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 --version [5.x.y-RC#] > /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 --version [5.x.y-RC#] > /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 pass...
53 perl-5.10.2-RC1 is released
55 perl-5.10.2 is released
57 post-release actions are performed, including creating new
60 ... the cycle continues ...
64 Some of the tasks described below apply to all four types of
65 release of Perl. (blead, RC, final release of maint, final
66 release of blead). Some of these tasks apply only to a subset
67 of these release types. If a step does not apply to a given
68 type of release, you will see a notation to that effect at
69 the beginning of the step.
75 =item Release Candidate (RC)
77 A release candidate is an attempt to produce a tarball that is a close as
78 possible to the final release. Indeed, unless critical faults are found
79 during the RC testing, the final release will be identical to the RC
80 barring a few minor fixups (updating the release date in F<perlhist.pod>,
81 removing the RC status from F<patchlevel.h>, etc). If faults are found,
82 then the fixes should be put into a new release candidate, never directly
86 =item Stable/Maint release (MAINT).
88 A release with an even version number, and subversion number > 0, such as
91 At this point you should have a working release candidate with few or no
94 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
95 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps.
97 Note that for a maint release there are two versions of this guide to
98 consider: the one in the maint branch, and the one in blead. Which one to
99 use is a fine judgement. The blead one will be most up-to-date, while
100 it might describe some steps or new tools that aren't applicable to older
101 maint branches. It is probably best to review both versions of this
102 document, but to most closely follow the steps in the maint version.
104 =item A blead point release (BLEAD-POINT)
106 A release with an odd version number, such as 5.15.0 or 5.15.1.
108 This isn't for production, so it has less stability requirements than for
109 other release types, and isn't preceded by RC releases. Other than that,
110 it is similar to a MAINT release.
112 =item Blead final release (BLEAD-FINAL)
114 A release with an even version number, and subversion number == 0, such as
115 5.14.0. That is to say, it's the big new release once per year.
117 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
118 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps, even more than for MAINT.
126 Before you can make an official release of perl, there are a few
127 hoops you need to jump through:
129 =head3 PAUSE account with pumpkin status
131 Make sure you have a PAUSE account suitable for uploading a perl release.
132 If you don't have a PAUSE account, then request one:
134 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=request_id
136 Check that your account is allowed to upload perl distros: go to
137 L<https://pause.perl.org/pause/authenquery?ACTION=who_pumpkin> and check that
138 your PAUSE ID is listed there. If not, ask Andreas KE<0xf6>nig to add your ID
139 to the list of people allowed to upload something called perl. You can find
140 Andreas' email address at:
142 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=pause_04imprint
144 =head3 rt.perl.org update access
146 Make sure you have permission to close tickets on L<http://rt.perl.org/>
147 so you can respond to bug reports as necessary during your stint. If you
148 don't, make an account (if you don't have one) and contact the pumpking
149 with your username to get ticket-closing permission.
151 =head3 git checkout and commit bit
153 You will need a working C<git> installation, checkout of the perl
154 git repository and perl commit bit. For information about working
155 with perl and git, see F<pod/perlgit.pod>.
157 If you are not yet a perl committer, you won't be able to make a
158 release. Have a chat with whichever evil perl porter tried to talk
159 you into the idea in the first place to figure out the best way to
162 =head3 web-based file share
164 You will need to be able to share tarballs with #p5p members for
165 pre-release testing, and you may wish to upload to PAUSE via URL.
166 Make sure you have a way of sharing files, such as a web server or
167 file-sharing service.
169 Porters have access to the "dromedary" server (users.perl5.git.perl.org),
170 which has a F<public_html> directory to share files with.
171 (L<http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~username/perl-5.xx.y.tar.gz>)
173 If you use Dropbox, you can append "raw=1" as a parameter to their usual
174 sharing link to allow direct download (albeit with redirects).
176 =head3 Quotation for release announcement epigraph
178 You will need a quotation to use as an epigraph to your release announcement.
179 It will live forever (along with Perl), so make it a good one.
181 =head3 Install the previous version of perl
183 During the testing phase of the release you have created, you will be
184 asked to compare the installed files with a previous install. Save yourself
185 some time on release day, and have a (clean) install of the previous
188 =head2 Building a release - advance actions
190 The work of building a release candidate for an even numbered release
191 (BLEAD-FINAL) of perl generally starts several weeks before the first
192 release candidate. Some of the following steps should be done regularly,
193 but all I<must> be done in the run up to a release.
195 =head3 dual-life CPAN module synchronisation
197 To see which core distro versions differ from the current CPAN versions:
199 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -x -a
201 However, this only checks whether the version recorded in
202 F<Porting/Maintainers.pl> differs from the latest on CPAN. It doesn't tell you
203 if the code itself has diverged from CPAN.
