add release branch steps to rmg

[perl5.git] / Porting / release_managers_guide.pod

=encoding utf8

=head1 NAME

release_managers_guide - Releasing a new version of perl 5.x

Note that things change at each release, so there may be new things not
covered here, or tools may need updating.

=head1 MAKING A CHECKLIST

If you are preparing to do a release, you can run the
F<Porting/make-rmg-checklist> script to generate a new version of this
document that starts with a checklist for your release.

This script is run as:

  perl Porting/make-rmg-checklist \
      --type [BLEAD-POINT or MAINT or ...] > /tmp/rmg.pod

You can also pass the C<--html> flag to generate an HTML document instead of
POD.

  perl Porting/make-rmg-checklist --html \
      --type [BLEAD-POINT or MAINT or ...] > /tmp/rmg.html

=head1 SYNOPSIS

This document describes the series of tasks required - some automatic, some
manual - to produce a perl release of some description, be that a release
candidate, or final, numbered release of maint or blead.

The release process has traditionally been executed by the current
pumpking. Blead releases from 5.11.0 forward are made each month on the
20th by a non-pumpking release engineer.  The release engineer roster
and schedule can be found in Porting/release_schedule.pod.

This document both helps as a check-list for the release engineer 
and is a base for ideas on how the various tasks could be automated 
or distributed.

The checklist of a typical release cycle is as follows:

    (5.10.1 is released, and post-release actions have been done)

    ...time passes...

    a few weeks before the release, a number of steps are performed,
        including bumping the version to 5.10.2

    ...a few weeks passes...

    perl-5.10.2-RC1 is released

    perl-5.10.2 is released

    post-release actions are performed, including creating new
        perldelta.pod

    ... the cycle continues ...


=head1 DETAILS

Some of the tasks described below apply to all four types of
release of Perl. (blead, RC, final release of maint, final
release of blead). Some of these tasks apply only to a subset
of these release types.  If a step does not apply to a given 
type of release, you will see a notation to that effect at
the beginning of the step.


=head2 Release types

=over 4

=item Release Candidate (RC)

A release candidate is an attempt to produce a tarball that is a close as
possible to the final release. Indeed, unless critical faults are found
during the RC testing, the final release will be identical to the RC
barring a few minor fixups (updating the release date in F<perlhist.pod>,
removing the RC status from F<patchlevel.h>, etc). If faults are found,
then the fixes should be put into a new release candidate, never directly
into a final release.


=item Stable/Maint release (MAINT).

A release with an even version number, and subversion number > 0, such as
5.14.1 or 5.14.2.

At this point you should have a working release candidate with few or no
changes since.

It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps.

=item A blead point release (BLEAD-POINT)

A release with an odd version number, such as 5.15.0 or 5.15.1.

This isn't for production, so it has less stability requirements than for
other release types, and isn't preceded by RC releases. Other than that,
it is similar to a MAINT release.

=item Blead final release (BLEAD-FINAL)

A release with an even version number, and subversion number == 0, such as
5.14.0. That is to say, it's the big new release once per year.

It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps, even more than for MAINT.

=back

=for checklist begin

=head2 Prerequisites

Before you can make an official release of perl, there are a few
hoops you need to jump through:

=head3 PAUSE account with pumpkin status

Make sure you have a PAUSE account suitable for uploading a perl release.
If you don't have a PAUSE account, then request one:

    https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=request_id

Check that your account is allowed to upload perl distros: go to
L<https://pause.perl.org/pause/authenquery?ACTION=who_pumpkin> and check that
your PAUSE ID is listed there.  If not, ask Andreas KE<0xf6>nig to add your ID
to the list of people allowed to upload something called perl.  You can find
Andreas' email address at:

    https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=pause_04imprint

=head3 search.cpan.org pumpkin status

Make sure that search.cpan.org knows that you're allowed to upload
perl distros. Contact Graham Barr to make sure that you're on the right
list.

=head3 rt.perl.org update access

Make sure you have permission to close tickets on L<http://rt.perl.org/>
so you can respond to bug report as necessary during your stint.  If you
don't, make an account (if you don't have one) and contact the pumpking
with your username to get ticket-closing permission.

