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 New releases of perl are made each month on the 20th by a release engineer
34 appointed by the Steering Council. The release engineer roster and schedule
35 can be found in Porting/release_schedule.pod.
37 This document both helps as a check-list for the release engineer
38 and is a base for ideas on how the various tasks could be automated
41 The checklist of a typical release cycle is as follows:
43 (5.10.1 is released, and post-release actions have been done)
47 a few weeks before the release, a number of steps are performed,
48 including bumping the version to 5.10.2
50 ...a few weeks pass...
52 perl-5.10.2-RC1 is released
54 perl-5.10.2 is released
56 post-release actions are performed, including creating new
59 ... the cycle continues ...
63 Some of the tasks described below apply to all four types of
64 release of Perl. (blead, RC, final release of maint, final
65 release of blead). Some of these tasks apply only to a subset
66 of these release types. If a step does not apply to a given
67 type of release, you will see a notation to that effect at
68 the beginning of the step.
74 =item Release Candidate (RC)
76 A release candidate is an attempt to produce a tarball that is a close as
77 possible to the final release. Indeed, unless critical faults are found
78 during the RC testing, the final release will be identical to the RC
79 barring a few minor fixups (updating the release date in F<perlhist.pod>,
80 removing the RC status from F<patchlevel.h>, etc). If faults are found,
81 then the fixes should be put into a new release candidate, never directly
85 =item Stable/Maint release (MAINT).
87 A release with an even version number, and subversion number > 0, such as
90 At this point you should have a working release candidate with few or no
93 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
94 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps.
96 Note that for a maint release there are two versions of this guide to
97 consider: the one in the maint branch, and the one in blead. Which one to
98 use is a fine judgement. The blead one will be most up-to-date, while
99 it might describe some steps or new tools that aren't applicable to older
100 maint branches. It is probably best to review both versions of this
101 document, but to most closely follow the steps in the maint version.
103 =item A blead point release (BLEAD-POINT)
105 A release with an odd version number, such as 5.15.0 or 5.15.1.
107 This isn't for production, so it has less stability requirements than for
108 other release types, and isn't preceded by RC releases. Other than that,
109 it is similar to a MAINT release.
111 =item Blead final release (BLEAD-FINAL)
113 A release with an even version number, and subversion number == 0, such as
114 5.14.0. That is to say, it's the big new release once per year.
116 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
117 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps, even more than for MAINT.
125 Before you can make an official release of perl, there are a few
126 hoops you need to jump through:
128 =head3 PAUSE account with pumpkin status
130 Make sure you have a PAUSE account suitable for uploading a perl release.
131 If you don't have a PAUSE account, then request one:
133 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=request_id
135 Check that your account is allowed to upload perl distros: go to
136 L<https://pause.perl.org/pause/authenquery?ACTION=who_pumpkin> and check that
137 your PAUSE ID is listed there. If not, ask Andreas KE<0xf6>nig to add your ID
138 to the list of people allowed to upload something called perl. You can find
139 Andreas' email address at:
141 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=pause_04imprint
145 You will need a working C<git> installation, checkout of the perl
146 git repository and perl commit bit. For information about working
147 with perl and git, see F<pod/perlgit.pod>.
149 If you are not yet a perl committer, you won't be able to make a
150 release. You will need to have a GitHub account (if you don't have one)
151 and contact the Steering Council with your username to get membership in the
152 L<< Perl-Releasers|https://github.com/orgs/Perl/teams/perl-releasers >> team.
154 =head3 web-based file share
156 You will need to be able to share tarballs with #p5p members for
157 pre-release testing, and you may wish to upload to PAUSE via URL.
158 Make sure you have a way of sharing files, such as a web server or
159 file-sharing service.
161 If you use Dropbox, you can append "raw=1" as a parameter to their usual
162 sharing link to allow direct download (albeit with redirects).
164 =head3 Quotation for release announcement epigraph
166 You will need a quotation to use as an epigraph to your release announcement.
167 It will live forever (along with Perl), so make it a good one.
169 =head3 Install the previous version of perl
171 During the testing phase of the release you have created, you will be
172 asked to compare the installed files with a previous install. Save yourself
173 some time on release day, and have a (clean) install of the previous
176 =head2 Building a release - advance actions
178 The work of building a release candidate for an even numbered release
179 (BLEAD-FINAL) of perl generally starts several weeks before the first
180 release candidate. Some of the following steps should be done regularly,
181 but all I<must> be done in the run up to a release.
183 =head3 dual-life CPAN module synchronisation
185 To see which core distro versions differ from the current CPAN versions:
187 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -x -a
189 However, this only checks whether the version recorded in
190 F<Porting/Maintainers.pl> differs from the latest on CPAN. It doesn't tell you
191 if the code itself has diverged from CPAN.
