Archives of the list are held at:
- http://www.rosat.mpe-garching.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl-porters/
+ http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/
=head1 How are Perl Releases Numbered?
Trial releases of bug-fix maintenance releases are announced on
perl5-porters. Trial releases use the new subversion number (to avoid
testers installing it over the previous release) and include a 'local
-patch' entry in patchlevel.h. The distribution file contains the
+patch' entry in F<patchlevel.h>. The distribution file contains the
string C<MAINT_TRIAL> to make clear that the file is not meant for
public consumption.
C<$1> in the pattern is always an even number for maintenance
versions, and odd for developer releases.
-In the past it has been observed that pumkings tend to invent new
+In the past it has been observed that pumpkings tend to invent new
naming conventions on the fly. If you are a pumpking, before you
invent a new name for any of the three types of perl distributions,
please inform the guys from the CPAN who are doing indexing and
If feasible, try to keep filenames 8.3-compliant to humor those poor
souls that get joy from running Perl under such dire limitations.
-There's a script, check83.pl, for keeping your nose 8.3-clean.
+There's a script, F<check83.pl>, for keeping your nose 8.3-clean.
+In a similar vein, do not create files or directories which differ only
+in case (upper versus lower).
=head2 Seek consensus on major changes
=item source code
If you have many machine-specific #defines or #includes, consider
-creating an "osish.h" (os2ish.h, vmsish.h, and so on) and including
-that in perl.h. If you have several machine-specific files (function
+creating an "osish.h" (F<os2ish.h>, F<vmsish.h>, and so on) and including
+that in F<perl.h>. If you have several machine-specific files (function
emulations, function stubs, build utility wrappers) you may create a
separate subdirectory (djgpp, win32) and put the files in there.
Remember to update C<MANIFEST> when you add files.
peculiarities.
Remember to have a $VERSION in the modules. You can use the
-Porting/checkVERSION.pl script for checking this.
+F<Porting/checkVERSION.pl> script for checking this.
=item documentation
=head2 Automated generation of derivative files
-The F<embed.h>, F<keywords.h>, F<opcode.h>, and F<perltoc.pod> files
+The F<embed.h>, F<keywords.h>, F<opcode.h>, F<regcharclass.h>,
+F<l1_char_class_tab.h>, and F<perltoc.pod> files
are all automatically generated by perl scripts. In general, don't
patch these directly; patch the data files instead.
=head1 How to Make a Distribution
-There really ought to be a 'make dist' target, but there isn't.
-The 'dist' suite of tools also contains a number of tools that I haven't
-learned how to use yet. Some of them may make this all a bit easier.
+This section has now been expanded and moved into its own file,
+F<Porting/release_managers_guide.pod>.
-Here are the steps I go through to prepare a patch & distribution.
-
-Lots of it could doubtless be automated but isn't. The Porting/makerel
-(make release) perl script does now help automate some parts of it.
-
-=head2 Announce your intentions
-
-First, you should volunteer out loud to take the patch pumpkin. It's
-generally counter-productive to have multiple people working in secret
-on the same thing.
-
-At the same time, announce what you plan to do with the patch pumpkin,
-to allow folks a chance to object or suggest alternatives, or do it for
-you. Naturally, the patch pumpkin holder ought to incorporate various
-bug fixes and documentation improvements that are posted while he or
-she has the pumpkin, but there might also be larger issues at stake.
-
-One of the precepts of the subversion idea is that we shouldn't give
-the patch pumpkin to anyone unless we have some idea what he or she
-is going to do with it.
-
-=head2 refresh pod/perltoc.pod
-
-Presumably, you have done a full C<make> in your working source
-directory. Before you C<make spotless> (if you do), and if you have
-changed any documentation in any module or pod file, change to the
-F<pod> directory and run C<make toc>.
-
-=head2 run installhtml to check the validity of the pod files
-
-=head2 update patchlevel.h
-
-Don't be shy about using the subversion number, even for a relatively
-modest patch. We've never even come close to using all 99 subversions,
-and it's better to have a distinctive number for your patch. If you
-need feedback on your patch, go ahead and issue it and promise to
-incorporate that feedback quickly (e.g. within 1 week) and send out a
-second patch.
