5 release_managers_guide - Releasing a new version of perl 5.x
7 Note that things change at each release, so there may be new things not
8 covered here, or tools may need updating.
10 =head1 MAKING A CHECKLIST
12 If you are preparing to do a release, you can run the
13 F<Porting/make-rmg-checklist> script to generate a new version of this
14 document that starts with a checklist for your release.
16 This script is run as:
18 perl Porting/make-rmg-checklist \
19 --type [BLEAD-POINT or MAINT or ...] > /tmp/rmg.pod
21 You can also pass the C<--html> flag to generate an HTML document instead of
24 perl Porting/make-rmg-checklist --html \
25 --type [BLEAD-POINT or MAINT or ...] > /tmp/rmg.html
29 This document describes the series of tasks required - some automatic, some
30 manual - to produce a perl release of some description, be that a release
31 candidate, or final, numbered release of maint or blead.
33 The release process has traditionally been executed by the current
34 pumpking. Blead releases from 5.11.0 forward are made each month on the
35 20th by a non-pumpking release engineer. The release engineer roster
36 and schedule can be found in Porting/release_schedule.pod.
38 This document both helps as a check-list for the release engineer
39 and is a base for ideas on how the various tasks could be automated
42 The checklist of a typical release cycle is as follows:
44 (5.10.1 is released, and post-release actions have been done)
48 a few weeks before the release, a number of steps are performed,
49 including bumping the version to 5.10.2
51 ...a few weeks 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 report 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 git clone of https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb
178 For updating the L<http://dev.perl.org> web pages, either a Github account or
179 sweet-talking somebody with a Github account into obedience is needed. This
180 is only needed on the day of the release or shortly afterwards.
182 =head3 Quotation for release announcement epigraph
184 You will need a quotation to use as an epigraph to your release announcement.
186 =head3 Install the previous version of perl
188 During the testing phase of the release you have created, you will be
189 asked to compare the installed files with a previous install. Save yourself
190 some time on release day, and have a (clean) install of the previous
193 =head2 Building a release - advance actions
195 The work of building a release candidate for an even numbered release
196 (BLEAD-FINAL) of perl generally starts several weeks before the first
197 release candidate. Some of the following steps should be done regularly,
198 but all I<must> be done in the run up to a release.
200 =head3 dual-life CPAN module synchronisation
202 To see which core distro versions differ from the current CPAN versions:
204 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -x -a
206 However, this only checks whether the version recorded in
207 F<Porting/Maintainers.pl> differs from the latest on CPAN. It doesn't tell you
208 if the code itself has diverged from CPAN.
210 You can also run an actual diff of the contents of the modules, comparing core
211 to CPAN, to ensure that there were no erroneous/extraneous changes that need to
212 be dealt with. You do this by not passing the C<-x> option:
214 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -a -o /tmp/corediffs
216 Passing C<-u cpan> will probably be helpful, since it limits the search to
217 distributions with 'cpan' upstream source. (It's OK for blead upstream to
218 differ from CPAN because those dual-life releases usually come I<after> perl
221 See also the C<-d> and C<-v> options for more detail (and the C<-u> option as
222 mentioned above). You'll probably want to use the C<-c cachedir> option to
223 avoid repeated CPAN downloads and may want to use C<-m file:///mirror/path> if
224 you made a local CPAN mirror. Note that a minicpan mirror won't actually work,
225 but can provide a good first pass to quickly get a list of modules which
226 definitely haven't changed, to avoid having to download absolutely everything.
228 For a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release with 'cpan' upstream, if a CPAN
229 release appears to be ahead of blead, then consider updating it (or asking the
230 relevant porter to do so). (However, if this is a BLEAD-FINAL release or one of
231 the last BLEAD-POINT releases before it and hence blead is in some kind of
232 "code freeze" state (e.g. the sequence might be "contentious changes freeze",
233 then "user-visible changes freeze" and finally "full code freeze") then any
234 CPAN module updates must be subject to the same restrictions, so it may not be
235 possible to update all modules until after the BLEAD-FINAL release.) If blead
236 contains edits to a 'cpan' upstream module, this is naughty but sometimes
237 unavoidable to keep blead tests passing. Make sure the affected file has a
238 CUSTOMIZED entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.
240 If you are making a MAINT release, run C<core-cpan-diff> on both blead and
241 maint, then diff the two outputs. Compare this with what you expect, and if
242 necessary, fix things up. For example, you might think that both blead
243 and maint are synchronised with a particular CPAN module, but one might
244 have some extra changes.