193 You can also run an actual diff of the contents of the modules, comparing core
194 to CPAN, to ensure that there were no erroneous/extraneous changes that need to
195 be dealt with. You do this by not passing the C<-x> option:
197 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -a -o ~/corediffs
199 Passing C<-u cpan> will probably be helpful, since it limits the search to
200 distributions with 'cpan' upstream source. (It's OK for blead upstream to
201 differ from CPAN because those dual-life releases usually come I<after> perl
204 See also the C<-d> and C<-v> options for more detail (and the C<-u> option as
205 mentioned above). You'll probably want to use the C<-c cachedir> option to
206 avoid repeated CPAN downloads and may want to use C<-m file:///mirror/path> if
207 you made a local CPAN mirror. Note that a minicpan mirror won't actually work,
208 but can provide a good first pass to quickly get a list of modules which
209 definitely haven't changed, to avoid having to download absolutely everything.
211 For a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release with 'cpan' upstream, if a CPAN
212 release appears to be ahead of blead, then consider updating it (or asking the
213 relevant porter to do so). (However, if this is a BLEAD-FINAL release or one of
214 the last BLEAD-POINT releases before it and hence blead is in some kind of
215 "code freeze" state (e.g. the sequence might be "contentious changes freeze",
216 then "user-visible changes freeze" and finally "full code freeze") then any
217 CPAN module updates must be subject to the same restrictions, so it may not be
218 possible to update all modules until after the BLEAD-FINAL release.) If blead
219 contains edits to a 'cpan' upstream module, this is naughty but sometimes
220 unavoidable to keep blead tests passing. Make sure the affected file has a
221 CUSTOMIZED entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.
223 If you are making a MAINT release, run C<core-cpan-diff> on both blead and
224 maint, then diff the two outputs. Compare this with what you expect, and if
225 necessary, fix things up. For example, you might think that both blead
226 and maint are synchronised with a particular CPAN module, but one might
227 have some extra changes.
229 In any case, any cpan-first distribution that is listed as having files
230 "Customized for blead" in the output of cpan-core-diff should have requests
231 submitted to the maintainer(s) to make a cpan release to catch up with blead.
233 Additionally, all files listed as "modified" but not "customized for blead"
234 should have entries added under the C<CUSTOMIZED> key in
235 F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>, as well as checksums updated via:
237 cd t; ../perl -I../lib porting/customized.t --regen
239 =head4 Sync CPAN modules with the corresponding cpanE<sol> distro
241 In most cases, once a new version of a distribution shipped with core has been
242 uploaded to CPAN, the core version thereof can be synchronized automatically
243 with the program F<Porting/sync-with-cpan>. (But see the comments at the
244 beginning of that program. In particular, it has not yet been exercised on
245 Windows as much as it has on Unix-like platforms.)
247 If, however, F<Porting/sync-with-cpan> does not provide good results, follow
254 Fetch the most recent version from CPAN.
258 Unpack the retrieved tarball. Rename the old directory; rename the new
259 directory to the original name.
263 Restore any F<.gitignore> file. This can be done by issuing
264 C<git checkout .gitignore> in the F<cpan/Distro> directory.
268 Remove files we do not need. That is, remove any files that match the
269 entries in C<@IGNORABLE> in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>, and anything that
270 matches the C<EXCLUDED> section of the distro's entry in the C<%Modules>
275 Restore any files mentioned in the C<CUSTOMIZED> section, using
276 C<git checkout>. Make any new customizations if necessary. Also,
277 restore any files that are mentioned in C<@IGNORE>, but were checked
278 into the repository anyway.
282 For any new files in the distro, determine whether they are needed.
283 If not, delete them, and list them in either C<EXCLUDED> or C<@IGNORABLE>.
284 Otherwise, add them to C<MANIFEST>, and run C<git add> to add the files
289 For any files that are gone, remove them from C<MANIFEST>, and use
290 C<git rm> to tell git the files will be gone.
294 If the C<MANIFEST> file was changed in any of the previous steps, run
295 C<perl Porting/manisort --output MANIFEST.sort; mv MANIFEST.sort MANIFEST>.
299 For any files that have an execute bit set, either remove the execute
300 bit, or edit F<Porting/exec-bit.txt>
304 Run C<make> (or C<nmake> on Windows), see if C<perl> compiles.
308 Run the tests for the package.
312 Run the tests in F<t/porting> (C<make test_porting>).
316 Update the C<DISTRIBUTION> entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.
320 Run a full configure/build/test cycle.
324 If everything is ok, commit the changes.
328 For entries with a non-simple C<FILES> section, or with a C<MAP>, you
329 may have to take more steps than listed above.
331 =head3 Ensure dual-life CPAN module stability
335 for each module that fails its regression tests on $current
336 did it fail identically on $previous?
337 if yes, "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem, but try to make sure a
339 else work out why it failed (a bisect is useful for this)
341 attempt to group failure causes
343 for each failure cause
344 is that a regression?
345 if yes, figure out how to fix it
346 (more code? revert the code that broke it)
348 (presumably) it's relying on something un-or-under-documented
349 should the existing behaviour stay?