205 You can also run an actual diff of the contents of the modules, comparing core
206 to CPAN, to ensure that there were no erroneous/extraneous changes that need to
207 be dealt with. You do this by not passing the C<-x> option:
209 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -a -o ~/corediffs
211 Passing C<-u cpan> will probably be helpful, since it limits the search to
212 distributions with 'cpan' upstream source. (It's OK for blead upstream to
213 differ from CPAN because those dual-life releases usually come I<after> perl
216 See also the C<-d> and C<-v> options for more detail (and the C<-u> option as
217 mentioned above). You'll probably want to use the C<-c cachedir> option to
218 avoid repeated CPAN downloads and may want to use C<-m file:///mirror/path> if
219 you made a local CPAN mirror. Note that a minicpan mirror won't actually work,
220 but can provide a good first pass to quickly get a list of modules which
221 definitely haven't changed, to avoid having to download absolutely everything.
223 For a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release with 'cpan' upstream, if a CPAN
224 release appears to be ahead of blead, then consider updating it (or asking the
225 relevant porter to do so). (However, if this is a BLEAD-FINAL release or one of
226 the last BLEAD-POINT releases before it and hence blead is in some kind of
227 "code freeze" state (e.g. the sequence might be "contentious changes freeze",
228 then "user-visible changes freeze" and finally "full code freeze") then any
229 CPAN module updates must be subject to the same restrictions, so it may not be
230 possible to update all modules until after the BLEAD-FINAL release.) If blead
231 contains edits to a 'cpan' upstream module, this is naughty but sometimes
232 unavoidable to keep blead tests passing. Make sure the affected file has a
233 CUSTOMIZED entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.
235 If you are making a MAINT release, run C<core-cpan-diff> on both blead and
236 maint, then diff the two outputs. Compare this with what you expect, and if
237 necessary, fix things up. For example, you might think that both blead
238 and maint are synchronised with a particular CPAN module, but one might
239 have some extra changes.
241 In any case, any cpan-first distribution that is listed as having files
242 "Customized for blead" in the output of cpan-core-diff should have requests
243 submitted to the maintainer(s) to make a cpan release to catch up with blead.
245 Additionally, all files listed as "modified" but not "customized for blead"
246 should have entries added under the C<CUSTOMIZED> key in
247 F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>, as well as checksums updated via:
249 cd t; ./perl -I../lib porting/customized.t --regen
251 =head4 Sync CPAN modules with the corresponding cpanE<sol> distro
253 In most cases, once a new version of a distribution shipped with core has been
254 uploaded to CPAN, the core version thereof can be synchronized automatically
255 with the program F<Porting/sync-with-cpan>. (But see the comments at the
256 beginning of that program. In particular, it has not yet been exercised on
257 Windows as much as it has on Unix-like platforms.)
259 If, however, F<Porting/sync-with-cpan> does not provide good results, follow
266 Fetch the most recent version from CPAN.
270 Unpack the retrieved tarball. Rename the old directory; rename the new
271 directory to the original name.
275 Restore any F<.gitignore> file. This can be done by issuing
276 C<git checkout .gitignore> in the F<cpan/Distro> directory.
280 Remove files we do not need. That is, remove any files that match the
281 entries in C<@IGNORABLE> in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>, and anything that
282 matches the C<EXCLUDED> section of the distro's entry in the C<%Modules>
287 Restore any files mentioned in the C<CUSTOMIZED> section, using
288 C<git checkout>. Make any new customizations if necessary. Also,
289 restore any files that are mentioned in C<@IGNORE>, but were checked
290 into the repository anyway.
294 For any new files in the distro, determine whether they are needed.
295 If not, delete them, and list them in either C<EXCLUDED> or C<@IGNORABLE>.
296 Otherwise, add them to C<MANIFEST>, and run C<git add> to add the files
301 For any files that are gone, remove them from C<MANIFEST>, and use
302 C<git rm> to tell git the files will be gone.
306 If the C<MANIFEST> file was changed in any of the previous steps, run
307 C<perl Porting/manisort --output MANIFEST.sort; mv MANIFEST.sort MANIFEST>.
311 For any files that have an execute bit set, either remove the execute
312 bit, or edit F<Porting/exec-bit.txt>
316 Run C<make> (or C<nmake> on Windows), see if C<perl> compiles.
320 Run the tests for the package.
324 Run the tests in F<t/porting> (C<make test_porting>).
328 Update the C<DISTRIBUTION> entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.
332 Run a full configure/build/test cycle.
336 If everything is ok, commit the changes.
340 For entries with a non-simple C<FILES> section, or with a C<MAP>, you
341 may have to take more steps than listed above.
343 =head3 Ensure dual-life CPAN module stability
347 for each module that fails its regression tests on $current
348 did it fail identically on $previous?
349 if yes, "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem, but try to make sure a
351 else work out why it failed (a bisect is useful for this)
353 attempt to group failure causes
355 for each failure cause
356 is that a regression?