246 =head3 How to sync a CPAN module with a cpanE<sol> distro
252 Fetch the most recent version from CPAN.
256 Unpack the retrieved tarball. Rename the old directory; rename the new
257 directory to the original name.
261 Restore any F<.gitignore> file. This can be done by issuing
262 C<git checkout .gitignore> in the F<cpan/Distro> directory.
266 Remove files we do not need. That is, remove any files that match the
267 entries in C<@IGNORABLE> in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>, and anything that
268 matches the C<EXCLUDED> section of the distro's entry in the C<%Modules>
273 Restore any files mentioned in the C<CUSTOMIZED> section, using
274 C<git checkout>. Make any new customizations if necessary. Also,
275 restore any files that are mentioned in C<@IGNORE>, but were checked
276 into the repository anyway.
280 For any new files in the distro, determine whether they are needed.
281 If not, delete them, and list them in either C<EXCLUDED> or C<@IGNORABLE>.
282 Otherwise, add them to C<MANIFEST>, and run C<git add> to add the files
287 For any files that are gone, remove them from C<MANIFEST>, and use
288 C<git rm> to tell git the files will be gone.
292 If the C<MANIFEST> file was changed in any of the previous steps, run
293 C<perl Porting/manisort --output MANIFEST.sort; mv MANIFEST.sort MANIFEST>.
297 For any files that have an execute bit set, either remove the execute
298 bit, or edit F<Porting/exec-bit.txt>
302 Run C<make> (or C<nmake> on Windows), see if C<perl> compiles.
306 Run the tests for the package.
310 Run the tests in F<t/porting> (C<make test_porting>).
314 Update the C<DISTRIBUTION> entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.
318 Run a full configure/build/test cycle.
322 If everything is ok, commit the changes.
326 For entries with a non-simple C<FILES> section, or with a C<MAP>, you
327 may have to take more steps than listed above.
329 F<Porting/sync-with-cpan> is a script that automates most of the steps
330 above; but see the comments at the beginning of the file. In particular,
331 it has not yet been exercised on Windows, but will certainly require a set
332 of Unix tools such as Cygwin, and steps that run C<make> will need to run
335 =head3 dual-life CPAN module stability
337 Ensure dual-life CPAN modules are stable, which comes down to:
339 for each module that fails its regression tests on $current
340 did it fail identically on $previous?
341 if yes, "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem)
342 else work out why it failed (a bisect is useful for this)
344 attempt to group failure causes
346 for each failure cause
347 is that a regression?
348 if yes, figure out how to fix it
349 (more code? revert the code that broke it)
351 (presumably) it's relying on something un-or-under-documented
352 should the existing behaviour stay?
353 yes - goto "regression"
354 no - note it in perldelta as a significant bugfix
355 (also, try to inform the module's author)
357 =head3 monitor smoke tests for failures
359 Similarly, monitor the smoking of core tests, and try to fix. See
360 L<http://smoke.procura.nl/index.html>, L<http://perl5.test-smoke.org/>
361 and L<http://perl.develop-help.com> for a summary. See also
362 L<http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.daily-build.reports/> which has
365 Similarly, monitor the smoking of perl for compiler warnings, and try to
368 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
370 =head3 monitor CPAN testers for failures
372 For any release except a BLEAD-POINT: Examine the relevant analysis report(s)
373 at http://analysis.cpantesters.org/beforemaintrelease to see how the impending
374 release is performing compared to previous releases with regard to building
375 and testing CPAN modules.
377 That page accepts a query parameter, C<pair> that takes a pair of
378 colon-delimited versions to use for comparison. For example:
380 http://analysis.cpantesters.org/beforemaintrelease?pair=5.20.2:5.22.0%20RC1
382 =head3 update perldelta
384 Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.
386 Read F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>, and try to make sure that
387 every section it lists is, if necessary, populated and complete. Copy
388 edit the whole document.
390 You won't be able to automatically fill in the "Updated Modules" section until
391 after Module::CoreList is updated (as described below in
392 L<"update Module::CoreList">).
394 =head3 Bump the version number
396 Do not do this yet for a BLEAD-POINT release! You will do this at the end of
399 Increase the version number (e.g. from 5.12.0 to 5.12.1).
401 For a release candidate for a stable perl, this should happen a week or two
402 before the first release candidate to allow sufficient time for testing and
403 smoking with the target version built into the perl executable. For
404 subsequent release candidates and the final release, it is not necessary to
405 bump the version further.
