 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility
809 $ ./perl utils/perlivp
811 All tests successful.
814 =head4 Compare the installed paths to the last release
816 Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
817 release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
818 have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
819 for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
820 For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
823 cd installdir-5.10.0/
824 find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
825 cd installdir-5.10.1/
826 find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
829 =head4 Bootstrap the CPAN client
831 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
835 =head4 Install the Inline module with CPAN and test it
837 Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
838 has dependencies; for example:
843 Check that your perl can run this:
845 $ bin/perl -lwe "use Inline C => q[int f() { return 42;}]; print f"
849 =head4 Bootstrap the CPANPLUS client
851 Bootstrap the CPANPLUS client on the clean install:
855 =head4 Install the DBI module with CPANPLUS
859 $ bin/perl -MDBI -e 1
862 =head4 Make sure that perlbug works
864 Test L<perlbug> with the following:
868 Subject: test bug report
869 Local perl administrator [yourself]:
875 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
876 Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]:
877 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): q
879 and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
880 the "Locally applied patches" section. If everything appears okay, then
881 delete the file, and try it again, this time actually submitting the bug
882 report. Check that it shows up, then remember to close it!
884 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
886 =head3 monitor smokes
888 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
889 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
891 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
894 Note that for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases this may not be practical. It takes a
895 long time for the smokers to catch up, especially the Win32
896 smokers. This is why we have a RC cycle for I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
897 releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases sometimes the best you can do is
898 to plead with people on IRC to test stuff on their platforms, fire away,
899 and then hope for the best.
902 =head3 upload to PAUSE
904 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
905 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
906 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
908 https://pause.perl.org/
910 (Login, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')
912 If your workstation is not connected to a high-bandwidth,
913 high-reliability connection to the Internet, you should probably use the
914 "GET URL" feature (rather than "HTTP UPLOAD") to have PAUSE retrieve the
915 new release from wherever you put it for testers to find it. This will
916 eliminate anxious gnashing of teeth while you wait to see if your
917 15 megabyte HTTP upload successfully completes across your slow, twitchy
918 cable modem. You can make use of your home directory on dromedary for
919 this purpose: F<http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~USERNAME> maps to
920 F</home/USERNAME/public_html>, where F<USERNAME> is your login account
921 on dromedary. I<Remember>: if your upload is partially successful, you
922 may need to contact a PAUSE administrator or even bump the version of perl.
924 Upload both the .gz and .bz2 versions of the tarball.
926 Do not proceed any further until you are sure that your tarballs are on
927 CPAN. Check your authors directory on one of the "fast" CPAN mirrors
928 (e.g., cpan.hexten.net
929 or cpan.cpantesters.org) to confirm that your uploads have been successful.
931 =for checklist skip RC
933 =head3 wait for indexing
935 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
937 Wait until you receive notification emails from the PAUSE indexer
938 confirming that your uploads have been received. IMPORTANT -- you will
939 probably get an email that indexing has failed, due to module permissions.
940 This is considered normal.
945 Now that you've shipped the new perl release to PAUSE, it's
946 time to publish the tag you created earlier to the public git repo (e.g.):
948 $ git push origin tag v5.11.0
950 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
952 =head3 disarm patchlevel.h
954 I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>
956 Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,
958 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
961 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
963 Be sure to commit your change:
965 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
966 $ git push origin ....
970 =head3 announce to p5p
972 Mail p5p to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
974 Use the template at Porting/release_announcement_template.txt
976 Send a carbon copy to C<noc@metacpan.org>
978 =head3 merge release branch back to blead
980 If you made a release branch for this release, merge it back into master now,
985 git merge release-5.xx.yy
987 git push origin :release-5.xx.yy
988 git branch -d release-5.xx.yy
990 =head3 update epigraphs.pod
992 Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
993 Your release announcement will probably not have reached the web-visible
994 archives yet, so you won't be able to include the customary link to the
995 release announcement yet.
997 =head3 blog about your epigraph
999 If you have a blog, please consider writing an entry in your blog explaining
1000 why you chose that particular quote for your epigraph.
1002 =for checklist skip RC
1004 =head3 Module::CoreList nagging
1006 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1008 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
1011 =for checklist skip RC
1013 =head3 new perldelta
1015 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1017 Create a new perldelta.
1023 Confirm that you have a clean checkout with no local changes.
1027 Run F<Porting/new-perldelta.pl>
1031 Run the C<git add> commands it outputs to add new and modified files.
1035 Verify that the build still works, by running C<./Configure> and
1036 C<make test_porting>. (On Win32, run C<nmake> and
1037 C<nmake test TEST_FILES="porting\*.t ..\lib\diagnostics.t">.)
1041 If F<t/porting/podcheck.t> spots errors in the new F<pod/perldelta.pod>,
1042 run C<./perl -MTestInit t/porting/podcheck.t | less> for more detail.