357 if yes, figure out how to fix it
358 (more code? revert the code that broke it)
360 (presumably) it's relying on something un-or-under-documented
361 should the existing behaviour stay?
362 yes - goto "regression"
363 no - note it in perldelta as a significant bugfix
364 (also, try to inform the module's author)
366 =head3 monitor smoke tests for failures
368 Similarly, monitor the smoking of core tests, and try to fix. See
369 L<https://tux.nl/perl5/smoke/index.html>, L<http://perl5.test-smoke.org/>
370 and L<http://perl.develop-help.com> for a summary. See also
371 L<http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.daily-build.reports/> which has
374 Similarly, monitor the smoking of perl for compiler warnings, and try to
377 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
379 =head3 monitor CPAN testers for failures
381 For any release except a BLEAD-POINT: Examine the relevant analysis report(s)
382 at L<http://analysis.cpantesters.org/beforemaintrelease> to see how the
383 impending release is performing compared to previous releases with
384 regard to building and testing CPAN modules.
386 That page accepts a query parameter, C<pair> that takes a pair of
387 colon-delimited versions to use for comparison. For example:
389 L<http://analysis.cpantesters.org/beforemaintrelease?pair=5.20.2:5.22.0%20RC1>
391 =head3 update perldelta
393 Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.
395 Read F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>, and try to make sure that
396 every section it lists is, if necessary, populated and complete. Copy
397 edit the whole document.
399 You won't be able to automatically fill in the "Updated Modules" section until
400 after Module::CoreList is updated (as described below in
401 L<"update Module::CoreList">).
403 =head3 Bump the version number
405 Do not do this yet for a BLEAD-POINT release! You will do this at the end of
406 the release process (after building the final tarball, tagging etc).
408 Increase the version number (e.g. from 5.12.0 to 5.12.1).
410 For a release candidate for a stable perl, this should happen a week or two
411 before the first release candidate to allow sufficient time for testing and
412 smoking with the target version built into the perl executable. For
413 subsequent release candidates and the final release, it is not necessary to
414 bump the version further.
416 There is a tool to semi-automate this process:
418 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/bump-perl-version -i 5.10.0 5.10.1
420 Remember that this tool is largely just grepping for '5.10.0' or whatever,
421 so it will generate false positives. Be careful not change text like
422 "this was fixed in 5.10.0"!
424 Use git status and git diff to select changes you want to keep.
426 Be particularly careful with F<INSTALL>, which contains a mixture of
427 C<5.10.0>-type strings, some of which need bumping on every release, and
428 some of which need to be left unchanged.
429 See below in L<"update INSTALL"> for more details.
431 For the first RC release leading up to a BLEAD-FINAL release, update the
432 description of which releases are now "officially" supported in
433 F<pod/perlpolicy.pod>.
435 When doing a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release, also make sure the
436 C<PERL_API_*> constants in F<patchlevel.h> are in sync with the version
437 you're releasing, unless you're absolutely sure the release you're about to
438 make is 100% binary compatible to an earlier release. When releasing a MAINT
439 perl version, the C<PERL_API_*> constants C<MUST NOT> be changed as we aim
440 to guarantee binary compatibility in maint branches.
442 After editing, regenerate uconfig.h (this must be run on a system with a
445 $ perl regen/uconfig_h.pl
447 This might not cause any new changes.
449 You may also need to regen opcodes:
451 $ ./perl -Ilib regen/opcode.pl
455 $ git clean -xdf # careful if you don't have local files to keep!
456 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
460 Do note that at this stage, porting tests will fail. They will continue
461 to fail until you've updated Module::CoreList, as described below.
467 B<review the delta carefully>
469 $ git commit -a -m 'Bump the perl version in various places for 5.x.y'
471 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
472 see if they look similar. See commit f7cf42bb69 for an example of a
473 previous version bump.
475 When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList
476 (as described below in L<"update Module::CoreList">) to reflect the new
479 =head3 update INSTALL
481 Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number.
482 The lines in F<INSTALL> about "is not binary compatible with" may require a
483 correct choice of earlier version to declare incompatibility with. These are
484 in the "Changes and Incompatibilities" and "Coexistence with earlier versions
487 Be particularly careful with the section "Upgrading from 5.X.Y or earlier".
488 The "X.Y" needs to be changed to the most recent version that we are
489 I<not> binary compatible with.
491 For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, this needs to refer to the last
492 release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
493 release, this would be 5.13.11).
495 For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
496 release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2). If the last release manager
497 followed instructions, this should have already been done after the last
498 blead release, so you may find nothing to do here.
500 =head3 Check copyright years
502 Check that the copyright years are up to date by running:
504 $ pushd t; ./perl -I../lib porting/copyright.t --now
506 Remedy any test failures by editing README or perl.c accordingly (search for
507 the "Copyright"). If updating perl.c, check if the file's own copyright date in
508 the C comment at the top needs updating, as well as the one printed by C<-v>.