=head3 git checkout and commit bit

You will need a working C<git> installation, checkout of the perl
git repository and perl commit bit.  For information about working
with perl and git, see F<pod/perlgit.pod>.

If you are not yet a perl committer, you won't be able to make a
release.  Have a chat with whichever evil perl porter tried to talk
you into the idea in the first place to figure out the best way to
resolve the issue.

=head3 git clone of https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb

For updating the L<http://dev.perl.org> web pages, either a Github account or
sweet-talking somebody with a Github account into obedience is needed. This
is only needed on the day of the release or shortly afterwards.

=for checklist skip RC

=head3 Quotation for release announcement epigraph

I<SKIP this step for RC>

For all except an RC release of perl, you will need a quotation
to use as an epigraph to your release announcement.

=head2 Building a release - advance actions

The work of building a release candidate for an even numbered release
(BLEAD-FINAL) of perl generally starts several weeks before the first
release candidate.  Some of the following steps should be done regularly,
but all I<must> be done in the run up to a release.

=head3 dual-life CPAN module synchronisation

To see which core distro versions differ from the current CPAN versions:

    $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -x -a

Passing C<-u cpan> (and maybe C<-u undef>) will probably be helpful, since
those are the only types of distributions that you can actually affect as a
perl release manager (as opposed to a CPAN module maintainer).

You can also run an actual diff of the contents of the modules, comparing core
to CPAN, to ensure that there were no erroneous/extraneous changes that need to
be dealt with. You do this by not passing the C<-x> option:

    $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -a -o /tmp/corediffs

then fix the core, or cajole CPAN authors as appropriate. See also the C<-d>
and C<-v> options for more detail (and the C<-u> option as mentioned above).
You'll probably want to use the C<-c cachedir> option to avoid repeated CPAN
downloads and may want to use C<-m file:///mirror/path> if you made a local
CPAN mirror. Note that a minicpan mirror won't actually work, but can provide a
good first pass to quickly get a list of modules which definitely haven't
changed, to avoid having to download absolutely everything.

If you are making a MAINT release, run C<core-cpan-diff> on both blead and
maint, then diff the two outputs. Compare this with what you expect, and if
necessary, fix things up. For example, you might think that both blead
and maint are synchronised with a particular CPAN module, but one might
have some extra changes. 

=head3 How to sync a CPAN module with a cpan/ distro

=over 4

=item *

Fetch the most recent version from CPAN.

=item *

Unpack the retrieved tarball. Rename the old directory; rename the new
directory to the original name.

=item *

Restore any F<.gitignore> file. This can be done by issuing
C<git checkout .gitignore> in the F<cpan/Distro> directory.

=item *

Remove files we do not need. That is, remove any files that match the
entries in C<@IGNORE> in F<Porting/Maintainer.pl>, and anything that 
matches the C<EXCLUDED> section of the distro's entry in the C<%Modules>
hash.

=item *

Restore any files mentioned in the C<CUSTOMIZED> section, using
C<git checkout>. Make any new customizations if necessary. Also,
restore any files that are mentioned in C<@IGNORE>, but were checked
in in the repository anyway.

=item *

For any new files in the distro, determine whether they are needed.
If not, delete them, and list them in either C<EXCLUDED> or C<@INGORE>.
Otherwise, add them to C<MANIFEST>, and run C<git add> to add the files
to the repository.

=item *

For any files that are gone, remove them from C<MANIFEST>, and use
C<git rm> to tell git the files will be gone.

=item *

If the C<MANIFEST> file was changed in any of the previous steps, run
C<perl Porting/manisort --output MANIFEST.sort; mv MANIFEST.sort MANIFEST>.

=item *

For any files that have an execute bit set, either remove the execute
bit, or edit F<Porting/exec-bit.txt>

=item *

Run C<make>, see if C<perl> compiles.

=item *

Run the tests for the package.

=item *

Run the tests in F<t/porting>.

=item *

Update the C<DISTRIBUTION> entry in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl>.

=item *

Run a full configure/build/test cycle.

=item *

If everything is ok, commit the changes.

=back

For entries with a non-simple C<FILES> section, or with a C<MAP>, you
may have to take more steps than listed above.

F<Porting/sync-with-cpan> is a script that automates most of the steps
above; but see the comments at the beginning of the file.