407 There is a tool to semi-automate this process:
409 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/bump-perl-version -i 5.10.0 5.10.1
411 Remember that this tool is largely just grepping for '5.10.0' or whatever,
412 so it will generate false positives. Be careful not change text like
413 "this was fixed in 5.10.0"!
415 Use git status and git diff to select changes you want to keep.
417 Be particularly careful with F<INSTALL>, which contains a mixture of
418 C<5.10.0>-type strings, some of which need bumping on every release, and
419 some of which need to be left unchanged.
420 See below in L<"update INSTALL"> for more details.
422 For the first RC release leading up to a BLEAD-FINAL release, update the
423 description of which releases are now "officially" supported in
424 F<pod/perlpolicy.pod>.
426 When doing a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release, also make sure the
427 C<PERL_API_*> constants in F<patchlevel.h> are in sync with the version
428 you're releasing, unless you're absolutely sure the release you're about to
429 make is 100% binary compatible to an earlier release. When releasing a MAINT
430 perl version, the C<PERL_API_*> constants C<MUST NOT> be changed as we aim
431 to guarantee binary compatibility in maint branches.
433 After editing, regenerate uconfig.h (this must be run on a system with a
436 $ perl regen/uconfig_h.pl
438 This might not cause any new changes.
440 You may also need to regen opcodes:
442 $ ./perl -Ilib regen/opcode.pl
446 $ git clean -xdf # careful if you don't have local files to keep!
447 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
451 Do note that at this stage, porting tests will fail. They will continue
452 to fail until you've updated Module::CoreList, as described below.
458 B<review the delta carefully>
460 $ git commit -a -m 'Bump the perl version in various places for 5.x.y'
462 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
463 see if they look similar. See commit f7cf42bb69 for an example of a
464 previous version bump.
466 When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList
467 (as described below in L<"update Module::CoreList">) to reflect the new
470 =head3 update INSTALL
472 Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number.
473 The lines in F<INSTALL> about "is not binary compatible with" may require a
474 correct choice of earlier version to declare incompatibility with. These are
475 in the "Changes and Incompatibilities" and "Coexistence with earlier versions
478 Be particularly careful with the section "Upgrading from 5.X.Y or earlier".
479 The "X.Y" needs to be changed to the most recent version that we are
480 I<not> binary compatible with.
482 For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, this needs to refer to the last
483 release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
484 release, this would be 5.13.11).
486 For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
487 release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2). If the last release manager
488 followed instructions, this should have already been done after the last
489 blead release, so you may find nothing to do here.
491 =head3 Check copyright years
493 Check that the copyright years are up to date by running:
495 $ ./perl t/porting/copyright.t --now
497 Remedy any test failures by editing README or perl.c accordingly (search for
498 the "Copyright"). If updating perl.c, check if the file's own copyright date in
499 the C comment at the top needs updating, as well as the one printed by C<-v>.
501 =head3 Check more build configurations
503 Try running the full test suite against multiple Perl configurations. Here are
504 some sets of Configure flags you can try:
510 C<-Duseshrplib -Dusesitecustomize>
514 C<-Duserelocatableinc>
522 If you have multiple compilers on your machine, you might also consider
523 compiling with C<-Dcc=$other_compiler>.
525 =head3 update perlport
527 L<perlport> has a section currently named I<Supported Platforms> that
528 indicates which platforms are known to build in the current release.
529 If necessary update the list and the indicated version number.
531 =head3 check a readonly build
533 Even before other prep work, follow the steps in L<build the tarball> and test
534 it locally. Because a perl source tarballs sets many files read-only, it could
535 test differently than tests run from the repository. After you're sure
536 permissions aren't a problem, delete the generated directory and tarballs.
538 =head2 Building a release - on the day
540 This section describes the actions required to make a release
541 that are performed near to, or on the actual release day.
543 =head3 re-check earlier actions
545 Review all the actions in the previous section,
546 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
549 =head3 create a release branch
551 For BLEAD-POINT releases, making a release from a release branch avoids the
552 need to freeze blead during the release. This is less important for
553 BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, and RC releases, since blead will already be frozen in
554 those cases. Create the branch by running
556 git checkout -b release-5.xx.yy
558 =head3 build a clean perl
560 Make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
561 unpushed commits etc):
566 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
568 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
570 =head3 Check module versions
572 For each Perl release since the previous release of the current branch, check
573 for modules that have identical version numbers but different contents by
576 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/cmpVERSION.pl --tag=v5.X.YY
578 (This is done automatically by F<t/porting/cmp_version.t> for the previous
579 release of the current branch, but not for any releases from other branches.)