510 =head3 Check more build configurations
512 Try running the full test suite against multiple Perl configurations. Here are
513 some sets of Configure flags you can try:
519 C<-Duseshrplib -Dusesitecustomize>
523 C<-Duserelocatableinc>
531 If you have multiple compilers on your machine, you might also consider
532 compiling with C<-Dcc=$other_compiler>.
534 =head3 update perlport
536 L<perlport> has a section currently named I<Supported Platforms> that
537 indicates which platforms are known to build in the current release.
538 If necessary update the list and the indicated version number.
540 =head3 check a readonly build
542 Even before other prep work, follow the steps in L<build the tarball> and test
543 it locally. Because a perl source tarballs sets many files read-only, it could
544 test differently than tests run from the repository. After you're sure
545 permissions aren't a problem, delete the generated directory and tarballs.
548 =head2 Building a release - on the day
550 This section describes the actions required to make a release
551 that are performed near to, or on the actual release day.
553 =head3 re-check earlier actions
555 Review all the actions in the previous section,
556 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
559 =head3 create a release branch
561 For BLEAD-POINT releases, making a release from a release branch avoids the
562 need to freeze blead during the release. This is less important for
563 BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, and RC releases, since blead will already be frozen in
564 those cases. Create the branch by running
566 git checkout -b release-5.xx.yy
568 =head3 build a clean perl
570 Make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
571 unpushed commits etc):
576 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
578 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
580 =head3 Check module versions
582 For each Perl release since the previous release of the current branch, check
583 for modules that have identical version numbers but different contents by
586 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/cmpVERSION.pl --tag=v5.X.YY
588 (This is done automatically by F<t/porting/cmp_version.t> for the previous
589 release of the current branch, but not for any releases from other branches.)
591 Any modules that fail will need a version bump, plus a nudge to the upstream
592 maintainer for 'cpan' upstream modules.
594 =head3 update Module::CoreList
596 =head4 Bump Module::CoreList* $VERSIONs
598 If necessary, bump C<$VERSION> (there's no need to do this
599 for every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
600 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
601 It may also happen that C<Module::CoreList> has been modified in blead, and
602 hence has a new version number already. (But make sure it is not the same
603 number as a CPAN release.)
605 C<$Module::CoreList::Utils::VERSION> should always be equal to
606 C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>. If necessary, bump those two versions to match
609 Once again, the files to modify are:
615 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>
619 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>
623 =head4 Update C<Module::CoreList> with module version data for the new release.
625 Note that if this is a MAINT release, you should run the following actions
626 from the maint branch, but commit the C<CoreList.pm> changes in
627 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
628 maint release and then your recent commit. XXX need a better example
630 [ Note that the procedure for handling Module::CoreList in maint branches
631 is a bit complex, and the RMG currently don't describe a full and
632 workable approach. The main issue is keeping Module::CoreList
633 and its version number synchronised across all maint branches, blead and
634 CPAN, while having to bump its version number for every RC release.
635 See this brief p5p thread:
637 Message-ID: <20130311174402.GZ2294@iabyn.com>
639 If you can devise a workable system, feel free to try it out, and to
640 update the RMG accordingly!
644 F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
645 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror and/or fall back
646 on HTTP::Tiny to fetch package metadata remotely.
648 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
649 L<http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN>)
651 Change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
655 Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
657 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
661 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
663 This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
664 badly-indexed CPAN modules unrelated to the modules actually in core.
665 Assuming all goes well, it will update
666 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> and possibly
667 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>.
669 Check those files over carefully:
671 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm
672 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm
674 =head4 Bump version in Module::CoreList F<Changes>
676 Also edit Module::CoreList's new version number in its F<Changes> file.
677 This file is F<dist/Module-CoreList/Changes>.
678 (BLEAD-POINT releases should have had this done already as a post-release
679 action from the last commit.)
681 =head4 Add Module::CoreList version bump to perldelta
683 Add a perldelta entry for the new Module::CoreList version. You only
684 need to do this if you want to add notes about the changes included
685 with this version of Module::CoreList. Otherwise, its version bump
686 will be automatically filled in below in L<finalize perldelta>.
688 =for checklist skip RC
690 =head4 Update C<%Module::CoreList::released>
692 For any release except an RC: Update this version's entry in the C<%released>
693 hash with today's date.
695 =head4 Commit Module::CoreList changes
697 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
698 (unless this is for MAINT; in which case commit it to blead first, then
699 cherry-pick it back).
701 $ git commit -m 'Update Module::CoreList for 5.x.y' \
702 dist/Module-CoreList/Changes \
703 dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm \
704 dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm
706 =head4 Rebuild and test
708 Build and test to get the changes into the currently built lib directory and to
709 ensure all tests are passing.