350 yes - goto "regression"
351 no - note it in perldelta as a significant bugfix
352 (also, try to inform the module's author)
354 =head3 monitor smoke tests for failures
356 Similarly, monitor the smoking of core tests, and try to fix. See
357 L<https://tux.nl/perl5/smoke/index.html>, L<https://perl5.test-smoke.org/>
358 and L<http://perl.develop-help.com> for a summary. See also
359 L<https://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.daily-build.reports/> which has
362 Similarly, monitor the smoking of perl for compiler warnings, and try to
365 Additionally both L<Travis CI|https://travis-ci.org/Perl/perl5> and
366 L<GitHub Actions|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/actions> smokers run
369 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
371 =head3 monitor CPAN testers for failures
373 For any release except a BLEAD-POINT: Examine the relevant analysis report(s)
374 at L<http://analysis.cpantesters.org/beforemaintrelease> to see how the
375 impending release is performing compared to previous releases with
376 regard to building and testing CPAN modules.
378 That page accepts a query parameter, C<pair> that takes a pair of
379 colon-delimited versions to use for comparison. For example:
381 L<http://analysis.cpantesters.org/beforemaintrelease?pair=5.20.2:5.22.0%20RC1>
383 =head3 update perldelta
385 Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.
387 Read F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>, and try to make sure that
388 every section it lists is, if necessary, populated and complete. Copy
389 edit the whole document.
391 You won't be able to automatically fill in the "Updated Modules" section until
392 after Module::CoreList is updated (as described below in
393 L<"update Module::CoreList">).
395 =head3 Bump the version number
397 Do not do this yet for a BLEAD-POINT release! You will do this at the end of
398 the release process (after building the final tarball, tagging etc).
400 Increase the version number (e.g. from 5.12.0 to 5.12.1).
402 For a release candidate for a stable perl, this should happen a week or two
403 before the first release candidate to allow sufficient time for testing and
404 smoking with the target version built into the perl executable. For
405 subsequent release candidates and the final release, it is not necessary to
406 bump the version further.
408 There is a tool to semi-automate this process:
410 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/bump-perl-version -i 5.10.0 5.10.1
412 Remember that this tool is largely just grepping for '5.10.0' or whatever,
413 so it will generate false positives. Be careful not change text like
414 "this was fixed in 5.10.0"!
416 Use git status and git diff to select changes you want to keep.
418 Be particularly careful with F<INSTALL>, which contains a mixture of
419 C<5.10.0>-type strings, some of which need bumping on every release, and
420 some of which need to be left unchanged.
421 See below in L<"update INSTALL"> for more details.
423 For the first RC release leading up to a BLEAD-FINAL release, update the
424 description of which releases are now "officially" supported in
425 F<pod/perlpolicy.pod>.
427 When doing a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release, also make sure the
428 C<PERL_API_*> constants in F<patchlevel.h> are in sync with the version
429 you're releasing, unless you're absolutely sure the release you're about to
430 make is 100% binary compatible to an earlier release. Note: for BLEAD-POINT
431 releases the bump should have already occurred at the end of the previous
432 release and this is something you would have to do at the very end.
433 When releasing a MAINT perl version, the C<PERL_API_*> constants C<MUST NOT>
434 be changed as we aim to guarantee binary compatibility in maint branches.
436 After editing, regenerate uconfig.h (this must be run on a system with a
439 $ perl regen/uconfig_h.pl
441 This might not cause any new changes.
443 You may also need to regen opcodes:
445 $ ./perl -Ilib regen/opcode.pl
449 $ git clean -xdf # careful if you don't have local files to keep!
450 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
454 Do note that at this stage, porting tests will fail. They will continue
455 to fail until you've updated Module::CoreList, as described below.
461 B<review the delta carefully>
463 $ git commit -a -m 'Bump the perl version in various places for 5.x.y'
465 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
466 see if they look similar. See commit f7cf42bb69 for an example of a
467 previous version bump.
469 When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList
470 (as described below in L<"update Module::CoreList">) to reflect the new
473 =head3 update INSTALL
475 Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number.
476 INSTALL for a BLEAD-POINT release should already contain the expected version.
477 The lines in F<INSTALL> about "is not binary compatible with" may require a
478 correct choice of earlier version to declare incompatibility with. These are
479 in the "Changes and Incompatibilities" and "Coexistence with earlier versions
482 Be particularly careful with the section "Upgrading from 5.X.Y or earlier".
483 The "X.Y" needs to be changed to the most recent version that we are
484 I<not> binary compatible with.
486 For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, this needs to refer to the last
487 release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
488 release, this would be 5.13.11).
490 For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
491 release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2). If the last release manager
492 followed instructions, this should have already been done after the last
493 blead release, so you may find nothing to do here.
495 =head3 update AUTHORS
497 The AUTHORS file can be updated by running C<Porting/checkAUTHORS.pl --update>
498 The script detects missing authors or committers since the last release using
499 a known tag provided by the C<--from=v5.X.Y> argument, and will add missing
500 entries to the AUTHORS file.
502 $ perl Porting/checkAUTHORS.pl --update --from=v5.X.Y
504 For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, C<v5.X.Y> needs to refer to the last
505 release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
506 release, this would be 5.13.11).
508 For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
509 release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2).
511 Note: It should not be harmful to use a wider range.
513 Note: If you have uncommitted changes this could cause some warnings,
514 and you might like to use the addtional argument C<--to=upstream/blead>
515 to use the last known git commit by GitHub.