581 Any modules that fail will need a version bump, plus a nudge to the upstream
582 maintainer for 'cpan' upstream modules.
584 =head3 update Module::CoreList
586 =head4 Bump Module::CoreList* $VERSIONs
588 If necessary, bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION> (there's no need to do this
589 for every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
590 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
591 It may also happen that C<Module::CoreList> has been modified in blead, and
592 hence has a new version number already. (But make sure it is not the same
593 number as a CPAN release.)
595 C<$Module::CoreList::TieHashDelta::VERSION> and
596 C<$Module::CoreList::Utils::VERSION> should always be equal to
597 C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>. If necessary, bump those two versions to match
600 The files to modify are: F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>,
601 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm> and
602 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/TieHashDelta.pm>.
604 =head4 Update C<Module::CoreList> with module version data for the new release.
606 Note that if this is a MAINT release, you should run the following actions
607 from the maint branch, but commit the C<CoreList.pm> changes in
608 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
609 maint release and then your recent commit. XXX need a better example
611 [ Note that the procedure for handling Module::CoreList in maint branches
612 is a bit complex, and the RMG currently don't describe a full and
613 workable approach. The main issue is keeping Module::CoreList
614 and its version number synchronised across all maint branches, blead and
615 CPAN, while having to bump its version number for every RC release.
616 See this brief p5p thread:
618 Message-ID: <20130311174402.GZ2294@iabyn.com>
620 If you can devise a workable system, feel free to try it out, and to
621 update the RMG accordingly!
625 F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
626 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror and/or fall back
627 on HTTP::Tiny to fetch package metadata remotely.
629 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
630 http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN)
632 Then change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
636 Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
638 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
642 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
644 This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
645 badly-indexed CPAN modules unrelated to the modules actually in core.
646 Assuming all goes well, it will update
647 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> and possibly
648 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>.
650 Check those files over carefully:
652 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm
653 $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm
655 =head4 Bump version in Module::CoreList F<Changes>
657 Also edit Module::CoreList's new version number in its F<Changes> file.
658 This file is F<dist/Module-CoreList/Changes>.
660 =head4 Add Module::CoreList version bump to perldelta
662 Add a perldelta entry for the new Module::CoreList version. You only
663 need to do this if you want to add notes about the changes included
664 with this version of Module::CoreList. Otherwise, its version bump
665 will be automatically filled in below in L<finalize perldelta>.
667 =for checklist skip RC
669 =head4 Update C<%Module::CoreList::released>
671 For any release except an RC: Update this version's entry in the C<%released>
672 hash with today's date.
674 =head4 Commit Module::CoreList changes
676 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
677 (unless this is for MAINT; in which case commit it to blead first, then
678 cherry-pick it back).
680 $ git commit -m 'Update Module::CoreList for 5.x.y' \
681 dist/Module-CoreList/Changes \
682 dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm \
683 dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm
685 =head4 Rebuild and test
687 Build and test to get the changes into the currently built lib directory and to
688 ensure all tests are passing.
690 =head3 finalize perldelta
692 Finalize the perldelta. In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
693 section, which can be generated with something like:
695 $ perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD
697 Fill in the "New/Updated Modules" sections now that Module::CoreList is
700 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl \
701 --mode=update pod/perldelta.pod
703 For a MAINT release use something like this instead:
705 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl 5.020001 5.020002 \
706 --mode=update pod/perldelta.pod
708 Ideally, also fill in a summary of the major changes to each module for which
709 an entry has been added by F<corelist-perldelta.pl>.
711 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
712 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
713 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
714 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
716 $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perldelta.pod
717 $ spell pod/perldelta.pod
719 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
722 $ ./perl -Ilib ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html pod/perldelta.pod > \
725 Another good HTML preview option is http://search.cpan.org/pod2html
727 If you make changes, be sure to commit them.
729 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
731 =head3 remove stale perldeltas
733 For the first RC release that is ONLY for a BLEAD-FINAL, the perldeltas
734 from the BLEAD-POINT releases since the previous BLEAD-FINAL should have
735 now been consolidated into the current perldelta, and hence are now just
736 useless clutter. They can be removed using:
738 $ git rm <file1> <file2> ...
740 For example, for RC0 of 5.16.0:
743 $ git rm perldelta515*.pod
745 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL BLEAD-POINT
747 =head3 add recent perldeltas
749 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in any recent perldeltas from
750 blead that have been added since the last release on this branch. This
751 should include any recent maint releases on branches older than your one,
752 but not newer. For example if you're producing a 5.14.x release, copy any
753 perldeltas from recent 5.10.x, 5.12.x etc maint releases, but not from
754 5.16.x or higher. Remember to
756 $ git add <file1> <file2> ...