-
-If you update the subversion number, you may need to change the version
-number near the top of the F<Changes> file.
+I've kept some of the subsections here for now, as they don't directly
+relate to building a release any more, but still contain what might be
+useful information - DAPM 7/2009.
=head2 run metaconfig
metaconfig -m
-will regenerate Configure and config_h.SH. Much more information
+will regenerate F<Configure> and F<config_h.SH>. Much more information
on obtaining and running metaconfig is in the F<U/README> file
-that comes with Perl's metaconfig units. Perl's metaconfig units
-should be available on CPAN. A set of units that will work with
-perl5.005 is in the file F<mc_units-5.005_00-01.tar.gz> under
-http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/ANDYD/ . The mc_units tar file
-should be unpacked in your main perl source directory. Note: those
-units were for use with 5.005. There may have been changes since then.
-Check for later versions or contact perl5-porters@perl.org to obtain a
+that comes with Perl's metaconfig units.
+
+Since metaconfig is hard to change, running correction scripts after
+this generation is sometimes needed. Configure gained complexity over
+time, and the order in which config_h.SH is generated can cause havoc
+when compiling perl. Therefor, you need to run Porting/config_h.pl
+after that generation. All that and more is described in the README
+files that come with the metaunits.
+
+Perl's metaconfig units should be available on CPAN. A set of units
+that will work with perl5.9.x is in a file with a name similar to
+F<mc_units-20070423.tgz> under L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/H/HM/HMBRAND/>.
+The mc_units tar file should be unpacked in your main perl source directory.
+Note: those units were for use with 5.9.x. There may have been changes since
+then. Check for later versions or contact perl5-porters@perl.org to obtain a
pointer to the current version.
-Alternatively, do consider if the F<*ish.h> files might be a better
-place for your changes.
+Alternatively, do consider if the F<*ish.h> files or the hint files might be
+a better place for your changes.
=head2 MANIFEST
-Make sure the MANIFEST is up-to-date. You can use dist's B<manicheck>
-program for this. You can also use
-
- perl -w -MExtUtils::Manifest=fullcheck -e fullcheck
-
-Both commands will also list extra files in the directory that are not
-listed in MANIFEST.
-
-The MANIFEST is normally sorted.
-
If you are using metaconfig to regenerate Configure, then you should note
that metaconfig actually uses MANIFEST.new, so you want to be sure
MANIFEST.new is up-to-date too. I haven't found the MANIFEST/MANIFEST.new
distinction particularly useful, but that's probably because I still haven't
learned how to use the full suite of tools in the dist distribution.
-=head2 Check permissions
-
-All the tests in the t/ directory ought to be executable. The
-main makefile used to do a 'chmod t/*/*.t', but that resulted in
-a self-modifying distribution--something some users would strongly
-prefer to avoid. The F<t/TEST> script will check for this
-and do the chmod if needed, but the tests still ought to be
-executable.
-
-In all, the following files should probably be executable:
-
- Configure
- configpm
- configure.gnu
- embed.pl
- installperl
- installman
- keywords.pl
- myconfig
- opcode.pl
- perly.fixer
- t/TEST
- t/*/*.t
- *.SH
- vms/ext/Stdio/test.pl
- vms/ext/filespec.t
- x2p/*.SH
-
-Other things ought to be readable, at least :-).
-
-Probably, the permissions for the files could be encoded in MANIFEST
-somehow, but I'm reluctant to change MANIFEST itself because that
-could break old scripts that use MANIFEST.
-
-I seem to recall that some SVR3 systems kept some sort of file that listed
-permissions for system files; something like that might be appropriate.