517 Review the changes to the AUTHORS file, be sure you are not adding duplicate
518 entries or removing any entries, then commit your changes.
520 $ git commit -a AUTHORS -m 'Update AUTHORS list for 5.x.y'
522 =head3 Check copyright years
524 Check that the copyright years are up to date by running:
526 $ pushd t; ../perl -I../lib porting/copyright.t --now
528 Remedy any test failures by editing README or perl.c accordingly (search for
529 the "Copyright"). If updating perl.c, check if the file's own copyright date in
530 the C comment at the top needs updating, as well as the one printed by C<-v>.
532 =head3 Check more build configurations
534 Try running the full test suite against multiple Perl configurations. Here are
535 some sets of Configure flags you can try:
541 C<-Duseshrplib -Dusesitecustomize>
545 C<-Duserelocatableinc>
553 If you have multiple compilers on your machine, you might also consider
554 compiling with C<-Dcc=$other_compiler>.
556 You can also consider pushing the repo to GitHub where Travis CI is enabled
557 which would smoke different flavors of Perl for you.
559 =head3 update perlport
561 L<perlport> has a section currently named I<Supported Platforms> that
562 indicates which platforms are known to build in the current release.
563 If necessary update the list and the indicated version number.
565 =head3 check a readonly build
567 Even before other prep work, follow the steps in L</build the tarball> and test
568 it locally. Because a perl source tarballs sets many files read-only, it could
569 test differently than tests run from the repository. After you're sure
570 permissions aren't a problem, delete the generated directory and tarballs.
573 =head2 Building a release - on the day
575 This section describes the actions required to make a release
576 that are performed near to, or on the actual release day.
578 =head3 re-check earlier actions
580 Review all the actions in the previous section,
581 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
584 =head3 create a release branch
586 For BLEAD-POINT releases, making a release from a release branch avoids the
587 need to freeze blead during the release. This is less important for
588 BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, and RC releases, since blead will already be frozen in
589 those cases. Create the branch by running
591 git checkout -b release-5.xx.yy
593 =head3 build a clean perl
595 Make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
596 unpushed commits etc):
601 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
603 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
605 =head3 Check module versions
607 For each Perl release since the previous release of the current branch, check
608 for modules that have identical version numbers but different contents by
611 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/cmpVERSION.pl --tag=v5.X.YY
613 (This is done automatically by F<t/porting/cmp_version.t> for the previous
614 release of the current branch, but not for any releases from other branches.)
616 Any modules that fail will need a version bump, plus a nudge to the upstream
617 maintainer for 'cpan' upstream modules.
619 =head3 update Module::CoreList
621 =head4 Bump Module::CoreList* $VERSIONs
623 If necessary, bump C<$VERSION> (there's no need to do this
624 for every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
625 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
626 It may also happen that C<Module::CoreList> has been modified in blead, and
627 hence has a new version number already. (But make sure it is not the same
628 number as a CPAN release.)
630 C<$Module::CoreList::Utils::VERSION> should always be equal to
631 C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>. If necessary, bump those two versions to match
634 Once again, the files to modify are:
640 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>
644 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>
648 =head4 Update C<Module::CoreList> with module version data for the new release.
650 Note that if this is a MAINT release, you should run the following actions
651 from the maint branch, but commit the C<CoreList.pm> changes in
652 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
653 maint release and then your recent commit. XXX need a better example
655 [ Note that the procedure for handling Module::CoreList in maint branches
656 is a bit complex, and the RMG currently don't describe a full and
657 workable approach. The main issue is keeping Module::CoreList
658 and its version number synchronised across all maint branches, blead and
659 CPAN, while having to bump its version number for every RC release.
660 See this brief p5p thread:
662 Message-ID: <20130311174402.GZ2294@iabyn.com>
664 If you can devise a workable system, feel free to try it out, and to
665 update the RMG accordingly!
669 F<corelist.pl> uses www.cpan.org to verify information about dual-lived
670 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror and/or fall back
671 on HTTP::Tiny to fetch package metadata remotely.
673 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
674 L<https://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN>)
676 Change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
680 Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
682 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
686 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
688 This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
689 badly-indexed CPAN modules unrelated to the modules actually in core.
690 Assuming all goes well, it will update
691 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> and possibly
692 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>.
694 Check those files over carefully:
696 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm
697 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm
699 =head4 Bump version in Module::CoreList F<Changes>
701 Also edit Module::CoreList's new version number in its F<Changes> file.
702 This file is F<dist/Module-CoreList/Changes>.
703 (BLEAD-POINT releases should have had this done already as a post-release
704 action from the last commit.)
706 =head4 Add Module::CoreList version bump to perldelta
708 Add a perldelta entry for the new Module::CoreList version. You only
709 need to do this if you want to add notes about the changes included
710 with this version of Module::CoreList. Otherwise, its version bump
711 will be automatically filled in below in L</finalize perldelta>.
713 =for checklist skip RC
715 =head4 Update C<%Module::CoreList::released>
717 For any release except an RC: Update this version's entry in the C<%released>
718 hash with today's date.
720 =head4 Commit Module::CoreList changes
722 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
723 (unless this is for MAINT; in which case commit it to blead first, then
724 cherry-pick it back).