711 =head3 finalize perldelta
713 Finalize the perldelta. In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
714 section, which can be generated with something like:
716 $ perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD
718 Fill in the "New/Updated Modules" sections now that Module::CoreList is
721 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl \
722 --mode=update pod/perldelta.pod
724 For a MAINT release use something like this instead:
726 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl 5.020001 5.020002 \
727 --mode=update pod/perldelta.pod
729 Ideally, also fill in a summary of the major changes to each module for which
730 an entry has been added by F<corelist-perldelta.pl>.
732 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
733 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
734 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
735 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
737 $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perldelta.pod
738 $ spell pod/perldelta.pod
739 $ aspell list < pod/perldelta.pod | sort -u
741 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
744 $ ./perl -Ilib ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html pod/perldelta.pod > \
747 If you make changes, be sure to commit them.
749 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
751 =head3 remove stale perldeltas
753 For the first RC release that is ONLY for a BLEAD-FINAL, the perldeltas
754 from the BLEAD-POINT releases since the previous BLEAD-FINAL should have
755 now been consolidated into the current perldelta, and hence are now just
756 useless clutter. They can be removed using:
758 $ git rm <file1> <file2> ...
760 For example, for RC0 of 5.16.0:
763 $ git rm perldelta515*.pod
765 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL BLEAD-POINT
767 =head3 add recent perldeltas
769 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in any recent perldeltas from
770 blead that have been added since the last release on this branch. This
771 should include any recent maint releases on branches older than your one,
772 but not newer. For example if you're producing a 5.14.x release, copy any
773 perldeltas from recent 5.10.x, 5.12.x etc maint releases, but not from
774 5.16.x or higher. Remember to
776 $ git add <file1> <file2> ...
778 =head3 update and commit perldelta files
780 If you have added or removed any perldelta files via the previous two
781 steps, then edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add/remove them from its table of
782 contents, then run F<Porting/pod_rules.pl> to propagate your changes there
783 into all the other files that mention them (including F<MANIFEST>). You'll
784 need to C<git add> the files that it changes.
786 Then build a clean perl and do a full test
790 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des
794 Once all tests pass, commit your changes.
796 =head3 build a clean perl
798 If you skipped the previous step (adding/removing perldeltas),
799 again, make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
800 unpushed commits etc):
805 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
807 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
809 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL BLEAD-POINT
811 =head3 synchronise from blead's perlhist.pod
813 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in the latest
814 F<pod/perlhist.pod> from blead; this will include details of newer
815 releases in all branches. In theory, blead's version should be a strict
816 superset of the one in this branch, but it's probably safest to examine the
817 changes first, to ensure that there's nothing in this branch that was
818 forgotten from blead. An easy way to do that is with C<< git checkout -p >>,
819 to selectively apply any changes from the blead version to your current
823 $ git checkout -p origin/blead pod/perlhist.pod
824 $ git commit -m 'sync perlhist from blead' pod/perlhist.pod
826 =head3 update perlhist.pod
828 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:
830 David 5.10.1 2009-Aug-06
832 List yourself in the left-hand column, and if this is the first release
833 that you've ever done, make sure that your name is listed in the section
834 entitled C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
836 I<If you're making a BLEAD-FINAL release>, also update the "SELECTED
837 RELEASE SIZES" section with the output of
838 F<Porting/perlhist_calculate.pl>.
840 Be sure to commit your changes:
842 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
844 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
846 =head3 update patchlevel.h
848 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>
850 Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
851 a final release, remove it. For example:
853 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
856 #ifdef PERL_GIT_UNCOMMITTED_CHANGES
857 ,"uncommitted-changes"
860 Be sure to commit your change:
862 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
864 =head3 run makemeta to update META files
866 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/makemeta
868 Be sure to commit any changes (if applicable):
870 $ git status # any changes?
871 $ git commit -m 'Update META files' META.*
873 =head3 build, test and check a fresh perl
875 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
878 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
880 # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
881 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
885 Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
886 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
887 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
888 paths. Note that as they have been built from a git working
889 directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
890 commits. (Note that for an odd-numbered version, perl will install
891 itself as C<perl5.x.y>). C<perl -v> will identify itself as:
893 This is perl 5, version X, subversion Y (v5.X.Y (v5.X.Z-NNN-gdeadbeef))
895 where 5.X.Z is the latest tag, NNN the number of commits since this tag,
896 and C<< deadbeef >> commit of that tag.
898 Then delete the temporary installation.
900 =head3 create the release tag
902 Create the tag identifying this release (e.g.):
904 $ git tag v5.11.0 -m "First release of the v5.11 series!"
906 It is B<VERY> important that from this point forward, you not push
907 your git changes to the Perl master repository. If anything goes
908 wrong before you publish your newly-created tag, you can delete
909 and recreate it. Once you push your tag, we're stuck with it
910 and you'll need to use a new version number for your release.