=head2 Run Configure
sometimes get scrambled around, and the changes in config_H can
sometimes be very hard to follow. config.sh, on the other hand, can
safely be sorted, so it's easy to track (typically very small) changes
-to config.sh and then propoagate them to a canned 'config.h' by any
+to config.sh and then propagate them to a canned 'config.h' by any
number of means, including a perl script in win32/ or carrying
-config.sh and config_h.SH to a Unix system and running sh
-config_h.SH.) Vms uses configure.com to generate its own config.sh
-and config.h. If you want to add a new variable to config.sh check
+F<config.sh> and F<config_h.SH> to a Unix system and running sh
+config_h.SH.) Vms uses F<configure.com> to generate its own F<config.sh>
+and F<config.h>. If you want to add a new variable to F<config.sh> check
with vms folk how to add it to configure.com too.
XXX]
-The Porting/config.sh and Porting/config_H files are provided to
+The F<Porting/config.sh> and F<Porting/config_H> files are provided to
help those folks who can't run Configure. It is important to keep
-them up-to-date. If you have changed config_h.SH, those changes must
+them up-to-date. If you have changed F<config_h.SH>, those changes must
be reflected in config_H as well. (The name config_H was chosen to
distinguish the file from config.h even on case-insensitive file systems.)
Simply edit the existing config_H file; keep the first few explanatory
lines and then copy your new config.h below.
It may also be necessary to update win32/config.?c, and
-plan9/config.plan9, though you should be quite careful in doing so if
+F<plan9/config.plan9>, though you should be quite careful in doing so if
you are not familiar with those systems. You might want to issue your
patch with a promise to quickly issue a follow-up that handles those
directories.
-=head2 make run_byacc
-
-If you have byacc-1.8.2 (available from CPAN), and if there have been
-changes to F<perly.y>, you can regenerate the F<perly.c> file. The
-run_byacc makefile target does this by running byacc and then applying
-some patches so that byacc dynamically allocates space, rather than
-having fixed limits. This patch is handled by the F<perly.fixer>
-script. Depending on the nature of the changes to F<perly.y>, you may
-or may not have to hand-edit the patch to apply correctly. If you do,
-you should include the edited patch in the new distribution. If you
-have byacc-1.9, the patch won't apply cleanly. Changes to the printf
-output statements mean the patch won't apply cleanly. Long ago I
-started to fix F<perly.fixer> to detect this, but I never completed the
-task.
-
-If C<perly.c> or C<perly.h> changes, make sure you run C<perl vms/vms_yfix.pl>
-to update the corresponding VMS files. This could be taken care of by
-the regen_all target in the Unix Makefile. See also
-L<VMS-specific updates>.
-
-Some additional notes from Larry on this:
+=head2 make regen_perly
-Don't forget to regenerate perly_c.diff.
+If F<perly.y> has been edited, it is necessary to run this target to rebuild
+F<perly.h>, F<perly.act> and F<perly.tab>. In fact this target just runs the Perl
+script F<regen_perly.pl>. Note that F<perly.c> is I<not> rebuilt; this is just a
+plain static file now.
- byacc -d perly.y
- mv y.tab.c perly.c
- patch perly.c <perly_c.diff
- # manually apply any failed hunks
- diff -c perly.c.orig perly.c >perly_c.diff
+This target relies on you having Bison installed on your system. Running
+the target will tell you if you haven't got the right version, and if so,
+where to get the right one. Or if you prefer, you could hack
+F<regen_perly.pl> to work with your version of Bison. The important things
+are that the regexes can still extract out the right chunks of the Bison
+output into F<perly.act> and F<perly.tab>, and that the contents of those two
+files, plus F<perly.h>, are functionally equivalent to those produced by the
+supported version of Bison.
-One chunk of lines that often fails begins with
-
- #line 29 "perly.y"
-
-and ends one line before
-
- #define YYERRCODE 256
-
-This only happens when you add or remove a token type. I suppose this
-could be automated, but it doesn't happen very often nowadays.
-
-Larry
+Note that in the old days, you had to do C<make run_byacc> instead.
=head2 make regen_all
-This target takes care of the PERLYVMS, regen_headers, and regen_pods
-targets.
+This target takes care of the regen_headers target.
+(It used to also call the regen_pods target, but that has been eliminated.)
=head2 make regen_headers
than answering all the questions and complaints about the failing
command.
-=head2 make regen_pods
-
-Will run `make regen_pods` in the pod directory for indexing.