726 $ git commit -m 'Update Module::CoreList for 5.x.y' \
727 dist/Module-CoreList/Changes \
728 dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm \
729 dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm
731 =head4 Rebuild and test
733 Build and test to get the changes into the currently built lib directory and to
734 ensure all tests are passing.
736 =head3 finalize perldelta
738 Finalize the perldelta. In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
739 section, which can be generated with something like:
741 $ perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD
743 Fill in the "New/Updated Modules" sections now that Module::CoreList is
746 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl \
747 --mode=update pod/perldelta.pod
749 For a MAINT release use something like this instead:
751 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl 5.020001 5.020002 \
752 --mode=update pod/perldelta.pod
754 Ideally, also fill in a summary of the major changes to each module for which
755 an entry has been added by F<corelist-perldelta.pl>.
757 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
758 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
759 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
760 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
762 $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perldelta.pod
763 $ spell pod/perldelta.pod
764 $ aspell list < pod/perldelta.pod | sort -u
766 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
769 $ ./perl -Ilib ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html pod/perldelta.pod > \
772 You should add pod links for GitHub issue references thusly:
774 $ perl -p -i -e'BEGIN{undef $/}; s{(GH\s+#)(\d+)}{L<$1$2|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/$2>}mg' pod/perldelta.pod
776 If you make changes, be sure to commit them.
778 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
780 =head3 remove stale perldeltas
782 For the first RC release that is ONLY for a BLEAD-FINAL, the perldeltas
783 from the BLEAD-POINT releases since the previous BLEAD-FINAL should have
784 now been consolidated into the current perldelta, and hence are now just
785 useless clutter. They can be removed using:
787 $ git rm <file1> <file2> ...
789 For example, for RC0 of 5.16.0:
792 $ git rm perldelta515*.pod
794 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL BLEAD-POINT
796 =head3 add recent perldeltas
798 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in any recent perldeltas from
799 blead that have been added since the last release on this branch. This
800 should include any recent maint releases on branches older than your one,
801 but not newer. For example if you're producing a 5.14.x release, copy any
802 perldeltas from recent 5.10.x, 5.12.x etc maint releases, but not from
803 5.16.x or higher. Remember to
805 $ git add <file1> <file2> ...
807 =head3 update and commit perldelta files
809 If you have added or removed any perldelta files via the previous two
810 steps, then edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add/remove them from its table of
811 contents, then run F<Porting/pod_rules.pl> to propagate your changes there
812 into all the other files that mention them (including F<MANIFEST>). You'll
813 need to C<git add> the files that it changes.
815 Then build a clean perl and do a full test
819 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des
823 Once all tests pass, commit your changes.
825 =head3 final check of perldelta placeholders
827 Check for any 'XXX' leftover section in the perldelta.
828 Either fill them or remove these sections appropriately.
830 $ git grep XX pod/perldelta.pod
832 =head3 build a clean perl
834 If you skipped the previous step (adding/removing perldeltas),
835 again, make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
836 unpushed commits etc):
841 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
843 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
845 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL BLEAD-POINT
847 =head3 synchronise from blead's perlhist.pod
849 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in the latest
850 F<pod/perlhist.pod> from blead; this will include details of newer
851 releases in all branches. In theory, blead's version should be a strict
852 superset of the one in this branch, but it's probably safest to examine the
853 changes first, to ensure that there's nothing in this branch that was
854 forgotten from blead. An easy way to do that is with C<< git checkout -p >>,
855 to selectively apply any changes from the blead version to your current
859 $ git checkout -p origin/blead pod/perlhist.pod
860 $ git commit -m 'sync perlhist from blead' pod/perlhist.pod
862 =head3 update perlhist.pod
864 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:
866 David 5.10.1 2009-Aug-06
868 List yourself in the left-hand column, and if this is the first release
869 that you've ever done, make sure that your name is listed in the section
870 entitled C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
872 I<If you're making a BLEAD-FINAL release>, also update the "SELECTED
873 RELEASE SIZES" section with the output of
874 F<Porting/perlhist_calculate.pl>.
876 Be sure to commit your changes:
878 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
880 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
882 =head3 update patchlevel.h
884 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>
886 Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
887 a final release, remove it. For example:
889 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
892 #ifdef PERL_GIT_UNCOMMITTED_CHANGES
893 ,"uncommitted-changes"
896 Be sure to commit your change:
898 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
900 =head3 run makemeta to update META files
902 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/makemeta
904 Be sure to commit any changes (if applicable):
906 $ git status # any changes?
907 $ git commit -m 'Update META files' META.*
909 =head3 build, test and check a fresh perl
911 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
914 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
916 # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
917 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
921 Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
922 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
923 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
924 paths. Note that as they have been built from a git working
925 directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
926 commits. (Note that for an odd-numbered version, perl will install
927 itself as C<perl5.x.y>). C<perl -v> will identify itself as:
929 This is perl 5, version X, subversion Y (v5.X.Y (v5.X.Z-NNN-gdeadbeef))
931 where 5.X.Z is the latest tag, NNN the number of commits since this tag,
932 and C<< deadbeef >> commit of that tag.
