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 Try running the full test suite against multiple Perl configurations. Here are
436 some sets of Configure flags you can try:
442 C<-Duseshrplib -Dusesitecustomize>
446 C<-Duserelocatableinc>
454 If you have multiple compilers on your machine, you might also consider
455 compiling with C<-Dcc=$other_compiler>.
457 =head3 update perlport
459 L<perlport> has a section currently named I<Supported Platforms> that
460 indicates which platforms are known to build in the current release.
461 If necessary update the list and the indicated version number.
465 =head2 Building a release - on the day
467 This section describes the actions required to make a release
468 that are performed on the actual day.
471 =head3 re-check earlier actions
473 Review all the actions in the previous section,
474 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
478 =head3 create a release branch
480 For BLEAD-POINT releases, making a release from a release branch avoids the
481 need to freeze blead during the release. This is less important for
482 BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, and RC releases, since blead will already be frozen in
483 those cases. Create the branch by running
485 git checkout -b release-5.xx.yy
488 =head3 finalize perldelta
490 Finalize the perldelta. In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
491 section, which can be generated with something like:
493 $ perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD
495 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
496 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
497 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
498 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
500 $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perldelta.pod
501 $ spell pod/perldelta.pod
503 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
506 $ ./perl -Ilib ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html pod/perldelta.pod > /tmp/perldelta.html
508 Another good HTML preview option is http://search.cpan.org/pod2html
510 If you make changes, be sure to commit them.
512 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
514 =head3 remove stale perldeltas
516 For the first RC release that is ONLY for a BLEAD-FINAL, the perldeltas
517 from the BLEAD-POINT releases since the previous BLEAD_FINAL should have
518 now been consolidated into the current perldelta, and hence are now just
519 useless clutter. They can be removed using:
521 $ git rm <file1> <file2> ...
523 For example, for RC0 of 5.16.0:
526 $ git rm perldelta515*.pod
528 All mention to them should also be removed. Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to remove
529 them from its table of contents, then run F<Porting/pod_rules.pl> to
530 propagate your changes there into all the other files that mention them
531 (including F<MANIFEST>). You'll need to C<git add> the files that it changes.
533 Then build a clean perl and do a full test
537 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des
541 Once all tests pass, commit your changes.
543 =head3 build a clean perl
545 If you skipped the previous step (removing the stale perldeltas)
546 make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
547 unpushed commits etc):
552 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
554 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
556 =head3 update Module::CoreList
558 Update C<Module::CoreList> with module version data for the new release.
560 Note that if this is a MAINT release, you should run the following actions
561 from the maint branch, but commit the C<CoreList.pm> changes in
562 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
563 maint release and then your recent commit. XXX need a better example
565 F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
566 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror and/or fall back
567 on HTTP::Tiny to fetch package metadata remotely.
569 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
570 http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN)
572 Then change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
576 If this is not the first update for this version (e.g. if it was updated
577 when the version number was originally bumped), first edit
578 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> to delete the existing
579 entries for this version from the C<%released> and C<%version> hashes:
580 they will have a key like C<5.010001> for 5.10.1.
582 XXX the edit-in-place functionality of Porting/corelist.pl should
583 be fixed to handle this automatically.
585 Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
587 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
591 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
593 This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
594 badly-indexed CPAN modules unrelated to the modules actually in core.
595 Assuming all goes well, it will update
596 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>.
598 Check that file over carefully:
600 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm
602 =head4 Bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>
604 If necessary, bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION> (there's no need to do this for
605 every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
606 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
607 It may also happen that C<Module::CoreList> has been modified in blead, and
608 hence has a new version number already. (But make sure it is not the same
609 number as a CPAN release.)
611 Edit the version number in the new C<< 'Module::CoreList' => 'X.YZ' >>
612 entry, as that is likely to reflect the previous version number.
614 =head4 Bump C<$Module::CoreList::TieHashDelta::VERSION>
616 C<$Module::CoreList::TieHashDelta::VERSION> should always be equal to
617 C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>. Make sure the two versions match before
620 Edit the version number in the new
621 C<< 'Module::CoreList::TieHashDelta' => 'X.YZ' >> entry, as that is likely to
622 reflect the previous version number.