-
-=head2 global.sym, interp.sym and perlio.sym
+=head2 global.sym, and perlio.sym
Make sure these files are up-to-date. Read the comments in these
-files and in perl_exp.SH to see what to do.
+files and in F<perl_exp.SH> to see what to do.
=head2 Binary compatibility
-If you do change F<global.sym> or F<interp.sym>, think carefully about
+If you do change F<global.sym> think carefully about
what you are doing. To the extent reasonable, we'd like to maintain
source and binary compatibility with older releases of perl. That way,
extensions built under one version of perl will continue to work with
backwards-compatibility stubs. There's a lot of XS code out there.
Let's not force people to keep changing it.
-=head2 Changes
+=head2 PPPort
-Be sure to update the F<Changes> file. Try to include both an overall
-summary as well as detailed descriptions of the changes. Your
-audience will include other developers and users, so describe
-user-visible changes (if any) in terms they will understand, not in
-code like "initialize foo variable in bar function".
+F<cpan/Devel-PPPort/PPPort.pm> needs to be synchronized to include all
+new macros added to .h files (normally F<perl.h> and F<XSUB.h>, but others
+as well). Since chances are that when a new macro is added the
+committer will forget to update F<PPPort.pm>, it's the best to diff for
+changes in .h files when making a new release and making sure that
+F<PPPort.pm> contains them all.
-There are differing opinions on whether the detailed descriptions
-ought to go in the Changes file or whether they ought to be available
-separately in the patch file (or both). There is no disagreement that
-detailed descriptions ought to be easily available somewhere.
+The pumpking can delegate the synchronization responsibility to anybody
+else, but the release process is the only place where we can make sure
+that no new macros fell through the cracks.
-If you update the subversion number in F<patchlevel.h>, you may need
-to change the version number near the top of the F<Changes> file.
=head2 Todo
-The F<Todo> file contains a roughly-catgorized unordered list of
-aspects of Perl that could use enhancement, features that could be
-added, areas that could be cleaned up, and so on. During your term as
-pumpkin-holder, you will probably address some of these issues, and
-perhaps identify others which, while you decide not to address them
-this time around, may be tackled in the future. Update the file
-reflect the situation as it stands when you hand over the pumpkin.
+The F<pod/perltodo.pod> file contains a roughly-categorized unordered
+list of aspects of Perl that could use enhancement, features that could
+be added, areas that could be cleaned up, and so on. During your term
+as pumpkin-holder, you will probably address some of these issues, and
+perhaps identify others which, while you decide not to address them this
+time around, may be tackled in the future. Update the file to reflect
+the situation as it stands when you hand over the pumpkin.
You might like, early in your pumpkin-holding career, to see if you
-can find champions for partiticular issues on the to-do list: an issue
+can find champions for particular issues on the to-do list: an issue
owned is an issue more likely to be resolved.
-There are also some more porting-specific L<Todo> items later in this
+There are also some more porting-specific L</Todo> items later in this
file.
=head2 OS/2-specific updates
=head2 VMS-specific updates
-If you have changed F<perly.y> or F<perly.c>, then you most probably want
-to update F<vms/perly_{h,c}.vms> by running C<perl vms/vms_yfix.pl>, or
-by running `make regen_all` which will run that script for you.
-
-The Perl revision number appears as "perl5" in configure.com.
+The Perl revision number appears as "perl5" in F<configure.com>.
It is courteous to update that if necessary.
-=head2 Making the new distribution
-
-Suppose, for example, that you want to make version 5.004_08. Then you can
-do something like the following
-
- mkdir ../perl5.004_08
- awk '{print $1}' MANIFEST | cpio -pdm ../perl5.004_08
- cd ../
- tar cf perl5.004_08.tar perl5.004_08
- gzip --best perl5.004_08.tar
-
-These steps, with extra checks, are automated by the Porting/makerel
-script.
=head2 Making a new patch
I find the F<makepatch> utility quite handy for making patches.