934 Then delete the temporary installation.
936 =head3 create the release tag
938 Create the tag identifying this release (e.g.):
940 $ git tag v5.11.0 -m 'First release of the v5.11 series!'
942 It is B<VERY> important that from this point forward, you not push
943 your git changes to the Perl master repository. If anything goes
944 wrong before you publish your newly-created tag, you can delete
945 and recreate it. Once you push your tag, we're stuck with it
946 and you'll need to use a new version number for your release.
948 =head3 build the tarball
950 Before you run the following, you might want to install 7-Zip (the
951 C<p7zip-full> package under Debian or the C<p7zip> port on MacPorts) or
952 the AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> package under Debian,
953 or the C<advancecomp> port on macports - 7-Zip on Windows is the
954 same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the smallest files
955 first time). These compress about 5% smaller than gzip and bzip2.
956 Over the lifetime of your distribution this will save a lot of
957 people a small amount of download time and disk space, which adds
960 In order to produce the C<xz> tarball, XZ Utils are required. The C<xz>
961 utility is included with most modern UNIX-type operating systems and
962 is available for Cygwin. A Windows port is available from
963 L<https://tukaani.org/xz/>.
965 B<IMPORTANT>: if you are on OS X, you must export C<COPYFILE_DISABLE=1>
966 to prevent OS X resource files from being included in your tarball. After
967 creating the tarball following the instructions below, inspect it to ensure
968 you don't have files like F<._foobar>.
970 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
971 the tarball and directory name:
973 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
974 $ make distclean # make sure distclean works
975 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
976 # git clean should not output anything!
977 $ git status --ignored # and there's nothing lying around
979 $ perl Porting/makerel -x -s RC1 # for a release candidate
980 $ perl Porting/makerel -x # for the release itself
982 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
983 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them, then
984 tars it up as F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. The C<-x> also produces a
987 If you're getting your tarball suffixed with -uncommitted and you're sure
988 your changes were all committed, you can override the suffix with:
990 $ perl Porting/makerel -x -s ''
992 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
995 Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.
997 $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1
999 =head3 test the tarball
1001 Once you have a tarball it's time to test the tarball (not the repository).
1003 =head4 Copy the tarball to a web server
1005 Copy the tarballs (.gz and .xz) to a web server somewhere you have access to.
1007 =head4 Download the tarball to another machine and unpack it
1009 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
1010 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
1013 =head4 Ask #p5p to test the tarball on different platforms
1015 Once you've verified the tarball can be downloaded and unpacked,
1016 ask the #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org for volunteers to test the
1017 tarballs on whatever platforms they can.
1019 If you're not confident in the tarball, you can defer this step until after
1020 your own tarball testing, below.
1022 =head4 Check that F<Configure> works
1024 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
1026 $ ./Configure -des && make all minitest test
1028 # Or for a development release:
1029 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make all minitest test
1031 =head4 Run the test harness and install
1033 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
1036 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && \
1037 make all test_harness install
1040 (Remember C<-Dusedevel> above, for a development release.)
1042 =head4 Check C<perl -v> and C<perl -V>
1044 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
1045 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
1048 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
1049 which is why you should test from the tarball.
1051 =head4 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility
1053 $ ./perl -Ilib ./utils/perlivp
1055 $ ./perl5.x.y ./utils/perlivp5.x.y
1057 All tests successful.
1060 =head4 Compare the installed paths to the last release
1062 Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
1063 release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
1064 have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
1065 for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
1066 For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
1069 cd installdir-5.10.0/
1070 find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
1071 cd installdir-5.10.1/
1072 find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
1075 =head4 Disable C<local::lib> if it's turned on
1077 If you're using C<local::lib>, you should reset your environment before
1078 performing these actions:
1080 $ unset PERL5LIB PERL_MB_OPT PERL_LOCAL_LIB_ROOT PERL_MM_OPT
1082 =head4 Bootstrap the CPAN client
1084 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
1091 =head4 Install the Inline module with CPAN and test it
1093 Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
1094 has dependencies; for example:
1096 CPAN> install Inline::C
1099 Check that your perl can run this:
1101 $ bin/perl -Ilib -lwe "use Inline C => q[int f() { return 42;}]; print f"
1105 =head4 Make sure that perlbug works
1107 Test L<perlbug> with the following:
1111 Subject: test bug report
1112 Local perl administrator [yourself]:
1118 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
1119 Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]:
1120 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): Q
1122 and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
1123 the "Locally applied patches" section.
1125 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1127 =head3 monitor smokes
1129 XXX This is probably irrelevant if working on a release branch, though
1130 MAINT or RC might want to push a smoke branch and wait.
1132 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
1133 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
1135 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
1136 back and fix things.
1138 Note that for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases this may not be practical. It takes a
1139 long time for the smokers to catch up, especially the Win32
1140 smokers. This is why we have a RC cycle for I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
1141 releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases sometimes the best you can do is
1142 to plead with people on IRC to test stuff on their platforms, fire away,
1143 and then hope for the best.
