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 Note that for a maint release there are two versions of this guide to
100 consider: the one in the maint branch, and the one in blead. Which one to
101 use is a fine judgement. The blead one will be most up-to-date, while
102 it might describe some steps or new tools that aren't applicable to older
103 maint branches. It is probably best to review both versions of this
104 document, but to most closely follow the steps in the maint version.
106 =item A blead point release (BLEAD-POINT)
108 A release with an odd version number, such as 5.15.0 or 5.15.1.
110 This isn't for production, so it has less stability requirements than for
111 other release types, and isn't preceded by RC releases. Other than that,
112 it is similar to a MAINT release.
114 =item Blead final release (BLEAD-FINAL)
116 A release with an even version number, and subversion number == 0, such as
117 5.14.0. That is to say, it's the big new release once per year.
119 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
120 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps, even more than for MAINT.
128 Before you can make an official release of perl, there are a few
129 hoops you need to jump through:
131 =head3 PAUSE account with pumpkin status
133 Make sure you have a PAUSE account suitable for uploading a perl release.
134 If you don't have a PAUSE account, then request one:
136 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=request_id
138 Check that your account is allowed to upload perl distros: go to
139 L<https://pause.perl.org/pause/authenquery?ACTION=who_pumpkin> and check that
140 your PAUSE ID is listed there. If not, ask Andreas KE<0xf6>nig to add your ID
141 to the list of people allowed to upload something called perl. You can find
142 Andreas' email address at:
144 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=pause_04imprint
146 =head3 search.cpan.org pumpkin status
148 Make sure that search.cpan.org knows that you're allowed to upload
149 perl distros. Contact Graham Barr to make sure that you're on the right
152 =head3 rt.perl.org update access
154 Make sure you have permission to close tickets on L<http://rt.perl.org/>
155 so you can respond to bug report as necessary during your stint. If you
156 don't, make an account (if you don't have one) and contact the pumpking
157 with your username to get ticket-closing permission.
159 =head3 git checkout and commit bit
161 You will need a working C<git> installation, checkout of the perl
162 git repository and perl commit bit. For information about working
163 with perl and git, see F<pod/perlgit.pod>.
165 If you are not yet a perl committer, you won't be able to make a
166 release. Have a chat with whichever evil perl porter tried to talk
167 you into the idea in the first place to figure out the best way to
170 =head3 git clone of https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb
172 For updating the L<http://dev.perl.org> web pages, either a Github account or
173 sweet-talking somebody with a Github account into obedience is needed. This
174 is only needed on the day of the release or shortly afterwards.
176 =for checklist skip RC
178 =head3 Quotation for release announcement epigraph
180 I<SKIP this step for RC>
182 For all except an RC release of perl, you will need a quotation
183 to use as an epigraph to your release announcement.
185 =head2 Building a release - advance actions
187 The work of building a release candidate for an even numbered release
188 (BLEAD-FINAL) of perl generally starts several weeks before the first
189 release candidate. Some of the following steps should be done regularly,
190 but all I<must> be done in the run up to a release.
192 =head3 dual-life CPAN module synchronisation
194 To see which core distro versions differ from the current CPAN versions:
196 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -x -a
198 Passing C<-u cpan> (and maybe C<-u undef>) will probably be helpful, since
199 those are the only types of distributions that you can actually affect as a
200 perl release manager (as opposed to a CPAN module maintainer).
202 You can also run an actual diff of the contents of the modules, comparing core
203 to CPAN, to ensure that there were no erroneous/extraneous changes that need to
204 be dealt with. You do this by not passing the C<-x> option:
206 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -a -o /tmp/corediffs
208 then fix the core, or cajole CPAN authors as appropriate. See also the C<-d>
209 and C<-v> options for more detail (and the C<-u> option as mentioned above).
210 You'll probably want to use the C<-c cachedir> option to avoid repeated CPAN
211 downloads and may want to use C<-m file:///mirror/path> if you made a local
212 CPAN mirror. Note that a minicpan mirror won't actually work, but can provide a
213 good first pass to quickly get a list of modules which definitely haven't
214 changed, to avoid having to download absolutely everything.