=head3 dual-life CPAN module stability

Ensure dual-life CPAN modules are stable, which comes down to:

    for each module that fails its regression tests on $current
        did it fail identically on $previous?
        if yes, "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem)
        else work out why it failed (a bisect is useful for this)

    attempt to group failure causes

    for each failure cause
        is that a regression?
        if yes, figure out how to fix it
            (more code? revert the code that broke it)
        else
            (presumably) it's relying on something un-or-under-documented
            should the existing behaviour stay?
                yes - goto "regression"
                no - note it in perldelta as a significant bugfix
                (also, try to inform the module's author)


=head3 monitor smoke tests for failures

Similarly, monitor the smoking of core tests, and try to fix.  See
L<http://doc.procura.nl/smoke/index.html> for a summary. See also
L<http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.daily-build.reports/> which has
the raw reports.

Similarly, monitor the smoking of perl for compiler warnings, and try to
fix.


=head3 update perldelta

Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.

Read  F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>, and try to make sure that
every section it lists is, if necessary, populated and complete. Copy
edit the whole document.


=head3 Bump the version number

Increase the version number (e.g. from 5.12.0 to 5.12.1).

For a BLEAD-POINT release, this can happen on the day of the release.  For a
release candidate for a stable perl, this should happen a week or two
before the first release candidate to allow sufficient time for testing and
smoking with the target version built into the perl executable. For
subsequent release candidates and the final release, it it not necessary to
bump the version further.

There is a tool to semi-automate this process:

     $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/bump-perl-version -i 5.10.0 5.10.1

Remember that this tool is largely just grepping for '5.10.0' or whatever,
so it will generate false positives. Be careful not change text like
"this was fixed in 5.10.0"!

Use git status and git diff to select changes you want to keep.

Be particularly careful with F<INSTALL>, which contains a mixture of
C<5.10.0>-type strings, some of which need bumping on every release, and
some of which need to be left unchanged.
The line in F<INSTALL> about "is binary incompatible with" requires a
correct choice of earlier version to declare incompatibility with.

When doing a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release, also make sure the
C<PERL_API_*> constants in F<patchlevel.h> are in sync with the version
you're releasing, unless you're
absolutely sure the release you're about to make is 100% binary compatible
to an earlier release. When releasing a MAINT perl version, the C<PERL_API_*>
constants C<MUST NOT> be changed as we aim to guarantee binary compatibility
in maint branches.

After editing, regenerate uconfig.h (this must be run on a system with a
/bin/sh available):

    $ perl regen/uconfig_h.pl

This might not cause any new changes.

Test your changes:

    $ git clean -xdf   # careful if you don't have local files to keep!
    $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
    $ make
    $ make test

Commit your changes:

    $ git status
    $ git diff
    B<review the delta carefully>

    $ git commit -a -m 'Bump the perl version in various places for 5.x.y'

At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
see if they look similar.  See commit 8891dd8d for an example of a
previous version bump.

When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList
(as described below in L<"update Module::CoreList">) to reflect the new
version number.


=head3 update INSTALL

Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number;
in particular, the "Coexistence with earlier versions of perl 5" section.

Be particularly careful with the section "Upgrading from 5.X.Y or earlier".
The "X.Y" needs to be changed to the most recent version that we are
I<not> binary compatible with.

For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, this needs to refer to the last
release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
release, this would be 5.13.11).

For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2).

=head3 Check more build configurations

Check some more build configurations.

    $ sh Configure -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y  -Uinstallusrbinperl \
        -Duseshrplib -Dusesitecustomize
    $ make
    $ make test

XXX think of other configurations that need testing.


=head3 update perlport

L<perlport> has a section currently named I<Supported Platforms> that
indicates which platforms are known to build in the current release.
If necessary update the list and the indicated version number.



=head2 Building a release - on the day

This section describes the actions required to make a release
that are performed on the actual day.


=head3 re-check earlier actions

Review all the actions in the previous section,
L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
up-to-date.


=head3 create a release branch

For BLEAD-POINT releases, making a release from a release branch avoids the
need to freeze blead during the release. This is less important for
BLEAD-FINAL, MAINT, and RC releases, since blead will already be frozen in
those cases. Create the branch by running

  git checkout -b release-5.xx.yy


=head3 bump version number

For a BLEAD-POINT release, if you did not bump the perl version number as
part of I<advance actions>, do that now.