758 =head3 update and commit perldelta files
760 If you have added or removed any perldelta files via the previous two
761 steps, then edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add/remove them from its table of
762 contents, then run F<Porting/pod_rules.pl> to propagate your changes there
763 into all the other files that mention them (including F<MANIFEST>). You'll
764 need to C<git add> the files that it changes.
766 Then build a clean perl and do a full test
770 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des
774 Once all tests pass, commit your changes.
776 =head3 build a clean perl
778 If you skipped the previous step (adding/removing perldeltas),
779 again, make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
780 unpushed commits etc):
785 then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:
787 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
789 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL BLEAD-POINT
791 =head3 synchronise from blead's perlhist.pod
793 For the first RC for a MAINT release, copy in the latest
794 F<pod/perlhist.pod> from blead; this will include details of newer
795 releases in all branches. In theory, blead's version should be a strict
796 superset of the one in this branch, but it's probably safest to diff them
797 first to ensure that there's nothing in this branch that was forgotten
800 $ diff pod/perlhist.pod ..../blead/pod/perlhist.pod
801 $ cp ..../blead/pod/perlhist.pod pod/
802 $ git commit -m 'sync perlhist from blead' pod/perlhist.pod
804 =head3 update perlhist.pod
806 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:
808 David 5.10.1 2009-Aug-06
810 List yourself in the left-hand column, and if this is the first release
811 that you've ever done, make sure that your name is listed in the section
812 entitled C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
814 I<If you're making a BLEAD-FINAL release>, also update the "SELECTED
815 RELEASE SIZES" section with the output of
816 F<Porting/perlhist_calculate.pl>.
818 Be sure to commit your changes:
820 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
822 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
824 =head3 update patchlevel.h
826 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>
828 Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
829 a final release, remove it. For example:
831 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
834 #ifdef PERL_GIT_UNCOMMITTED_CHANGES
835 ,"uncommitted-changes"
838 Be sure to commit your change:
840 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
842 =head3 run makemeta to update META files
844 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/makemeta
846 Be sure to commit any changes (if applicable):
848 $ git status # any changes?
849 $ git commit -m 'Update META files' META.*
851 =head3 build, test and check a fresh perl
853 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
856 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
858 # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
859 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
863 Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
864 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
865 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
866 paths. Note that as they have been built from a git working
867 directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
868 commits. (Note that for an odd-numbered version, perl will install
869 itself as C<perl5.x.y>). C<perl -v> will identify itself as:
871 This is perl 5, version X, subversion Y (v5.X.Y (v5.X.Z-NNN-gdeadbeef))
873 where 5.X.Z is the latest tag, NNN the number of commits since this tag,
874 and C<< deadbeef >> commit of that tag.
876 Then delete the temporary installation.
878 =head3 create the release tag
880 Create the tag identifying this release (e.g.):
882 $ git tag v5.11.0 -m "First release of the v5.11 series!"
884 It is B<VERY> important that from this point forward, you not push
885 your git changes to the Perl master repository. If anything goes
886 wrong before you publish your newly-created tag, you can delete
887 and recreate it. Once you push your tag, we're stuck with it
888 and you'll need to use a new version number for your release.
890 =head3 build the tarball
892 Before you run the following, you might want to install 7-Zip (the
893 C<p7zip-full> package under Debian or the C<p7zip> port on MacPorts) or
894 the AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> package under Debian,
895 or the C<advancecomp> port on macports - 7-Zip on Windows is the
896 same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the smallest files
897 first time). These compress about 5% smaller than gzip and bzip2.
898 Over the lifetime of your distribution this will save a lot of
899 people a small amount of download time and disk space, which adds
902 In order to produce the C<xz> tarball, XZ Utils are required. The C<xz>
903 utility is included with most modern UNIX-type operating systems and
904 is available for Cygwin. A Windows port is available from
905 L<http://tukaani.org/xz/>.
907 B<IMPORTANT>: if you are on OS X, you must export C<COPYFILE_DISABLE=1>
908 to prevent OS X resource files from being included in your tarball. After
909 creating the tarball following the instructions below, inspect it to ensure
910 you don't have files like F<._foobar>.
912 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
913 the tarball and directory name:
915 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
916 $ make distclean # make sure distclean works
917 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
918 # git clean should not output anything!