912 =head3 build the tarball
914 Before you run the following, you might want to install 7-Zip (the
915 C<p7zip-full> package under Debian or the C<p7zip> port on MacPorts) or
916 the AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> package under Debian,
917 or the C<advancecomp> port on macports - 7-Zip on Windows is the
918 same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the smallest files
919 first time). These compress about 5% smaller than gzip and bzip2.
920 Over the lifetime of your distribution this will save a lot of
921 people a small amount of download time and disk space, which adds
924 In order to produce the C<xz> tarball, XZ Utils are required. The C<xz>
925 utility is included with most modern UNIX-type operating systems and
926 is available for Cygwin. A Windows port is available from
927 L<http://tukaani.org/xz/>.
929 B<IMPORTANT>: if you are on OS X, you must export C<COPYFILE_DISABLE=1>
930 to prevent OS X resource files from being included in your tarball. After
931 creating the tarball following the instructions below, inspect it to ensure
932 you don't have files like F<._foobar>.
934 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
935 the tarball and directory name:
937 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
938 $ make distclean # make sure distclean works
939 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
940 # git clean should not output anything!
941 $ git status --ignored # and there's nothing lying around
943 $ perl Porting/makerel -x -s RC1 # for a release candidate
944 $ perl Porting/makerel -x # for the release itself
946 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
947 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them, then
948 tars it up as F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. The C<-x> also produces a
951 If you're getting your tarball suffixed with -uncommitted and you're sure
952 your changes were all committed, you can override the suffix with:
954 $ perl Porting/makerel -x -s ''
956 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
959 Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.
961 $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1
963 =head3 test the tarball
965 Once you have a tarball it's time to test the tarball (not the repository).
967 =head4 Copy the tarball to a web server
969 Copy the tarballs (.gz and .xz) to a web server somewhere you have access to.
971 =head4 Download the tarball to another machine and unpack it
973 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
974 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
977 =head4 Ask #p5p to test the tarball on different platforms
979 Once you've verified the tarball can be downloaded and unpacked,
980 ask the #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org for volunteers to test the
981 tarballs on whatever platforms they can.
983 If you're not confident in the tarball, you can defer this step until after
984 your own tarball testing, below.
986 =head4 Check that F<Configure> works
988 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
990 $ ./Configure -des && make all minitest test
992 # Or for a development release:
993 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make all minitest test
995 =head4 Run the test harness and install
997 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
1000 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
1003 =head4 Check C<perl -v> and C<perl -V>
1005 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
1006 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
1009 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
1010 which is why you should test from the tarball.
1012 =head4 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility
1016 All tests successful.
1019 =head4 Compare the installed paths to the last release
1021 Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
1022 release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
1023 have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
1024 for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
1025 For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
1028 cd installdir-5.10.0/
1029 find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
1030 cd installdir-5.10.1/
1031 find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
1034 =head4 Bootstrap the CPAN client
1036 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
1043 =head4 Install the Inline module with CPAN and test it
1045 If you're using C<local::lib>, you should reset your environment before
1046 performing these actions:
1048 $ unset PERL5LIB PERL_MB_OPT PERL_LOCAL_LIB_ROOT PERL_MM_OPT
1050 Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
1051 has dependencies; for example:
1053 CPAN> install Inline::C
1056 Check that your perl can run this:
1058 $ bin/perl -lwe "use Inline C => q[int f() { return 42;}]; print f"
1062 =head4 Make sure that perlbug works
1064 Test L<perlbug> with the following:
1068 Subject: test bug report
1069 Local perl administrator [yourself]:
1075 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
1076 Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]:
1077 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): q
1079 and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
1080 the "Locally applied patches" section. If everything appears okay, then
1081 delete the file, and try it again, this time actually submitting the bug
1082 report. Check that it shows up, then remember to close it!
1084 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1086 =head3 monitor smokes
1088 XXX This is probably irrelevant if working on a release branch, though
1089 MAINT or RC might want to push a smoke branch and wait.
1091 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
1092 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
1094 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
1095 back and fix things.
1097 Note that for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases this may not be practical. It takes a
1098 long time for the smokers to catch up, especially the Win32
1099 smokers. This is why we have a RC cycle for I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
1100 releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases sometimes the best you can do is
1101 to plead with people on IRC to test stuff on their platforms, fire away,
1102 and then hope for the best.
1104 =head3 upload to PAUSE
1106 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
1107 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
1108 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
1110 https://pause.perl.org/
1112 (Log in, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')
1114 If your workstation is not connected to a high-bandwidth,
1115 high-reliability connection to the Internet, you should probably use the
1116 "GET URL" feature (rather than "HTTP UPLOAD") to have PAUSE retrieve the
1117 new release from wherever you put it for testers to find it. This will
1118 eliminate anxious gnashing of teeth while you wait to see if your
1119 15 megabyte HTTP upload successfully completes across your slow, twitchy
1122 You can make use of your home directory on dromedary for
1123 this purpose: F<http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~USERNAME> maps to
1124 F</home/USERNAME/public_html>, where F<USERNAME> is your login account
1127 I<Remember>: if your upload is partially successful, you
1128 may need to contact a PAUSE administrator or even bump the version of perl.