624 =head4 Bump version in Module::CoreList F<Changes>
626 Also edit Module::CoreList's new version number in its F<Changes>
629 =head4 Add Module::CoreList version bump to perldelta
631 Add a perldelta entry for the new Module::CoreList version.
633 =for checklist skip RC
635 =head4 Update C<%Module::CoreList::released> and C<CAVEATS>
637 In addition, if this is a final release (rather than a release candidate):
643 Update this version's entry in the C<%released> hash with today's date.
647 Make sure that the script has correctly updated the C<CAVEATS> section
648 (Note, the C<CAVEATS> section is in
649 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod>)
653 =head4 Commit Module::CoreList changes
655 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
656 (unless this is for MAINT; in which case commit it to blead first, then
657 cherry-pick it back).
659 $ git commit -m 'Update Module::CoreList for 5.x.y' dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod
661 =for checklist skip RC
663 =head3 update perlhist.pod
665 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
667 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:
669 David 5.10.1 2009-Aug-06
671 Make sure that the correct pumpking is listed in the left-hand column, and
672 if this is the first release under the stewardship of a new pumpking, make
673 sure that his or her name is listed in the section entitled
674 C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
676 I<If you're making a BLEAD-FINAL release>, also update the "SELECTED
677 RELEASE SIZES" section with the output of
678 F<Porting/perlhist_calculate.pl>.
680 Be sure to commit your changes:
682 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
684 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
686 =head3 update patchlevel.h
688 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>
690 Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
691 a final release, remove it. For example:
693 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
696 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
698 Be sure to commit your change:
700 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
703 =head3 build, test and check a fresh perl
705 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
708 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
710 # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
711 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
715 Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
716 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
717 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
718 paths. Note that as they have been been built from a git working
719 directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
720 commits. (Note that for an odd-numbered version, perl will install
721 itself as C<perl5.x.y>). C<perl -v> will identify itself as:
723 This is perl 5, version X, subversion Y (v5.X.Y (v5.X.Z-NNN-gdeadbeef))
725 where 5.X.Z is the latest tag, NNN the number of commits since this tag,
726 and C<< deadbeef >> commit of that tag.
728 Then delete the temporary installation.
731 =head3 push the work so far
733 Push all your recent commits:
735 $ git push origin release-5.xx.yy
737 =head3 tag the release
739 Tag the release (e.g.):
741 $ git tag v5.11.0 -m "First release of the v5.11 series!"
743 It is B<VERY> important that from this point forward, you not push
744 your git changes to the Perl master repository. If anything goes
745 wrong before you publish your newly-created tag, you can delete
746 and recreate it. Once you push your tag, we're stuck with it
747 and you'll need to use a new version number for your release.
750 =head3 build the tarball
752 Before you run the following, you might want to install 7-Zip (the
753 C<p7zip-full> package under Debian or the C<p7zip> port on MacPorts) or
754 the AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> package under Debian,
755 or the C<advancecomp> port on macports - 7-Zip on Windows is the
756 same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the smallest files
757 first time). These compress about 5% smaller than gzip and bzip2.
758 Over the lifetime of your distribution this will save a lot of
759 people a small amount of download time and disk space, which adds
762 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
763 the tarball and directory name:
765 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
767 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
768 $ git status # and there's nothing lying around
770 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s RC1 # for a release candidate
771 $ perl Porting/makerel -b # for a final release
773 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
774 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them,
775 adds DOS line endings to some, then tars it up as
776 F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. With C<-b>, it also creates a C<tar.bz2> file.
778 If you're getting your tarball suffixed with -uncommitted and you're sure
779 your changes were all committed, you can override the suffix with:
781 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s ''
783 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
786 Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.
788 $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1
791 =head3 test the tarball
793 Once you have a tarball it's time to test the tarball (not the repository).
795 =head4 Copy the tarball to a web server
797 Copy the tarballs (.gz and possibly .bz2) to a web server somewhere you
800 =head4 Download the tarball to another machine
802 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
803 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
804 and architectures. The #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org is a good place
805 to find willing victims.
807 =head4 Check that F<Configure> works
809 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
811 $ ./Configure -des && make all test
813 =head4 Run the test harness and install
815 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
818 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
821 =head4 Check C<perl -v> and C<perl -V>
823 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
824 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
827 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
828 which is why you should test from the tarball.