919 $ git status # and there's nothing lying around
921 $ perl Porting/makerel -bx -s RC1 # for a release candidate
922 $ perl Porting/makerel -bx # for the release itself
924 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
925 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them, then
926 tars it up as F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. With C<-b>, it also creates a
927 C<tar.bz2> file. The C<-x> also produces a C<tar.xz> file.
929 If you're getting your tarball suffixed with -uncommitted and you're sure
930 your changes were all committed, you can override the suffix with:
932 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s ''
934 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
937 Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.
939 $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1
941 =head3 test the tarball
943 Once you have a tarball it's time to test the tarball (not the repository).
945 =head4 Copy the tarball to a web server
947 Copy the tarballs (.gz and possibly .bz2 and .xz) to a web server somewhere you
950 =head4 Download the tarball to another machine and unpack it
952 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
953 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
956 =head4 Ask #p5p to test the tarball on different platforms
958 Once you've verified the tarball can be downloaded and unpacked,
959 ask the #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org for volunteers to test the
960 tarballs on whatever platforms they can.
962 If you're not confident in the tarball, you can defer this step until after
963 your own tarball testing, below.
965 =head4 Check that F<Configure> works
967 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
969 $ ./Configure -des && make all test
971 # Or for a development release:
972 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make all test
974 =head4 Run the test harness and install
976 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
979 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
982 =head4 Check C<perl -v> and C<perl -V>
984 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
985 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
988 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
989 which is why you should test from the tarball.
991 =head4 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility
993 $ ./perl utils/perlivp
995 All tests successful.
998 =head4 Compare the installed paths to the last release
1000 Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
1001 release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
1002 have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
1003 for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
1004 For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
1007 cd installdir-5.10.0/
1008 find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
1009 cd installdir-5.10.1/
1010 find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
1013 =head4 Bootstrap the CPAN client
1015 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
1022 =head4 Install the Inline module with CPAN and test it
1024 Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
1025 has dependencies; for example:
1027 CPAN> install Inline::C
1030 Check that your perl can run this:
1032 $ bin/perl -lwe "use Inline C => q[int f() { return 42;}]; print f"
1036 =head4 Make sure that perlbug works
1038 Test L<perlbug> with the following:
1042 Subject: test bug report
1043 Local perl administrator [yourself]:
1049 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
1050 Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]:
1051 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): q
1053 and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
1054 the "Locally applied patches" section. If everything appears okay, then
1055 delete the file, and try it again, this time actually submitting the bug
1056 report. Check that it shows up, then remember to close it!
1058 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1060 =head3 monitor smokes
1062 XXX This is probably irrelevant if working on a release branch, though
1063 MAINT or RC might want to push a smoke branch and wait.
1065 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
1066 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
1068 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
1069 back and fix things.
1071 Note that for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases this may not be practical. It takes a
1072 long time for the smokers to catch up, especially the Win32
1073 smokers. This is why we have a RC cycle for I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
1074 releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases sometimes the best you can do is
1075 to plead with people on IRC to test stuff on their platforms, fire away,
1076 and then hope for the best.
1078 =head3 upload to PAUSE
1080 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
1081 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
1082 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
1084 https://pause.perl.org/
1086 (Login, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')
1088 If your workstation is not connected to a high-bandwidth,
1089 high-reliability connection to the Internet, you should probably use the
1090 "GET URL" feature (rather than "HTTP UPLOAD") to have PAUSE retrieve the
1091 new release from wherever you put it for testers to find it. This will
1092 eliminate anxious gnashing of teeth while you wait to see if your
1093 15 megabyte HTTP upload successfully completes across your slow, twitchy
1096 You can make use of your home directory on dromedary for
1097 this purpose: F<http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~USERNAME> maps to
1098 F</home/USERNAME/public_html>, where F<USERNAME> is your login account
1101 I<Remember>: if your upload is partially successful, you
1102 may need to contact a PAUSE administrator or even bump the version of perl.
1104 Upload the .gz, .xz, and .bz2 versions of the tarball.
1106 Do not proceed any further until you are sure that your tarballs are on CPAN.
1107 Check your authors directory www.cpan.org (the globally balanced "fast"
1108 mirror) to confirm that your uploads have been successful.
1110 =for checklist skip RC BLEAD-POINT
1112 =head3 wait for indexing
1114 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and BLEAD-POINT>
1116 Wait until you receive notification emails from the PAUSE indexer
1117 confirming that your uploads have been received. IMPORTANT -- you will
1118 probably get an email that indexing has failed, due to module permissions.