1130 Upload the .gz and .xz versions of the tarball.
1132 Note: You can also use the command-line utility to upload your tarballs, if
1133 you have it configured:
1135 cpan-upload perl-5.X.Y.tar.gz
1136 cpan-upload perl-5.X.Y.tar.xz
1138 Do not proceed any further until you are sure that your tarballs are on CPAN.
1139 Check your authors directory www.cpan.org (the globally balanced "fast"
1140 mirror) to confirm that your uploads have been successful.
1142 =for checklist skip RC BLEAD-POINT
1144 =head3 wait for indexing
1146 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and BLEAD-POINT>
1148 Wait until you receive notification emails from the PAUSE indexer
1149 confirming that your uploads have been received. IMPORTANT -- you will
1150 probably get an email that indexing has failed, due to module permissions.
1151 This is considered normal.
1153 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1155 =head3 disarm patchlevel.h
1157 I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>
1159 Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,
1161 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
1164 #ifdef PERL_GIT_UNCOMMITTED_CHANGES
1165 ,"uncommitted-changes"
1168 Be sure to commit your change:
1170 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
1172 =head3 announce to p5p
1174 Mail perl5-porters@perl.org to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
1175 Get the SHA1 digests from the PAUSE email responses.
1177 Use the template at Porting/release_announcement_template.txt
1179 Send a carbon copy to C<noc@metacpan.org>
1181 =head3 merge release branch back to blead
1183 Merge the (local) release branch back into master now, and delete it.
1187 git merge release-5.xx.yy
1189 git branch -d release-5.xx.yy
1191 Note: The merge will create a merge commit if other changes have been pushed
1192 to blead while you've been working on your release branch. Do NOT rebase your
1193 branch to avoid the merge commit (as you might normally do when merging a
1194 small branch into blead) since doing so will invalidate the tag that you
1197 =head3 publish the release tag
1199 Now that you've shipped the new perl release to PAUSE and pushed your changes
1200 to the Perl master repository, it's time to publish the tag you created
1203 $ git push origin tag v5.11.0
1205 =head3 update epigraphs.pod
1207 Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
1208 You can include the customary link to the release announcement even before your
1209 message reaches the web-visible archives by looking for the X-List-Archive
1210 header in your message after receiving it back via perl5-porters.
1212 =head3 blog about your epigraph
1214 If you have a blog, please consider writing an entry in your blog explaining
1215 why you chose that particular quote for your epigraph.
1217 =for checklist skip RC
1219 =head3 Release schedule
1221 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1223 Tick the entry for your release in F<Porting/release_schedule.pod>.
1225 =for checklist skip RC
1227 =head3 Module::CoreList nagging
1229 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1231 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
1234 =for checklist skip RC
1236 =head3 new perldelta
1238 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1240 Create a new perldelta.
1246 Confirm that you have a clean checkout with no local changes.
1251 perl Porting/new-perldelta.pl
1255 Run the C<git add> commands it outputs to add new and modified files.
1259 Verify that the build still works, by running C<./Configure> and
1260 C<make test_porting>. (On Win32 use the appropriate make utility).
1264 If F<t/porting/podcheck.t> spots errors in the new F<pod/perldelta.pod>,
1265 run C<./perl -MTestInit t/porting/podcheck.t | less> for more detail.
1266 Skip to the end of its test output to see the options it offers you.
1270 When C<make test_porting> passes, commit the new perldelta.
1272 git commit -m'new perldelta for 5.X.Y'
1276 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
1277 see if they look similar. See commit ba03bc34a4 for an example of a
1278 previous version bump.
1280 =for checklist skip MAINT RC
1284 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and MAINT>
1286 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1287 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
1288 in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
1290 First, add a new feature bundle to F<regen/feature.pl>, initially by just
1291 copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION (after the __END__
1294 "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1295 + "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1297 Run F<regen/feature.pl> to propagate the changes to F<lib/feature.pm>.
1299 Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
1300 in the remaining files and test and commit.
1302 If this was a BLEAD-POINT release, then just follow the section
1303 L<"Bump the version number">.
1305 After bumping the version, follow the section L<"update INSTALL"> to
1306 ensure all version number references are correct.
1308 (Note: The version is NOT bumped immediately after a MAINT release in order
1309 to avoid confusion and wasted time arising from bug reports relating to
1310 "intermediate versions" such as 5.20.1-and-a-bit: If the report is caused
1311 by a bug that gets fixed in 5.20.2 and this intermediate version already
1312 calls itself 5.20.2 then much time can be wasted in figuring out why there
1313 is a failure from something that "should have been fixed". If the bump is
1314 late then there is a much smaller window of time for such confusing bug
1315 reports to arise. (The opposite problem -- trying to figure out why there
1316 *is* a bug in something calling itself 5.20.1 when in fact the bug was
1317 introduced later -- shouldn't arise for MAINT releases since they should,
1318 in theory, only contain bug fixes but never regressions.))