=head3 finalize perldelta

Finalize the perldelta.  In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
section, which can be generated with something like:

  $ perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD

Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.

    $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perldelta.pod
    $ spell pod/perldelta.pod

Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
formatting, e.g.

    $ ./perl -Ilib ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html pod/perldelta.pod > /tmp/perldelta.html

Another good HTML preview option is http://search.cpan.org/pod2html

If you make changes, be sure to commit them.

=for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC

=head3 remove stale perldeltas

For the first RC release that is ONLY for a BLEAD-FINAL, the perldeltas
from the BLEAD-POINT releases since the previous BLEAD_FINAL should have
now been consolidated into the current perldelta, and hence are now just
useless clutter.  They can be removed using:

    $ git rm <file1> <file2> ...

For example, for RC0 of 5.16.0:

    $ cd pod
    $ git rm perldelta515*.pod

All mention to them should also be removed.  Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to remove
them from its table of contents, then run F<Porting/pod_rules.pl> to
propagate your changes there into all the other files that mention them
(including F<MANIFEST>). You'll need to C<git add> the files that it changes.

Then build a clean perl and do a full test

    $ git status
    $ git clean -dxf
    $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des
    $ make
    $ make test

Once all tests pass, commit your changes.

=head3 build a clean perl

If you skipped the previous step (removing the stale perldeltas)
make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
unpushed commits etc):

    $ git status
    $ git clean -dxf

then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:

    $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make

=head3 update Module::CoreList

Update C<Module::CoreList> with module version data for the new release.

Note that if this is a MAINT release, you should run the following actions
from the maint branch, but commit the C<CoreList.pm> changes in
I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
maint release and then your recent commit.  XXX need a better example

F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror or fall back
to C<wget> or C<curl> to fetch only package metadata remotely. (If you're
on Win32, then installing Cygwin is one way to have commands like C<wget>
and C<curl> available.)

(If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see 
http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN)

Then change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,

    $ make

If this is not the first update for this version (e.g. if it was updated
when the version number was originally bumped), first edit
F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> to delete the existing
entries for this version from the C<%released> and C<%version> hashes:
they will have a key like C<5.010001> for 5.10.1.

XXX the edit-in-place functionality of Porting/corelist.pl should
be fixed to handle this automatically.

Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:

    $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror

Otherwise, run:

    $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan

This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
badly-indexed CPAN modules unrelated to the modules actually in core.
Assuming all goes well, it will update
F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>.

Check that file over carefully:

    $ git diff dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm

If this is a .0 Perl version, add the appropriate lines in F<Corelist.pm>
to alias "5.nnn000" to "5.nnn" in each hash.  (If feeling energetic,
amend F<corelist.pl> to automate this.)

=head4 Bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION>

If necessary, bump C<$Module::CoreList::VERSION> (there's no need to do this for
every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
It may also happen that C<Module::CoreList> has been modified in blead, and
hence has a new version number already.  (But make sure it is not the same
number as a CPAN release.)

Edit the version number in the new C<< 'Module::CoreList' => 'X.YZ' >>
entry, as that is likely to reflect the previous version number.

=head4 Bump version in Module::CoreList F<Changes>

Also edit Module::CoreList's new version number in its F<Changes>
file.

=head4 Add Module::CoreList version bump to perldelta

Add a perldelta entry for the new Module::CoreList version.

=for checklist skip RC

=head4 Update C<%Module::CoreList::released> and C<CAVEATS>

In addition, if this is a final release (rather than a release candidate):

=over 4 

=item *

Update this version's entry in the C<%released> hash with today's date.

=item *

Make sure that the script has correctly updated the C<CAVEATS> section
(Note, the C<CAVEATS> section is in
F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod>)

=back

=head4 Commit Module::CoreList changes

Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
(unless this is for MAINT; in which case commit it to blead first, then
cherry-pick it back).

    $ git commit -m 'Update Module::CoreList for 5.x.y' dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pod

=for checklist skip RC

=head3 update perlhist.pod

I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>

Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:

    David    5.10.1       2009-Aug-06

Make sure that the correct pumpking is listed in the left-hand column, and
if this is the first release under the stewardship of a new pumpking, make
sure that his or her name is listed in the section entitled
C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.