216 If you are making a MAINT release, run C<core-cpan-diff> on both blead and
217 maint, then diff the two outputs. Compare this with what you expect, and if
218 necessary, fix things up. For example, you might think that both blead
219 and maint are synchronised with a particular CPAN module, but one might
220 have some extra changes.
222 =head3 How to sync a CPAN module with a cpan/ distro
228 Fetch the most recent version from CPAN.
232 Unpack the retrieved tarball. Rename the old directory; rename the new
233 directory to the original name.
237 Restore any F<.gitignore> file. This can be done by issuing
238 C<git checkout .gitignore> in the F<cpan/Distro> directory.
242 Remove files we do not need. That is, remove any files that match the
243 entries in C<@IGNORE> in F<Porting/Maintainer.pl>, and anything that
244 matches the C<EXCLUDED> section of the distro's entry in the C<%Modules>
249 Restore any files mentioned in the C<CUSTOMIZED> section, using
250 C<git checkout>. Make any new customizations if necessary. Also,
251 restore any files that are mentioned in C<@IGNORE>, but were checked
252 into the repository anyway.
256 For any new files in the distro, determine whether they are needed.
257 If not, delete them, and list them in either C<EXCLUDED> or C<@INGORE>.
258 Otherwise, add them to C<MANIFEST>, and run C<git add> to add the files
263 For any files that are gone, remove them from C<MANIFEST>, and use
264 C<git rm> to tell git the files will be gone.
268 If the C<MANIFEST> file was changed in any of the previous steps, run
269 C<perl Porting/manisort --output MANIFEST.sort; mv MANIFEST.sort MANIFEST>.
273 For any files that have an execute bit set, either remove the execute
274 bit, or edit F<Porting/exec-bit.txt>
278 Run C<make> (or C<nmake> on Windows), see if C<perl> compiles.
282 Run the tests for the package.
286 Run the tests in F<t/porting>.
290 Update the C<DISTRIBUTION> entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.
294 Run a full configure/build/test cycle.
298 If everything is ok, commit the changes.
302 For entries with a non-simple C<FILES> section, or with a C<MAP>, you
303 may have to take more steps than listed above.
305 F<Porting/sync-with-cpan> is a script that automates most of the steps
306 above; but see the comments at the beginning of the file. In particular,
307 it has not yet been exercised on Windows, but will certainly require a set
308 of Unix tools such as Cygwin, and steps that run C<make> will need to run
312 =head3 dual-life CPAN module stability
314 Ensure dual-life CPAN modules are stable, which comes down to:
316 for each module that fails its regression tests on $current
317 did it fail identically on $previous?
318 if yes, "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem)
319 else work out why it failed (a bisect is useful for this)
321 attempt to group failure causes
323 for each failure cause
324 is that a regression?
325 if yes, figure out how to fix it
326 (more code? revert the code that broke it)
328 (presumably) it's relying on something un-or-under-documented
329 should the existing behaviour stay?
330 yes - goto "regression"
331 no - note it in perldelta as a significant bugfix
332 (also, try to inform the module's author)
335 =head3 monitor smoke tests for failures
337 Similarly, monitor the smoking of core tests, and try to fix. See
338 L<http://doc.procura.nl/smoke/index.html> and L<http://perl5.test-smoke.org/>
339 for a summary. See also
340 L<http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.daily-build.reports/> which has
343 Similarly, monitor the smoking of perl for compiler warnings, and try to
347 =head3 update perldelta
349 Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.
351 Read F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>, and try to make sure that
352 every section it lists is, if necessary, populated and complete. Copy
353 edit the whole document.
356 =head3 Bump the version number
358 Do not do this yet for a BLEAD-POINT release! You will do this at the end of
361 Increase the version number (e.g. from 5.12.0 to 5.12.1).
363 For a release candidate for a stable perl, this should happen a week or two
364 before the first release candidate to allow sufficient time for testing and
365 smoking with the target version built into the perl executable. For
366 subsequent release candidates and the final release, it is not necessary to
367 bump the version further.
369 There is a tool to semi-automate this process:
371 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/bump-perl-version -i 5.10.0 5.10.1
373 Remember that this tool is largely just grepping for '5.10.0' or whatever,
374 so it will generate false positives. Be careful not change text like
375 "this was fixed in 5.10.0"!