830 =head4 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility
832 $ ./perl utils/perlivp
834 All tests successful.
837 =head4 Compare the installed paths to the last release
839 Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
840 release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
841 have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
842 for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
843 For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
846 cd installdir-5.10.0/
847 find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
848 cd installdir-5.10.1/
849 find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
852 =head4 Bootstrap the CPAN client
854 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
858 =head4 Install the Inline module with CPAN and test it
860 Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
861 has dependencies; for example:
866 Check that your perl can run this:
868 $ bin/perl -lwe "use Inline C => q[int f() { return 42;}]; print f"
872 =head4 Bootstrap the CPANPLUS client
874 Bootstrap the CPANPLUS client on the clean install:
878 =head4 Install the DBI module with CPANPLUS
882 $ bin/perl -MDBI -e 1
885 =head4 Make sure that perlbug works
887 Test L<perlbug> with the following:
891 Subject: test bug report
892 Local perl administrator [yourself]:
898 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
899 Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]:
900 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): q
902 and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
903 the "Locally applied patches" section. If everything appears okay, then
904 delete the file, and try it again, this time actually submitting the bug
905 report. Check that it shows up, then remember to close it!
907 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
909 =head3 monitor smokes
911 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
912 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
914 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
917 Note that for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases this may not be practical. It takes a
918 long time for the smokers to catch up, especially the Win32
919 smokers. This is why we have a RC cycle for I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
920 releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases sometimes the best you can do is
921 to plead with people on IRC to test stuff on their platforms, fire away,
922 and then hope for the best.
925 =head3 upload to PAUSE
927 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
928 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
929 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
931 https://pause.perl.org/
933 (Login, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')
935 If your workstation is not connected to a high-bandwidth,
936 high-reliability connection to the Internet, you should probably use the
937 "GET URL" feature (rather than "HTTP UPLOAD") to have PAUSE retrieve the
938 new release from wherever you put it for testers to find it. This will
939 eliminate anxious gnashing of teeth while you wait to see if your
940 15 megabyte HTTP upload successfully completes across your slow, twitchy
941 cable modem. You can make use of your home directory on dromedary for
942 this purpose: F<http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~USERNAME> maps to
943 F</home/USERNAME/public_html>, where F<USERNAME> is your login account
944 on dromedary. I<Remember>: if your upload is partially successful, you
945 may need to contact a PAUSE administrator or even bump the version of perl.
947 Upload both the .gz and .bz2 versions of the tarball.
949 Do not proceed any further until you are sure that your tarballs are on
950 CPAN. Check your authors directory on one of the "fast" CPAN mirrors
951 (e.g., cpan.hexten.net
952 or cpan.cpantesters.org) to confirm that your uploads have been successful.
954 =for checklist skip RC
956 =head3 wait for indexing
958 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
960 Wait until you receive notification emails from the PAUSE indexer
961 confirming that your uploads have been received. IMPORTANT -- you will
962 probably get an email that indexing has failed, due to module permissions.
963 This is considered normal.
968 Now that you've shipped the new perl release to PAUSE, it's
969 time to publish the tag you created earlier to the public git repo (e.g.):
971 $ git push origin tag v5.11.0
973 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
975 =head3 disarm patchlevel.h
977 I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>
979 Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,
981 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
984 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
986 Be sure to commit your change:
988 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
989 $ git push origin ....
993 =head3 announce to p5p
995 Mail p5p to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
997 Use the template at Porting/release_announcement_template.txt
999 Send a carbon copy to C<noc@metacpan.org>
1001 =head3 merge release branch back to blead
1003 If you made a release branch for this release, merge it back into master now,
1008 git merge release-5.xx.yy
1010 git push origin :release-5.xx.yy
1011 git branch -d release-5.xx.yy
1013 =head3 update epigraphs.pod
1015 Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
1016 Your release announcement will probably not have reached the web-visible
1017 archives yet, so you won't be able to include the customary link to the
1018 release announcement yet.
1020 =head3 blog about your epigraph
1022 If you have a blog, please consider writing an entry in your blog explaining
1023 why you chose that particular quote for your epigraph.
1025 =for checklist skip RC
1027 =head3 Module::CoreList nagging
1029 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1031 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
1034 =for checklist skip RC
1036 =head3 new perldelta
1038 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1040 Create a new perldelta.
1046 Confirm that you have a clean checkout with no local changes.
1050 Run F<Porting/new-perldelta.pl>
1054 Run the C<git add> commands it outputs to add new and modified files.
1058 Verify that the build still works, by running C<./Configure> and
1059 C<make test_porting>. (On Win32, run C<nmake> and
1060 C<nmake test TEST_FILES="porting\*.t ..\lib\diagnostics.t">.)
1064 If F<t/porting/podcheck.t> spots errors in the new F<pod/perldelta.pod>,
1065 run C<./perl -MTestInit t/porting/podcheck.t | less> for more detail.