Be sure to commit your changes:

    $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod

=for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT

=head3 update patchlevel.h

I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>

Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
a final release, remove it. For example:

     static const char * const local_patches[] = {
             NULL
    +        ,"RC1"
             PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */

Be sure to commit your change:

    $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h


=head3 build, test and check a fresh perl

Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:

    $ git clean -xdf
    $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest

    # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
    $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest

    $ make test install

Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
paths. Note that as they have been been built from a git working
directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
commits. (Note that for an odd-numbered version, perl will install
itself as C<perl5.x.y>). C<perl -v> will identify itself as:

 This is perl 5, version X, subversion Y (v5.X.Y (v5.X.Z-NNN-gdeadbeef))

where 5.X.Z is the latest tag, NNN the number of commits since this tag,
and C<< deadbeef >> commit of that tag.

Then delete the temporary installation.


=head3 push the work so far

Push all your recent commits:

    $ git push origin ....


=head3 tag the release

Tag the release (e.g.):

    $ git tag v5.11.0 -m "First release of the v5.11 series!"

It is B<VERY> important that from this point forward, you not push
your git changes to the Perl master repository.  If anything goes
wrong before you publish your newly-created tag, you can delete
and recreate it.  Once you push your tag, we're stuck with it
and you'll need to use a new version number for your release.


=head3 build the tarball

Before you run the following, you might want to install 7-Zip (the
C<p7zip-full> package under Debian or the C<p7zip> port on MacPorts) or
the AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> package under Debian,
or the C<advancecomp> port on macports - 7-Zip on Windows is the
same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the smallest files
first time). These compress about 5% smaller than gzip and bzip2.
Over the lifetime of your distribution this will save a lot of
people a small amount of download time and disk space, which adds
up.

Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
the tarball and directory name:

    $ cd root/of/perl/tree
    $ make distclean
    $ git clean -xdf            # make sure perl and git agree on files
    $ git status                # and there's nothing lying around

    $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s RC1            # for a release candidate
    $ perl Porting/makerel -b                   # for a final release

This creates the  directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them,
adds DOS line endings to some, then tars it up as
F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. With C<-b>, it also creates a C<tar.bz2> file.

If you're getting your tarball suffixed with -uncommitted and you're sure
your changes were all committed, you can override the suffix with:

    $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s ''

XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
here

Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.

    $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1


=head3 test the tarball

Once you have a tarball it's time to test the tarball (not the repository).

=head4 Copy the tarball to a web server

Copy the tarballs (.gz and possibly .bz2) to a web server somewhere you
have access to.

=head4 Download the tarball to another machine

Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate, 
you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
and architectures. The #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org is a good place
to find willing victims.

=head4 Check that F<Configure> works

Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:

    $ ./Configure -des && make all test

=head4 Run the test harness and install

Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:

    $ make distclean
    $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
    $ cd /install/path

=head4 Check C<perl -v> and C<perl -V>

Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
paths. 

Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
which is why you should test from the tarball.

=head4 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility

    $ ./perl utils/perlivp
    ...
    All tests successful.
    $

=head4 Compare the installed paths to the last release

Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
previous is 5.10.0:

    cd installdir-5.10.0/
    find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
    cd installdir-5.10.1/
    find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
    diff -u /tmp/f[12]

=head4 Test the CPAN client

Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:

    $ bin/perl -MCPAN -e "shell"

If you're running this on Win32 you probably also need a set of Unix
command-line tools available for CPAN to function correctly without
Perl alternatives like LWP installed. Cygwin is an obvious choice.)

=head4 Install the Inline module and test it

Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
has dependencies; for example:

    CPAN> install Inline
    CPAN> quit

Check that your perl can run this:

    $ bin/perl -lwe "use Inline C => q[int f() { return 42;}]; print f"
    42
    $

=head4 Bootstrap the CPANPLUS client

Bootstrap the CPANPLUS client on the clean install:

    $ bin/cpanp

(Again, on Win32 you'll need something like Cygwin installed, but make sure
that you don't end up with its various F<bin/cpan*> programs being found on
the PATH before those of the Perl that you're trying to test.)