377 Use git status and git diff to select changes you want to keep.
379 Be particularly careful with F<INSTALL>, which contains a mixture of
380 C<5.10.0>-type strings, some of which need bumping on every release, and
381 some of which need to be left unchanged.
382 The line in F<INSTALL> about "is binary incompatible with" requires a
383 correct choice of earlier version to declare incompatibility with.
385 When doing a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release, also make sure the
386 C<PERL_API_*> constants in F<patchlevel.h> are in sync with the version
387 you're releasing, unless you're
388 absolutely sure the release you're about to make is 100% binary compatible
389 to an earlier release. When releasing a MAINT perl version, the C<PERL_API_*>
390 constants C<MUST NOT> be changed as we aim to guarantee binary compatibility
393 After editing, regenerate uconfig.h (this must be run on a system with a
396 $ perl regen/uconfig_h.pl
398 This might not cause any new changes.
402 $ git clean -xdf # careful if you don't have local files to keep!
403 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
411 B<review the delta carefully>
413 $ git commit -a -m 'Bump the perl version in various places for 5.x.y'
415 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
416 see if they look similar. See commit 0e79a3d1bc for an example of a
417 previous version bump.
419 When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList
420 (as described below in L<"update Module::CoreList">) to reflect the new
424 =head3 update INSTALL
426 Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number;
427 in particular, the "Coexistence with earlier versions of perl 5" section.
429 Be particularly careful with the section "Upgrading from 5.X.Y or earlier".
430 The "X.Y" needs to be changed to the most recent version that we are
431 I<not> binary compatible with.
433 For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, this needs to refer to the last
434 release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
435 release, this would be 5.13.11).
437 For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
438 release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2).
440 =head3 Check more build configurations
442 Try running the full test suite against multiple Perl configurations. Here are
443 some sets of Configure flags you can try:
449 C<-Duseshrplib -Dusesitecustomize>
453 C<-Duserelocatableinc>
461 If you have multiple compilers on your machine, you might also consider
462 compiling with C<-Dcc=$other_compiler>.
464 =head3 update perlport
466 L<perlport> has a section currently named I<Supported Platforms> that
467 indicates which platforms are known to build in the current release.
468 If necessary update the list and the indicated version number.
472 =head2 Building a release - on the day
474 This section describes the actions required to make a release
475 that are performed near to, or on the actual release day.
478 =head3 re-check earlier actions
480 Review all the actions in the previous section,
481 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
485 =head3 create a release branch
487 For BLEAD-POINT releases, making a release from a release branch avoids the
488 need to freeze blead during the release. This is less important for
489 BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, and RC releases, since blead will already be frozen in
490 those cases. Create the branch by running
492 git checkout -b release-5.xx.yy
495 =head3 finalize perldelta
497 Finalize the perldelta. In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
498 section, which can be generated with something like:
500 $ perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD
502 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
503 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
504 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
505 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
507 $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perldelta.pod
508 $ spell pod/perldelta.pod
510 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
513 $ ./perl -Ilib ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html pod/perldelta.pod > /tmp/perldelta.html
515 Another good HTML preview option is http://search.cpan.org/pod2html
517 If you make changes, be sure to commit them.
519 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
521 =head3 remove stale perldeltas
523 For the first RC release that is ONLY for a BLEAD-FINAL, the perldeltas
524 from the BLEAD-POINT releases since the previous BLEAD_FINAL should have
525 now been consolidated into the current perldelta, and hence are now just
526 useless clutter. They can be removed using:
528 $ git rm <file1> <file2> ...
530 For example, for RC0 of 5.16.0:
533 $ git rm perldelta515*.pod
535 =for checklist skip BLEAD BLEAD-POINT
537 =head3 add recent perldeltas
539 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in any recent perldeltas from
540 blead that have been added since the last release on this branch. This
541 should include any recent maint releases on branches older than your one,
542 but not newer. For example if you're producing a 5.14.x release, copy any
543 perldeltas from recent 5.10.x, 5.12.x etc maint releases, but not from
544 5.16.x or higher. Remember to
546 $ git add <file1> <file2> ...
548 =head3 update and commit perldelta files
550 If you have added or removed any perldelta files via the previous two
551 steps, then edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add/remove them from its table of
552 contents, then run F<Porting/pod_rules.pl> to propagate your changes there
553 into all the other files that mention them (including F<MANIFEST>). You'll
554 need to C<git add> the files that it changes.