1066 Skip to the end of its test output to see the options it offers you.
1070 When C<make test_porting> passes, commit the new perldelta.
1074 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
1075 see if they look similar. See commit 4eabcf701b for an example of a
1076 previous version bump.
1078 =for checklist skip MAINT RC
1082 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and MAINT>
1084 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1085 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
1086 in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
1088 First, add a new feature bundle to F<regen/feature.pl>, initially by just
1089 copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION (after the __END__
1092 "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1093 + "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1095 Run F<regen/feature.pl> to propagate the changes to F<lib/feature.pm>.
1097 Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
1098 in the remaining files and test and commit.
1100 If this was a BLEAD-POINT release, then just follow the section
1101 L<"Bump the version number">.
1104 =head3 clean build and test
1106 Run a clean build and test to make sure nothing obvious is broken.
1108 In particular, F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> is intentionally exempted
1109 from podchecker tests, to avoid false positives about placeholder text.
1110 However, once it's copied to F<pod/perldelta.pod> the contents can now
1111 cause test failures. Problems should resolved by doing one of the
1118 Replace placeholder text with correct text.
1122 If the problem is from a broken placeholder link, you can add it to the
1123 array C<@perldelta_ignore_links> in F<t/porting/podcheck.t>. Lines
1124 containing such links should be marked with C<XXX> so that they get
1125 cleaned up before the next release.
1129 Following the instructions output by F<t/porting/podcheck.t> on how to
1130 update its exceptions database.
1136 Finally, push any commits done above.
1138 $ git push origin ....
1140 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1142 =head3 create maint branch
1144 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
1146 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1147 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then create a new maint branch based on
1148 the commit tagged as the current release.
1150 Assuming you're using git 1.7.x or newer:
1152 $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
1153 $ git push origin -u maint-5.12
1156 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1158 =head3 make the maint branch available in the APC
1160 Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
1161 receive its changes.
1163 $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
1164 ? /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1165 $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1167 And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.
1169 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT RC
1171 =head3 copy perldelta.pod to other branches
1173 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>
1175 Copy the perldelta.pod for this release into the other branches; for
1178 $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod # for example
1179 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
1181 Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:
1183 perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
1185 Then rebuild various files:
1187 $ perl Porting/pod_rules.pl
1191 $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'
1194 =head3 update perlhist.pod in other branches
1196 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
1197 F<perlhist.pod> on other branches
1203 =head3 bump RT version number
1205 Log into http://rt.perl.org/ and check whether the new version is in the RT
1206 fields C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In>. The easiest way to determine this is
1207 to go to L<https://rt.perl.org/rt3/Search/Build.html> and click on the drop
1208 downs next to the C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In> labels.
1210 If the new version is not listed there, send an email to C<perlbug-admin at
1211 perl.org> requesting this.
1215 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some
1216 much-needed rest and relaxation>.
1218 Thanks for releasing perl!
1221 =head2 Building a release - the day after
1223 =head3 link announcement in epigraphs.pod
1225 Add, to your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod>, a link to the release
1226 announcement in the web-visible mailing list archive. Commit it.
1228 =head3 check tarball availability
1230 Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
1231 and is properly indexed:
1237 Check your author directory under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/>
1238 to ensure that the tarballs are available on the website.
1242 Check C</src> on CPAN (on a fast mirror) to ensure that links to
1243 the new tarballs have appeared. There should be links in C</src/5.0>
1244 (which is accumulating all new versions), and an appropriate mention in
1245 C</src> (which describes the latest versions in each branch, with links).
1247 These links should appear automatically, some hours after upload.
1248 If they don't, or the C</src> description is inadequate,
1249 ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1253 Check L<http://www.cpan.org/src/> to ensure that the C</src> updates
1254 have been correctly mirrored to the website.
1255 If they haven't, ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1259 Check L<http://search.cpan.org> to see if it has indexed the distribution.
1260 It should be visible at a URL like C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl-5.10.1/>.
1264 =for checklist skip RC
1266 =head3 update dev.perl.org
1268 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
1270 In your C<perlweb> repository, link to the new release. For a new
1271 latest-maint release, edit F<docs/shared/tpl/stats.html>. Otherwise,
1272 edit F<docs/dev/perl5/index.html>.
1274 Then make a pull request to Leo Lapworth. If this fails for some reason
1275 and you cannot cajole anybody else into submitting that change, you can
1276 mail Leo as last resort.
1278 This repository can be found on L<github|https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb>.
1285 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html,
1286 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.