=head4 Install the DBI module with CPANPLUS

    CPAN Terminal> i DBI
    CPAN Terminal> quit
    $ bin/perl -MDBI -e 1
    $

=head4 Make sure that perlbug works

Test L<perlbug> with the following:

    $ bin/perlbug
    ...
    Subject: test bug report
    Local perl administrator [yourself]: 
    Editor [vi]: 
    Module: 
    Category [core]: 
    Severity [low]: 
    (edit report)
    Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
    Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]: 
    Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): q

and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
the "Locally applied patches" section. If everything appears okay, then
delete the file, and try it again, this time actually submitting the bug
report. Check that it shows up, then remember to close it!

=for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT

=head3 monitor smokes

Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).

Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
back and fix things.

Note that for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases this may not be practical. It takes a
long time for the smokers to catch up, especially the Win32
smokers. This is why we have a RC cycle for I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> releases sometimes the best you can do is
to plead with people on IRC to test stuff on their platforms, fire away,
and then hope for the best.


=head3 upload to PAUSE

Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
a new release with a new minor version or RC number.

    https://pause.perl.org/

(Login, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')

If your workstation is not connected to a high-bandwidth,
high-reliability connection to the Internet, you should probably use the
"GET URL" feature (rather than "HTTP UPLOAD") to have PAUSE retrieve the
new release from wherever you put it for testers to find it.  This will
eliminate anxious gnashing of teeth while you wait to see if your
15 megabyte HTTP upload successfully completes across your slow, twitchy
cable modem.  You can make use of your home directory on dromedary for
this purpose: F<http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~USERNAME> maps to
F</home/USERNAME/public_html>, where F<USERNAME> is your login account
on dromedary.  I<Remember>: if your upload is partially successful, you
may need to contact a PAUSE administrator or even bump the version of perl.

Upload both the .gz and .bz2 versions of the tarball.

Do not proceed any further until you are sure that your tarballs are on
CPAN.  Check your authors directory on one of the "fast" CPAN mirrors
(e.g., cpan.hexten.net
or cpan.cpantesters.org) to confirm that your uploads have been successful.

=for checklist skip RC

=head3 wait for indexing

I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>

Wait until you receive notification emails from the PAUSE indexer
confirming that your uploads have been received.  IMPORTANT -- you will
probably get an email that indexing has failed, due to module permissions.
This is considered normal.


=head3 publish tag

Now that you've shipped the new perl release to PAUSE, it's
time to publish the tag you created earlier to the public git repo (e.g.):

    $ git push origin tag v5.11.0

=for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT

=head3 disarm patchlevel.h

I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>

Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,

     static const char * const local_patches[] = {
             NULL
    -        ,"RC1"
             PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */

Be sure to commit your change:

    $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
    $ git push origin ....



=head3 announce to p5p

Mail p5p to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.

Use the template at Porting/release_announcement_template.txt

Send a carbon copy to C<noc@metacpan.org>

=head3 merge release branch back to blead

If you made a release branch for this release, merge it back into master now,
and delete it.

  git checkout blead
  git pull
  git merge release-5.xx.yy
  git push
  git push origin :release-5.xx.yy
  git branch -d release-5.xx.yy

=head3 update epigraphs.pod

Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
Your release announcement will probably not have reached the web-visible
archives yet, so you won't be able to include the customary link to the
release announcement yet.

=head3 blog about your epigraph

If you have a blog, please consider writing an entry in your blog explaining
why you chose that particular quote for your epigraph.

=for checklist skip RC

=head3 Module::CoreList nagging

I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>

Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
to CPAN.

=for checklist skip RC

=head3 new perldelta

I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>

Create a new perldelta.

=over 4

=item *

Confirm that you have a clean checkout with no local changes.

=item *

Run F<Porting/new-perldelta.pl>

=item *

Run the C<git add> commands it outputs to add new and modified files.

=item *

Verify that the build still works, by running C<./Configure> and
C<make test_porting>. (On Win32, run C<nmake> and
C<nmake test TEST_FILES="porting\*.t ..\lib\diagnostics.t">.)

=item *

If F<t/porting/podcheck.t> spots errors in the new F<pod/perldelta.pod>,
run C<./perl -MTestInit t/porting/podcheck.t | less> for more detail.
Skip to the end of its test output to see the options it offers you.