556 Then build a clean perl and do a full test
560 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des
564 Once all tests pass, commit your changes.
566 =head3 build a clean perl
568 If you skipped the previous step (adding/removing perldeltas)
569 make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
570 unpushed commits etc):
575 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
577 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
579 =head3 update Module::CoreList
581 Update C<Module::CoreList> with module version data for the new release.
583 Note that if this is a MAINT release, you should run the following actions
584 from the maint branch, but commit the C<CoreList.pm> changes in
585 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
586 maint release and then your recent commit. XXX need a better example
588 [ Note that the procedure for handling Module::CoreList in maint branches
589 is a bit complex, and the RMG currently don't describe a full and
590 workable approach. The main issue is keeping Module::CoreList
591 and its version number synchronised across all maint branches, blead and
592 CPAN, while having to bump its version number for every RC release.
593 See this brief p5p thread:
595 Message-ID: <20130311174402.GZ2294@iabyn.com>
597 If you can devise a workable system, feel free to try it out, and to
598 update the RMG accordingly!
603 F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
604 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror and/or fall back
605 on HTTP::Tiny to fetch package metadata remotely.
607 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
608 http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN)
610 Then change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
614 If this is not the first update for this version (e.g. if it was updated
615 when the version number was originally bumped), first edit
616 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> to delete the existing
617 entries for this version from the C<%released> and C<%version> hashes:
618 they will have a key like C<5.010001> for 5.10.1.
620 XXX the edit-in-place functionality of Porting/corelist.pl should
621 be fixed to handle this automatically.
623 Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
625 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
629 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
631 This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
632 badly-indexed CPAN modules unrelated to the modules actually in core.
633 Assuming all goes well, it will update
634 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>.
636 Check that file over carefully:
638 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm
640 =head4 Bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>
642 If necessary, bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION> (there's no need to do this for
643 every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
644 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
645 It may also happen that C<Module::CoreList> has been modified in blead, and
646 hence has a new version number already. (But make sure it is not the same
647 number as a CPAN release.)
649 Edit the version number in the new C<< 'Module::CoreList' => 'X.YZ' >>
650 entry, as that is likely to reflect the previous version number.
652 =head4 Bump C<$Module::CoreList::TieHashDelta::VERSION>
654 C<$Module::CoreList::TieHashDelta::VERSION> should always be equal to
655 C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>. Make sure the two versions match before
658 Edit the version number in the new
659 C<< 'Module::CoreList::TieHashDelta' => 'X.YZ' >> entry, as that is likely to
660 reflect the previous version number.
662 =head4 Bump version in Module::CoreList F<Changes>
664 Also edit Module::CoreList's new version number in its F<Changes>
667 =head4 Add Module::CoreList version bump to perldelta
669 Add a perldelta entry for the new Module::CoreList version.
671 =for checklist skip RC
673 =head4 Update C<%Module::CoreList::released> and C<CAVEATS>
675 In addition, if this is a final release (rather than a release candidate):
681 Update this version's entry in the C<%released> hash with today's date.
685 Make sure that the script has correctly updated the C<CAVEATS> section
686 (Note, the C<CAVEATS> section is in
687 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod>)
691 =head4 Commit Module::CoreList changes
693 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
694 (unless this is for MAINT; in which case commit it to blead first, then
695 cherry-pick it back).
697 $ git commit -m 'Update Module::CoreList for 5.x.y' dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod
699 =for checklist skip BLEAD BLEAD-POINT
701 =head3 synchronise from blead's perlhist.pod
703 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in the latest
704 F<pod/perlhist.pod> from blead; this will include details of newer
705 releases in all branches. In theory, blead's version should be a strict
706 superset of the one in this branch, but it's probably safest to diff them
707 first to ensure that there's nothing in this branch that was forgotten
710 $ diff pod/perlhist.pod ..../blead/pod/perlhist.pod
711 $ cp ..../blead/pod/perlhist.pod pod/
712 $ git commit -m 'sync perlhist from blead' pod/perlhist.pod
714 =for checklist skip RC
716 =head3 update perlhist.pod
718 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
720 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:
722 David 5.10.1 2009-Aug-06
724 Make sure that the correct pumpking is listed in the left-hand column, and
725 if this is the first release under the stewardship of a new pumpking, make
726 sure that his or her name is listed in the section entitled
727 C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
729 I<If you're making a BLEAD-FINAL release>, also update the "SELECTED
730 RELEASE SIZES" section with the output of
731 F<Porting/perlhist_calculate.pl>.
733 Be sure to commit your changes:
735 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
737 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
739 =head3 update patchlevel.h
741 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>
743 Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
744 a final release, remove it. For example:
746 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
749 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
751 Be sure to commit your change:
753 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
755 =head3 run makemeta to update META files
757 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/makemeta
759 Be sure to commit any changes (if applicable):
761 $ git status # any changes?
762 $ git commit -m 'Update META files' META.*
764 =head3 build, test and check a fresh perl
766 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
769 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
771 # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
772 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
776 Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
777 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
778 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
779 paths. Note that as they have been built from a git working
780 directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
781 commits. (Note that for an odd-numbered version, perl will install
782 itself as C<perl5.x.y>). C<perl -v> will identify itself as:
784 This is perl 5, version X, subversion Y (v5.X.Y (v5.X.Z-NNN-gdeadbeef))
786 where 5.X.Z is the latest tag, NNN the number of commits since this tag,
787 and C<< deadbeef >> commit of that tag.
789 Then delete the temporary installation.
792 =head3 push the work so far
794 Push all your recent commits:
796 $ git push origin release-5.xx.yy
798 =head3 tag the release
800 Tag the release (e.g.):
802 $ git tag v5.11.0 -m "First release of the v5.11 series!"
804 It is B<VERY> important that from this point forward, you not push
805 your git changes to the Perl master repository. If anything goes
806 wrong before you publish your newly-created tag, you can delete
807 and recreate it. Once you push your tag, we're stuck with it
808 and you'll need to use a new version number for your release.
811 =head3 build the tarball
813 Before you run the following, you might want to install 7-Zip (the
814 C<p7zip-full> package under Debian or the C<p7zip> port on MacPorts) or
815 the AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> package under Debian,
816 or the C<advancecomp> port on macports - 7-Zip on Windows is the
817 same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the smallest files
818 first time). These compress about 5% smaller than gzip and bzip2.
819 Over the lifetime of your distribution this will save a lot of
820 people a small amount of download time and disk space, which adds
823 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
824 the tarball and directory name:
826 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
828 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
829 $ git status # and there's nothing lying around
831 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s RC1 # for a release candidate
832 $ perl Porting/makerel -b # for a final release
834 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
835 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them,
836 adds DOS line endings to some, then tars it up as
837 F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. With C<-b>, it also creates a C<tar.bz2> file.
839 If you're getting your tarball suffixed with -uncommitted and you're sure
840 your changes were all committed, you can override the suffix with:
842 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s ''
844 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
847 Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.
849 $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1
852 =head3 test the tarball
854 Once you have a tarball it's time to test the tarball (not the repository).
856 =head4 Copy the tarball to a web server
858 Copy the tarballs (.gz and possibly .bz2) to a web server somewhere you
861 =head4 Download the tarball to another machine
863 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
864 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
865 and architectures. The #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org is a good place
866 to find willing victims.
868 =head4 Check that F<Configure> works
870 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
872 $ ./Configure -des && make all test
874 =head4 Run the test harness and install
876 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
879 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
882 =head4 Check C<perl -v> and C<perl -V>
884 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
885 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
888 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
889 which is why you should test from the tarball.
891 =head4 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility
893 $ ./perl utils/perlivp
895 All tests successful.
898 =head4 Compare the installed paths to the last release
900 Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
901 release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
902 have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
903 for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
904 For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
907 cd installdir-5.10.0/
908 find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
909 cd installdir-5.10.1/
910 find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
913 =head4 Bootstrap the CPAN client
915 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
919 =head4 Install the Inline module with CPAN and test it
921 Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
922 has dependencies; for example:
927 Check that your perl can run this:
929 $ bin/perl -lwe "use Inline C => q[int f() { return 42;}]; print f"
933 =head4 Make sure that perlbug works
935 Test L<perlbug> with the following:
939 Subject: test bug report
940 Local perl administrator [yourself]:
946 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
947 Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]:
948 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): q
950 and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
951 the "Locally applied patches" section. If everything appears okay, then
952 delete the file, and try it again, this time actually submitting the bug
953 report. Check that it shows up, then remember to close it!