1119 This is considered normal.
1121 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1123 =head3 disarm patchlevel.h
1125 I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>
1127 Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,
1129 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
1132 #ifdef PERL_GIT_UNCOMMITTED_CHANGES
1133 ,"uncommitted-changes"
1136 Be sure to commit your change:
1138 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
1140 =head3 announce to p5p
1142 Mail p5p to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
1144 Use the template at Porting/release_announcement_template.txt
1146 Send a carbon copy to C<noc@metacpan.org>
1148 =head3 merge release branch back to blead
1150 Merge the (local) release branch back into master now, and delete it.
1154 git merge release-5.xx.yy
1156 git branch -d release-5.xx.yy
1158 Note: The merge will create a merge commit if other changes have been pushed
1159 to blead while you've been working on your release branch. Do NOT rebase your
1160 branch to avoid the merge commit (as you might normally do when merging a
1161 small branch into blead) since doing so will invalidate the tag that you
1164 =head3 publish the release tag
1166 Now that you've shipped the new perl release to PAUSE and pushed your changes
1167 to the Perl master repository, it's time to publish the tag you created
1170 $ git push origin tag v5.11.0
1172 =head3 update epigraphs.pod
1174 Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
1175 You can include the customary link to the release announcement even before your
1176 message reaches the web-visible archives by looking for the X-List-Archive
1177 header in your message after receiving it back via perl5-porters.
1179 =head3 blog about your epigraph
1181 If you have a blog, please consider writing an entry in your blog explaining
1182 why you chose that particular quote for your epigraph.
1184 =for checklist skip RC
1186 =head3 Release schedule
1188 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1190 Tick the entry for your release in F<Porting/release_schedule.pod>.
1192 =for checklist skip RC
1194 =head3 Module::CoreList nagging
1196 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1198 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
1201 =for checklist skip RC
1203 =head3 new perldelta
1205 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>
1207 Create a new perldelta.
1213 Confirm that you have a clean checkout with no local changes.
1217 Run F<Porting/new-perldelta.pl>
1221 Run the C<git add> commands it outputs to add new and modified files.
1225 Verify that the build still works, by running C<./Configure> and
1226 C<make test_porting>. (On Win32 use the appropriate make utility).
1230 If F<t/porting/podcheck.t> spots errors in the new F<pod/perldelta.pod>,
1231 run C<./perl -MTestInit t/porting/podcheck.t | less> for more detail.
1232 Skip to the end of its test output to see the options it offers you.
1236 When C<make test_porting> passes, commit the new perldelta.
1240 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
1241 see if they look similar. See commit ba03bc34a4 for an example of a
1242 previous version bump.
1244 =for checklist skip MAINT RC
1248 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC and MAINT>
1250 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1251 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
1252 in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
1254 First, add a new feature bundle to F<regen/feature.pl>, initially by just
1255 copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION (after the __END__
1258 "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1259 + "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
1261 Run F<regen/feature.pl> to propagate the changes to F<lib/feature.pm>.
1263 Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
1264 in the remaining files and test and commit.
1266 If this was a BLEAD-POINT release, then just follow the section
1267 L<"Bump the version number">.
1269 After bumping the version, follow the section L<"update INSTALL"> to
1270 ensure all version number references are correct.
1272 (Note: The version is NOT bumped immediately after a MAINT release in order
1273 to avoid confusion and wasted time arising from bug reports relating to
1274 "intermediate versions" such as 5.20.1-and-a-bit: If the report is caused
1275 by a bug that gets fixed in 5.20.2 and this intermediate version already
1276 calls itself 5.20.2 then much time can be wasted in figuring out why there
1277 is a failure from something that "should have been fixed". If the bump is
1278 late then there is a much smaller window of time for such confusing bug
1279 reports to arise. (The opposite problem -- trying to figure out why there
1280 *is* a bug in something calling itself 5.20.1 when in fact the bug was
1281 introduced later -- shouldn't arise for MAINT releases since they should,
1282 in theory, only contain bug fixes but never regressions.))
1284 =head3 clean build and test
1286 Run a clean build and test to make sure nothing obvious is broken.
1288 In particular, F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> is intentionally exempted
1289 from podchecker tests, to avoid false positives about placeholder text.
1290 However, once it's copied to F<pod/perldelta.pod> the contents can now
1291 cause test failures. Problems should be resolved by doing one of the
1298 Replace placeholder text with correct text.
1302 If the problem is from a broken placeholder link, you can add it to the
1303 array C<@perldelta_ignore_links> in F<t/porting/podcheck.t>. Lines
1304 containing such links should be marked with C<XXX> so that they get
1305 cleaned up before the next release.