=item *

When C<make test_porting> passes, commit the new perldelta.

=back

At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
see if they look similar.  See commit e3c71926d3 for an example of a
previous version bump.

=for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC

=head3 bump version

I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>

If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.

First, add a new feature bundle to F<regen/feature.pl>, initially by just
copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION (after the __END__
marker); e.g.

         "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
    +    "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],

Run F<regen/feature.pl> to propagate the changes to F<lib/feature.pm>.

Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
in the remaining files and test and commit.


=head3 clean build and test

Run a clean build and test to make sure nothing obvious is broken.

In particular, F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> is intentionally exempted
from podchecker tests, to avoid false positives about placeholder text.
However, once it's copied to F<pod/perldelta.pod> the contents can now
cause test failures. Problems should resolved by doing one of the
following:

=over

=item 1

Replace placeholder text with correct text.

=item 2

If the problem is from a broken placeholder link, you can add it to the
array C<@perldelta_ignore_links> in F<t/porting/podcheck.t>.  Lines
containing such links should be marked with C<XXX> so that they get
cleaned up before the next release.

=item 3

Following the instructions output by F<t/porting/podcheck.t> on how to
update its exceptions database.

=back

=head3 push commits

Finally, push any commits done above.

    $ git push origin ....

=for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC

=head3 create maint branch

I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>

If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then create a new maint branch based on
the commit tagged as the current release.

Assuming you're using git 1.7.x or newer:

    $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
    $ git push origin -u maint-5.12


=for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT MAINT RC

=head3 make the maint branch available in the APC

Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
receive its changes.

    $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
    ?  /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
    $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x

And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.

=for checklist skip BLEAD-POINT RC

=head3 copy perldelta.pod to other branches

I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>

Copy the perldelta.pod for this release into the other branches; for
example:

    $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod    # for example
    $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod

Edit F<pod/perl.pod> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:

    perl5101delta               Perl changes in version 5.10.1

Then rebuild various files:

    $ perl pod/buildtoc --build-all

Finally, commit:

    $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'


=head3 update perlhist.pod in other branches

Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
F<perlhist.pod> on other branches
e.g.

          5.8.9         2008-Dec-14


=head3 bump RT version number

Log into http://rt.perl.org/ and check whether the new version is in the RT
fields C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In>. The easiest way to determine this is
to go to L<https://rt.perl.org/rt3/Search/Build.html> and click on the drop
downs next to the C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In> labels.

If the new version is not listed there, send an email to C<perlbug-admin at
perl.org> requesting this.

=head3 Relax!

I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some
much-needed rest and relaxation>.

Thanks for releasing perl!


=head2 Building a release - the day after

=head3 link announcement in epigraphs.pod

Add, to your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod>, a link to the release
announcement in the web-visible mailing list archive.  Commit it.

=head3 check tarball availability

Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
and is properly indexed:

=over 4

=item *

Check your author directory under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/>
to ensure that the tarballs are available on the website.

=item *

Check C</src> on CPAN (on a fast mirror) to ensure that links to
the new tarballs have appeared.  There should be links in C</src/5.0>
(which is accumulating all new versions), links in C</src> (which shows
only the latest version on each branch), and an appropriate mention in
C</src/README.html> (which describes the latest versions).

These links should appear automatically, some hours after upload.
If they don't, or the C<README.html> description is inadequate,
ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.

=item *

Check L<http://www.cpan.org/src/> to ensure that the C</src> updates
have been correctly mirrored to the website.
If they haven't, ask Ask <ask@perl.org>.

=item *

Check L<http://search.cpan.org> to see if it has indexed the distribution.
It should be visible at a URL like C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl-5.10.1/>.

=back

=for checklist skip RC

=head3 update dev.perl.org

I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>

In your C<perlorg> repository, link to the new release.  For a new
latest-maint release, edit F<docs/shared/tpl/stats.html>.  Otherwise,
edit F<docs/dev/perl5/index.html>.

Then make a pull request to Leo Lapworth.  If this fails for some reason
and you cannot cajole anybody else into submitting that change, you can
mail Leo as last resort.

This repository can be found on L<github|https://github.com/perlorg/perlweb>.

=for checklist end

=head1 SOURCE

Based on
http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html,
plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.

=cut