1043 Skip to the end of its test output to see the options it offers you.
1047 When C<make test_porting> passes, commit the new perldelta.
1051 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
1052 see if they look similar. See commit 4eabcf701b for an example of a
1053 previous version bump.
1055 =for checklist skip MAINT RC
1059 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and MAINT>
1061 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1062 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
1063 in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
1065 First, add a new feature bundle to F<regen/feature.pl>, initially by just
1066 copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION (after the __END__
1069 "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1070 + "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1072 Run F<regen/feature.pl> to propagate the changes to F<lib/feature.pm>.
1074 Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
1075 in the remaining files and test and commit.
1077 If this was a BLEAD-POINT release, then just follow the section
1078 L<"Bump the version number">.
1081 =head3 clean build and test
1083 Run a clean build and test to make sure nothing obvious is broken.
1085 In particular, F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> is intentionally exempted
1086 from podchecker tests, to avoid false positives about placeholder text.
1087 However, once it's copied to F<pod/perldelta.pod> the contents can now
1088 cause test failures. Problems should resolved by doing one of the
1095 Replace placeholder text with correct text.
1099 If the problem is from a broken placeholder link, you can add it to the
1100 array C<@perldelta_ignore_links> in F<t/porting/podcheck.t>. Lines
1101 containing such links should be marked with C<XXX> so that they get
1102 cleaned up before the next release.
1106 Following the instructions output by F<t/porting/podcheck.t> on how to
1107 update its exceptions database.
1113 Finally, push any commits done above.
1115 $ git push origin ....
1117 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1119 =head3 create maint branch
1121 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
1123 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1124 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then create a new maint branch based on
1125 the commit tagged as the current release.
1127 Assuming you're using git 1.7.x or newer:
1129 $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
1130 $ git push origin -u maint-5.12
1133 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1135 =head3 make the maint branch available in the APC
1137 Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
1138 receive its changes.
1140 $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
1141 ? /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1142 $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1144 And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.
1146 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT RC
1148 =head3 copy perldelta.pod to other branches
1150 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>
1152 Copy the perldelta.pod for this release into the other branches; for
1155 $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod # for example
1156 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
1158 Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:
1160 perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
1162 Then rebuild various files:
1164 $ perl Porting/pod_rules.pl
1168 $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'
1171 =head3 update perlhist.pod in other branches
1173 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
1174 F<perlhist.pod> on other branches
1180 =head3 bump RT version number
1182 Log into http://rt.perl.org/ and check whether the new version is in the RT
1183 fields C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In>. The easiest way to determine this is
1184 to go to L<https://rt.perl.org/rt3/Search/Build.html> and click on the drop
1185 downs next to the C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In> labels.
1187 If the new version is not listed there, send an email to C<perlbug-admin at
1188 perl.org> requesting this.
1192 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some
1193 much-needed rest and relaxation>.
1195 Thanks for releasing perl!
1198 =head2 Building a release - the day after
1200 =head3 link announcement in epigraphs.pod
1202 Add, to your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod>, a link to the release
1203 announcement in the web-visible mailing list archive. Commit it.
1205 =head3 check tarball availability
1207 Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
1208 and is properly indexed:
1214 Check your author directory under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/>
1215 to ensure that the tarballs are available on the website.
1219 Check C</src> on CPAN (on a fast mirror) to ensure that links to
1220 the new tarballs have appeared. There should be links in C</src/5.0>
1221 (which is accumulating all new versions), links in C</src> (which shows
1222 only the latest version on each branch), and an appropriate mention in
1223 C</src/README.html> (which describes the latest versions).
1225 These links should appear automatically, some hours after upload.
1226 If they don't, or the C<README.html> description is inadequate,
1227 ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1231 Check L<http://www.cpan.org/src/> to ensure that the C</src> updates
1232 have been correctly mirrored to the website.
1233 If they haven't, ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1237 Check L<http://search.cpan.org> to see if it has indexed the distribution.
1238 It should be visible at a URL like C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl-5.10.1/>.
1242 =for checklist skip RC
1244 =head3 update dev.perl.org
1246 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
1248 In your C<perlorg> repository, link to the new release. For a new
1249 latest-maint release, edit F<docs/shared/tpl/stats.html>. Otherwise,
1250 edit F<docs/dev/perl5/index.html>.
1252 Then make a pull request to Leo Lapworth. If this fails for some reason
1253 and you cannot cajole anybody else into submitting that change, you can
1254 mail Leo as last resort.
1256 This repository can be found on L<github|https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb>.
1263 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html,
1264 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.