1320 =head3 clean build and test
1322 Run a clean build and test to make sure nothing obvious is broken.
1324 In particular, F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> is intentionally exempted
1325 from podchecker tests, to avoid false positives about placeholder text.
1326 However, once it's copied to F<pod/perldelta.pod> the contents can now
1327 cause test failures. Problems should be resolved by doing one of the
1334 Replace placeholder text with correct text.
1338 If the problem is from a broken placeholder link, you can add it to the
1339 array C<@perldelta_ignore_links> in F<t/porting/podcheck.t>. Lines
1340 containing such links should be marked with C<XXX> so that they get
1341 cleaned up before the next release.
1345 Following the instructions output by F<t/porting/podcheck.t> on how to
1346 update its exceptions database.
1352 Finally, push any commits done above.
1354 $ git push origin ....
1356 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1358 =head3 create maint branch
1360 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
1362 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1363 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then create a new maint branch based on
1364 the commit tagged as the current release.
1366 Assuming you're using git 1.7.x or newer:
1368 $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
1369 $ git push origin -u maint-5.12
1372 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1374 =head3 make the maint branch available in the APC
1376 Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
1377 receive its changes.
1379 $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
1380 ? /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1381 $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1383 And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.
1385 XXX Who are the sysadmins? Contact info?
1387 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT RC
1389 =head3 copy perldelta.pod to blead
1391 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>
1393 Copy the perldelta.pod for this release into blead; for example:
1396 $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod #for example
1397 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
1399 Don't forget to set the NAME correctly in the new file (e.g. perl5101delta
1400 rather than perldelta).
1402 Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:
1404 perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
1406 Then rebuild various files:
1408 $ perl Porting/pod_rules.pl
1410 Finally, commit and push:
1412 $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'
1413 $ git push origin ....
1415 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1417 =head3 copy perlhist.pod entries to blead
1419 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
1420 F<perlhist.pod> on blead. e.g.
1426 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some
1427 much-needed rest and relaxation>.
1429 Thanks for releasing perl!
1431 =head2 Building a release - the day after
1433 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL MAINT RC
1435 =head3 update Module::CoreList
1437 I<After a BLEAD-POINT release only>
1439 After Module::CoreList has shipped to CPAN by the maintainer, update
1440 Module::CoreList in the source so that it reflects the new blead
1447 Update F<Porting/Maintainers.pl> to list the new DISTRIBUTION on CPAN,
1448 which should be identical to what is currently in blead.
1452 Bump the $VERSION in F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>
1453 and F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>.
1457 If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
1459 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
1463 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
1465 This will update F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> and
1466 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm> as it did before,
1467 but this time adding new sections for the next BLEAD-POINT release.
1471 Add the new $Module::CoreList::VERSION to
1472 F<dist/Module-CoreList/Changes>.
1476 Update F<pod/perldelta.pod> to mention the upgrade to Module::CoreList.
1480 Remake perl to get your changed .pm files propagated into F<lib/> and
1481 then run at least the F<dist/Module-CoreList/t/*.t> tests and the
1482 test_porting makefile target to check that they're ok.
1488 $ ./perl -Ilib -MModule::CoreList \
1489 -le 'print Module::CoreList->find_version($]) ? "ok" : "not ok"'
1491 and check that it outputs "ok" to prove that Module::CoreList now knows
1492 about blead's current version.
1496 Commit and push your changes.
1500 =head3 check tarball availability
1502 Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
1503 and is properly indexed:
1509 Check your author directory under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/>
1510 to ensure that the tarballs are available on the website.
1514 Check F</src> on CPAN (on a fast mirror) to ensure that links to
1515 the new tarballs have appeared: There should be links in F</src/5.0>
1516 (which is accumulating all new versions), and (for BLEAD-FINAL and
1517 MAINT only) an appropriate mention in F</src/README.html> (which describes
1518 the latest versions in each stable branch, with links).
1520 The F</src/5.0> links should appear automatically, some hours after upload.
1521 If they don't, or the F</src> description is inadequate,
1522 ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1526 Check L<http://www.cpan.org/src/> to ensure that the F</src> updates
1527 have been correctly mirrored to the website.
1528 If they haven't, ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1532 Check L<http://search.cpan.org> to see if it has indexed the distribution.
1533 It should be visible at a URL like C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl-5.10.1/>.
1537 =head3 update release manager's guide
1539 Go over your notes from the release (you did take some, right?) and update
1540 F<Porting/release_managers_guide.pod> with any fixes or information that
1541 will make life easier for the next release manager.
1548 L<http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html>,
1549 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.