1145 =head3 upload to PAUSE
1147 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
1148 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
1149 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
1151 https://pause.perl.org/
1153 (Log in, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')
1155 If your workstation is not connected to a high-bandwidth,
1156 high-reliability connection to the Internet, you should probably use the
1157 "GET URL" feature (rather than "HTTP UPLOAD") to have PAUSE retrieve the
1158 new release from wherever you put it for testers to find it. This will
1159 eliminate anxious gnashing of teeth while you wait to see if your
1160 15 megabyte HTTP upload successfully completes across your slow, twitchy
1163 I<Remember>: if your upload is partially successful, you
1164 may need to contact a PAUSE administrator or even bump the version of perl.
1166 Upload the .gz and .xz versions of the tarball.
1168 Note: You can also use the command-line utility to upload your tarballs, if
1169 you have it configured:
1171 cpan-upload perl-5.X.Y.tar.gz
1172 cpan-upload perl-5.X.Y.tar.xz
1174 Do not proceed any further until you are sure that your tarballs are on CPAN.
1175 Check your authors directory metacpan.org to confirm that your uploads have
1178 https://metacpan.org/author/YOUR_PAUSE_ID
1180 =for checklist skip RC BLEAD-POINT
1182 =head3 wait for indexing
1184 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and BLEAD-POINT>
1186 Wait until you receive notification emails from the PAUSE indexer
1187 confirming that your uploads have been received. IMPORTANT -- you will
1188 probably get an email that indexing has failed, due to module permissions.
1189 This is considered normal.
1191 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1193 =head3 disarm patchlevel.h
1195 I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>
1197 Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,
1199 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
1202 #ifdef PERL_GIT_UNCOMMITTED_CHANGES
1203 ,"uncommitted-changes"
1206 Be sure to commit your change:
1208 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
1210 =head3 announce to p5p
1212 Mail perl5-porters@perl.org to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
1213 Get the SHA1 digests from the PAUSE email responses.
1215 Use the template at Porting/release_announcement_template.txt
1217 Send a carbon copy to C<noc@metacpan.org>
1219 =head3 merge release branch back to blead
1221 Merge the (local) release branch back into master now, and delete it.
1225 git merge release-5.xx.yy
1227 git branch -d release-5.xx.yy
1229 Note: The merge will create a merge commit if other changes have been pushed
1230 to blead while you've been working on your release branch. Do NOT rebase your
1231 branch to avoid the merge commit (as you might normally do when merging a
1232 small branch into blead) since doing so will invalidate the tag that you
1235 =head3 publish the release tag
1237 Now that you've shipped the new perl release to PAUSE and pushed your changes
1238 to the Perl master repository, it's time to publish the tag you created
1241 $ git push origin tag v5.11.0
1243 =head3 update epigraphs.pod
1245 Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
1246 You can include the customary link to the release announcement even before your
1247 message reaches the web-visible archives by looking for the X-List-Archive
1248 header in your message after receiving it back via perl5-porters.
1250 =head3 blog about your epigraph
1252 If you have a blog, please consider writing an entry in your blog explaining
1253 why you chose that particular quote for your epigraph.
1255 =head3 update the link to the latest perl on perlweb
1257 Submit a pull request to L<https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb> to update the
1258 link in F<docs/dev/perl5/index.html> to point to your release.
1260 =for checklist skip RC
1262 =head3 Release schedule
1264 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1266 Tick the entry for your release in F<Porting/release_schedule.pod>.
1268 =for checklist skip RC
1270 =head3 Module::CoreList nagging
1272 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1274 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
1277 =for checklist skip RC
1279 =head3 new perldelta
1281 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1283 Create a new perldelta.
1289 Confirm that you have a clean checkout with no local changes.
1294 perl Porting/new-perldelta.pl
1298 Run the C<git add> commands it outputs to add new and modified files.
1302 Verify that the build still works, by running C<./Configure> and
1303 C<make test_porting>. (On Win32 use the appropriate make utility).
1307 If F<t/porting/podcheck.t> spots errors in the new F<pod/perldelta.pod>,
1308 run C<./perl -MTestInit t/porting/podcheck.t | less> for more detail.
1309 Skip to the end of its test output to see the options it offers you.
1313 When C<make test_porting> passes, commit the new perldelta.
1315 git commit -m'new perldelta for 5.X.Y'
1319 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
1320 see if they look similar. See commit ba03bc34a4 for an example of a
1321 previous version bump.
1323 =for checklist skip MAINT RC
1327 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and MAINT>
1329 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1330 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
1331 in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
1333 First, add a new feature bundle to F<regen/feature.pl>, initially by just
1334 copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION (after the __END__
1337 "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1338 + "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1340 Run F<regen/feature.pl> to propagate the changes to F<lib/feature.pm>.
1342 Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
1343 in the remaining files and test and commit.
1345 If this was a BLEAD-POINT release, then just follow the section
1346 L<"Bump the version number">.
1348 After bumping the version, follow the section L<"update INSTALL"> to
1349 ensure all version number references are correct.