955 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
957 =head3 monitor smokes
959 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
960 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
962 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
965 Note that for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases this may not be practical. It takes a
966 long time for the smokers to catch up, especially the Win32
967 smokers. This is why we have a RC cycle for I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
968 releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases sometimes the best you can do is
969 to plead with people on IRC to test stuff on their platforms, fire away,
970 and then hope for the best.
973 =head3 upload to PAUSE
975 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
976 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
977 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
979 https://pause.perl.org/
981 (Login, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')
983 If your workstation is not connected to a high-bandwidth,
984 high-reliability connection to the Internet, you should probably use the
985 "GET URL" feature (rather than "HTTP UPLOAD") to have PAUSE retrieve the
986 new release from wherever you put it for testers to find it. This will
987 eliminate anxious gnashing of teeth while you wait to see if your
988 15 megabyte HTTP upload successfully completes across your slow, twitchy
989 cable modem. You can make use of your home directory on dromedary for
990 this purpose: F<http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~USERNAME> maps to
991 F</home/USERNAME/public_html>, where F<USERNAME> is your login account
992 on dromedary. I<Remember>: if your upload is partially successful, you
993 may need to contact a PAUSE administrator or even bump the version of perl.
995 Upload both the .gz and .bz2 versions of the tarball.
997 Do not proceed any further until you are sure that your tarballs are on
998 CPAN. Check your authors directory on one of the "fast" CPAN mirrors
999 (e.g., cpan.hexten.net
1000 or cpan.cpantesters.org) to confirm that your uploads have been successful.
1002 =for checklist skip RC
1004 =head3 wait for indexing
1006 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1008 Wait until you receive notification emails from the PAUSE indexer
1009 confirming that your uploads have been received. IMPORTANT -- you will
1010 probably get an email that indexing has failed, due to module permissions.
1011 This is considered normal.
1016 Now that you've shipped the new perl release to PAUSE, it's
1017 time to publish the tag you created earlier to the public git repo (e.g.):
1019 $ git push origin tag v5.11.0
1021 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1023 =head3 disarm patchlevel.h
1025 I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>
1027 Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,
1029 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
1032 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
1034 Be sure to commit your change:
1036 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
1037 $ git push origin ....
1041 =head3 announce to p5p
1043 Mail p5p to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
1045 Use the template at Porting/release_announcement_template.txt
1047 Send a carbon copy to C<noc@metacpan.org>
1049 =head3 merge release branch back to blead
1051 If you made a release branch for this release, merge it back into master now,
1056 git merge release-5.xx.yy
1058 git push origin :release-5.xx.yy
1059 git branch -d release-5.xx.yy
1061 =head3 update epigraphs.pod
1063 Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
1064 Your release announcement will probably not have reached the web-visible
1065 archives yet, so you won't be able to include the customary link to the
1066 release announcement yet.
1068 =head3 blog about your epigraph
1070 If you have a blog, please consider writing an entry in your blog explaining
1071 why you chose that particular quote for your epigraph.
1073 =for checklist skip RC
1075 =head3 Module::CoreList nagging
1077 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1079 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
1082 =for checklist skip RC
1084 =head3 new perldelta
1086 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1088 Create a new perldelta.
1094 Confirm that you have a clean checkout with no local changes.
1098 Run F<Porting/new-perldelta.pl>
1102 Run the C<git add> commands it outputs to add new and modified files.
1106 Verify that the build still works, by running C<./Configure> and
1107 C<make test_porting>. (On Win32 use the appropriate make utility).
1111 If F<t/porting/podcheck.t> spots errors in the new F<pod/perldelta.pod>,
1112 run C<./perl -MTestInit t/porting/podcheck.t | less> for more detail.
1113 Skip to the end of its test output to see the options it offers you.
1117 When C<make test_porting> passes, commit the new perldelta.
1121 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
1122 see if they look similar. See commit 4eabcf701b for an example of a
1123 previous version bump.