1309 Following the instructions output by F<t/porting/podcheck.t> on how to
1310 update its exceptions database.
1316 Finally, push any commits done above.
1318 $ git push origin ....
1320 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1322 =head3 create maint branch
1324 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>
1326 If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
1327 series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then create a new maint branch based on
1328 the commit tagged as the current release.
1330 Assuming you're using git 1.7.x or newer:
1332 $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
1333 $ git push origin -u maint-5.12
1336 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC
1338 =head3 make the maint branch available in the APC
1340 Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
1341 receive its changes.
1343 $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
1344 ? /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1345 $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
1347 And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.
1349 XXX Who are the sysadmins? Contact info?
1351 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT RC
1353 =head3 copy perldelta.pod to blead
1355 I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>
1357 Copy the perldelta.pod for this release into blead; for example:
1360 $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod #for example
1361 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
1363 Don't forget to set the NAME correctly in the new file (e.g. perl5101delta
1364 rather than perldelta).
1366 Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:
1368 perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
1370 Then rebuild various files:
1372 $ perl Porting/pod_rules.pl
1374 Finally, commit and push:
1376 $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'
1377 $ git push origin ....
1379 =for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT
1381 =head3 copy perlhist.pod entries to blead
1383 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
1384 F<perlhist.pod> on blead. e.g.
1390 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some
1391 much-needed rest and relaxation>.
1393 Thanks for releasing perl!
1395 =head2 Building a release - the day after
1397 =for checklist skip BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, RC
1399 =head3 update Module::CoreList
1401 I<After a BLEAD-POINT release only>
1403 After Module::CoreList has shipped to CPAN by the maintainer, update
1404 Module::CoreList in the source so that it reflects the new blead
1411 Update F<Porting/Maintainers.pl> to list the new DISTRIBUTION on CPAN,
1412 which should be identical to what is currently in blead.
1416 Bump the $VERSION in F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>,
1417 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/TieHashDelta.pm> and
1418 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm>.
1422 If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
1424 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
1428 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
1430 This will update F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> and
1431 F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList/Utils.pm> as it did before,
1432 but this time adding new sections for the next BLEAD-POINT release.
1436 Add the new $Module::CoreList::VERSION to
1437 F<dist/Module-CoreList/Changes>.
1441 Update F<pod/perldelta.pod> to mention the upgrade to Module::CoreList.
1445 Remake perl to get your changed .pm files propagated into F<lib/> and
1446 then run at least the F<dist/Module-CoreList/t/*.t> tests and the
1447 test_porting makefile target to check that they're ok.
1453 $ ./perl -Ilib -MModule::CoreList \
1454 -le 'print Module::CoreList->find_version($]) ? "ok" : "not ok"'
1456 and check that it outputs "ok" to prove that Module::CoreList now knows
1457 about blead's current version.
1461 Commit and push your changes.
1465 =head3 check tarball availability
1467 Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
1468 and is properly indexed:
1474 Check your author directory under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/>
1475 to ensure that the tarballs are available on the website.
1479 Check F</src> on CPAN (on a fast mirror) to ensure that links to
1480 the new tarballs have appeared: There should be links in F</src/5.0>
1481 (which is accumulating all new versions), and (for BLEAD-FINAL and
1482 MAINT only) an appropriate mention in F</src/README.html> (which describes
1483 the latest versions in each stable branch, with links).
1485 The F</src/5.0> links should appear automatically, some hours after upload.
1486 If they don't, or the F</src> description is inadequate,
1487 ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1491 Check L<http://www.cpan.org/src/> to ensure that the F</src> updates
1492 have been correctly mirrored to the website.
1493 If they haven't, ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.
1497 Check L<http://search.cpan.org> to see if it has indexed the distribution.
1498 It should be visible at a URL like C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl-5.10.1/>.
1502 =for checklist skip RC
1504 =head3 update dev.perl.org
1506 I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>
1508 In your C<perlweb> repository, link to the new release. For a new
1509 latest-maint release, edit F<docs/shared/tpl/stats.html>. Otherwise,
1510 edit F<docs/dev/perl5/index.html>.
1512 Then make a pull request to Leo Lapworth. If this fails for some reason
1513 and you cannot cajole anybody else into submitting that change, you can
1514 mail Leo as last resort.
1516 This repository can be found on L<github|https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb>.
1518 =head3 update release manager's guide
1520 Go over your notes from the release (you did take some, right?) and update
1521 F<Porting/release_managers_guide.pod> with any fixes or information that
1522 will make life easier for the next release manager.
1529 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html,
1530 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.