1351 (Note: The version is NOT bumped immediately after a MAINT release in order
1352 to avoid confusion and wasted time arising from bug reports relating to
1353 "intermediate versions" such as 5.20.1-and-a-bit: If the report is caused
1354 by a bug that gets fixed in 5.20.2 and this intermediate version already
1355 calls itself 5.20.2 then much time can be wasted in figuring out why there
1356 is a failure from something that "should have been fixed". If the bump is
1357 late then there is a much smaller window of time for such confusing bug
1358 reports to arise. (The opposite problem -- trying to figure out why there
1359 *is* a bug in something calling itself 5.20.1 when in fact the bug was
1360 introduced later -- shouldn't arise for MAINT releases since they should,
1361 in theory, only contain bug fixes but never regressions.))
1363 =head3 clean build and test
1365 Run a clean build and test to make sure nothing obvious is broken. This is
1366 very important, as commands run after this point must be run using the perl
1367 executable built with the bumped version number.
1370 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
1374 In particular, F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> is intentionally exempted
1375 from podchecker tests, to avoid false positives about placeholder text.
1376 However, once it's copied to F<pod/perldelta.pod> the contents can now
1377 cause test failures. Problems should be resolved by doing one of the
1384 Replace placeholder text with correct text.
1388 If the problem is from a broken placeholder link, you can add it to the
1389 array C<@perldelta_ignore_links> in F<t/porting/podcheck.t>. Lines
1390 containing such links should be marked with C<XXX> so that they get
1391 cleaned up before the next release.
1395 Following the instructions output by F<t/porting/podcheck.t> on how to
1396 update its exceptions database.
1402 Finally, push any commits done above.
1404 $ git push origin ....
1406 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1408 =head3 create maint branch
1410 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
1412 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1413 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then create a new maint branch based on
1414 the commit tagged as the current release.
1416 Assuming you're using git 1.7.x or newer:
1418 $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
1419 $ git push origin -u maint-5.12
1422 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1424 =head3 make the maint branch available in the APC
1426 Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
1427 receive its changes.
1429 $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
1430 ? /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1431 $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1433 And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.
1435 XXX Who are the sysadmins? Contact info?
1437 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT RC
1439 =head3 copy perldelta.pod to blead
1441 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>
1443 Copy the perldelta.pod for this release into blead; for example:
1446 $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod #for example
1447 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
1449 Don't forget to set the NAME correctly in the new file (e.g. perl5101delta
1450 rather than perldelta).
1452 Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:
1454 perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
1456 Then rebuild various files:
1458 $ perl Porting/pod_rules.pl
1460 Finally, commit and push:
1462 $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'
1463 $ git push origin ....
1465 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1467 =head3 copy perlhist.pod entries to blead
1469 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
1470 F<perlhist.pod> on blead. e.g.
1476 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some
1477 much-needed rest and relaxation>.
1479 Thanks for releasing perl!
1481 =head2 Building a release - the day after
1483 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL MAINT RC
1485 =head3 update Module::CoreList
1487 I<After a BLEAD-POINT release only>
1489 After Module::CoreList has shipped to CPAN by the maintainer, update
1490 Module::CoreList in the source so that it reflects the new blead
1497 Update F<Porting/Maintainers.pl> to list the new DISTRIBUTION on CPAN,
1498 which should be identical to what is currently in blead.
1502 Bump the $VERSION in F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>
1503 and F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>.
1507 If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
1509 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
1513 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
1515 This will update F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> and
1516 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm> as it did before,
1517 but this time adding new sections for the next BLEAD-POINT release.
1521 Add the new $Module::CoreList::VERSION to
1522 F<dist/Module-CoreList/Changes>.
1526 Remake perl to get your changed .pm files propagated into F<lib/> and
1527 then run at least the F<dist/Module-CoreList/t/*.t> tests and the
1528 test_porting makefile target to check that they're ok.
1534 $ ./perl -Ilib -MModule::CoreList \
1535 -le 'print Module::CoreList->find_version($]) ? "ok" : "not ok"'
1537 and check that it outputs "ok" to prove that Module::CoreList now knows
1538 about blead's current version.
1542 Commit and push your changes.
1546 =head3 check tarball availability
1548 Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
1549 and is properly indexed:
1555 Check your author directory under L<https://www.cpan.org/authors/id/>
1556 to ensure that the tarballs are available on the website.
1560 Check F</src> on CPAN (on a fast mirror) to ensure that links to
1561 the new tarballs have appeared: There should be links in F</src/5.0>
1562 (which is accumulating all new versions), and (for BLEAD-FINAL and
1563 MAINT only) an appropriate mention in F</src/README.html> (which describes
1564 the latest versions in each stable branch, with links).
1566 The F</src/5.0> links should appear automatically, some hours after upload.
1567 If they don't, or the F</src> description is inadequate,
1568 ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1572 Check L<https://www.cpan.org/src/> to ensure that the F</src> updates
1573 have been correctly mirrored to the website.
1574 If they haven't, ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1578 Check L<https://metacpan.org> to see if it has indexed the distribution.
1579 It should be visible at a URL like C<https://metacpan.org/release/DAPM/perl-5.10.1>.
1583 =head3 update release manager's guide
1585 Go over your notes from the release (you did take some, right?) and update
1586 F<Porting/release_managers_guide.pod> with any fixes or information that
1587 will make life easier for the next release manager.
1594 L<http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html>,
1595 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.