1125 =for checklist skip MAINT RC
1129 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and MAINT>
1131 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1132 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
1133 in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
1135 First, add a new feature bundle to F<regen/feature.pl>, initially by just
1136 copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION (after the __END__
1139 "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1140 + "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1142 Run F<regen/feature.pl> to propagate the changes to F<lib/feature.pm>.
1144 Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
1145 in the remaining files and test and commit.
1147 If this was a BLEAD-POINT release, then just follow the section
1148 L<"Bump the version number">.
1151 =head3 clean build and test
1153 Run a clean build and test to make sure nothing obvious is broken.
1155 In particular, F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> is intentionally exempted
1156 from podchecker tests, to avoid false positives about placeholder text.
1157 However, once it's copied to F<pod/perldelta.pod> the contents can now
1158 cause test failures. Problems should resolved by doing one of the
1165 Replace placeholder text with correct text.
1169 If the problem is from a broken placeholder link, you can add it to the
1170 array C<@perldelta_ignore_links> in F<t/porting/podcheck.t>. Lines
1171 containing such links should be marked with C<XXX> so that they get
1172 cleaned up before the next release.
1176 Following the instructions output by F<t/porting/podcheck.t> on how to
1177 update its exceptions database.
1183 Finally, push any commits done above.
1185 $ git push origin ....
1187 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1189 =head3 create maint branch
1191 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
1193 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1194 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then create a new maint branch based on
1195 the commit tagged as the current release.
1197 Assuming you're using git 1.7.x or newer:
1199 $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
1200 $ git push origin -u maint-5.12
1203 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1205 =head3 make the maint branch available in the APC
1207 Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
1208 receive its changes.
1210 $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
1211 ? /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1212 $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1214 And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.
1216 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT RC
1218 =head3 copy perldelta.pod to blead
1220 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>
1222 Copy the perldelta.pod for this release into blead; for example:
1225 $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod # for example
1226 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
1228 Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:
1230 perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
1232 Then rebuild various files:
1234 $ perl Porting/pod_rules.pl
1238 $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'
1241 =head3 copy perlhist.pod entries to blead
1243 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
1244 F<perlhist.pod> on blead. e.g.
1249 =head3 bump RT version number
1251 Log into http://rt.perl.org/ and check whether the new version is in the RT
1252 fields C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In>. The easiest way to determine this is
1253 to go to L<https://rt.perl.org/rt3/Search/Build.html> and click on the drop
1254 downs next to the C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In> labels.
1256 If the new version is not listed there, send an email to C<perlbug-admin at
1257 perl.org> requesting this.
1261 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some
1262 much-needed rest and relaxation>.
1264 Thanks for releasing perl!
1267 =head2 Building a release - the day after
1269 =head3 link announcement in epigraphs.pod
1271 Add, to your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod>, a link to the release
1272 announcement in the web-visible mailing list archive. Commit it.
1274 =head3 check tarball availability
1276 Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
1277 and is properly indexed:
1283 Check your author directory under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/>
1284 to ensure that the tarballs are available on the website.
1288 Check C</src> on CPAN (on a fast mirror) to ensure that links to
1289 the new tarballs have appeared. There should be links in C</src/5.0>
1290 (which is accumulating all new versions), and an appropriate mention in
1291 C</src> (which describes the latest versions in each branch, with links).
1293 These links should appear automatically, some hours after upload.
1294 If they don't, or the C</src> description is inadequate,
1295 ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1299 Check L<http://www.cpan.org/src/> to ensure that the C</src> updates
1300 have been correctly mirrored to the website.
1301 If they haven't, ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1305 Check L<http://search.cpan.org> to see if it has indexed the distribution.
1306 It should be visible at a URL like C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl-5.10.1/>.
1310 =for checklist skip RC
1312 =head3 update dev.perl.org
1314 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
1316 In your C<perlweb> repository, link to the new release. For a new
1317 latest-maint release, edit F<docs/shared/tpl/stats.html>. Otherwise,
1318 edit F<docs/dev/perl5/index.html>.
1320 Then make a pull request to Leo Lapworth. If this fails for some reason
1321 and you cannot cajole anybody else into submitting that change, you can
1322 mail Leo as last resort.
1324 This repository can be found on L<github|https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb>.
1331 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html,
1332 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.