You can obtain it from any CPAN archive under
-http://www.cpan.org/authors/Johan_Vromans/ . There are a couple
+L<http://www.cpan.org/authors/Johan_Vromans/>. There are a couple
of differences between my version and the standard one. I have mine do
a
=over 4
-=item CHECK_FORMAT
-
-To test the correct use of printf-style arguments, C<Configure> with
-S<-Dccflags='-DCHECK_FORMAT -Wformat'> and run C<make>. The compiler
-will produce warning of incorrect use of format arguments. CHECK_FORMAT
-changes perl-defined formats to common formats, so DO NOT USE the executable
-produced by this process.
-
-A more accurate approach is the following commands:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-
-build miniperl with -DCHECK_FORMAT
-
- make clean
- make miniperl OPTIMIZE=-DCHECK_FORMAT >& mini.log
-
-=item *
-
-build a clean miniperl,
-and build everything else from that with -DCHECK_FORMAT
-
- make clean
- make miniperl
- make all OPTIMIZE='-DCHECK_FORMAT -Wformat' >& make.log
-
-=item *
-
-clean up, and print warnings from the log files
-
- make clean
- perl -nwe 'print if /^\S+:/ and not /^make\b/' \
- mini.log make.log
-
-=back
-
-(-Wformat support by Robin Barker.)
-
=item gcc -ansi -pedantic
Configure -Dgccansipedantic [ -Dcc=gcc ] will enable (via the cflags script,
within eval or require. (Fixing these is non-trivial, unfortunately, but
they must be fixed eventually.)
-=head1 Common Gotcha's
+=head1 Common Gotchas
=over 4
-=item #elif
-
-The '#elif' preprocessor directive is not understood on all systems.
-Specifically, I know that Pyramids don't understand it. Thus instead of the
-simple
-
- #if defined(I_FOO)
- # include <foo.h>
- #elif defined(I_BAR)
- # include <bar.h>
- #else
- # include <fubar.h>
- #endif
-
-You have to do the more Byzantine
-
- #if defined(I_FOO)
- # include <foo.h>
- #else
- # if defined(I_BAR)
- # include <bar.h>
- # else
- # include <fubar.h>
- # endif
- #endif
-
-Incidentally, whitespace between the leading '#' and the preprocessor
-command is not guaranteed, but is very portable and you may use it freely.
-I think it makes things a bit more readable, especially once things get
-rather deeply nested. I also think that things should almost never get
-too deeply nested, so it ought to be a moot point :-)
-
=item Probably Prefer POSIX
It's often the case that you'll need to choose whether to do
For dynamic loading to work on AIX (and VMS) we need to provide a list
of symbols to be exported. This is done by the script F<perl_exp.SH>,
-which reads F<global.sym>
and F<interp.sym>. Thus, the C<pause>
+which reads F<global.sym>. Thus, the C<pause>
symbol would have to be added to F<global.sym> So far, so good.
On the other hand, one of the goals of Perl5 is to make it easy to
That is, we don't want perl's global variables to conflict with
those in the other application library. Although this work is still
in progress, the way it is currently done is via the F<embed.h> file.
-This file is built from the F<global.sym> and F<interp.sym> files,
+This file is built from the F<global.sym> file,
since those files already list the globally visible symbols. If we
had added C<pause> to global.sym, then F<embed.h> would contain the
line
One way to do that is to add
ccflags="$ccflags -DAPPLLIB_EXP=\"/my/override\""
-
+
to your config.over file. (You have to be particularly careful to get the
double quotes in. APPLLIB_EXP must be a valid C string. It might
actually be easier to just #define it yourself in perl.c.)
perl5.004_04, ld.so might try to load libperl.so.4.5, since it has
the right "major version" number. If this works at all, it almost
certainly defeats the reason for keeping perl5.004_04 around. Worse,
-with development subversions, you certaily can't guarantee that
+with development subversions, you certainly can't guarantee that
libperl.so.4.4 and libperl.so.4.55 will be compatible.
Anyway, all this leads to quite obscure failures that are sure to drive
casual users crazy. Even experienced users will get confused :-). Upon
reflection, I'd say leave libperl.so in $archlib.
-=item 4.
+=back
+
+=head2 Indentation style
-Indentation style: over the years Perl has become a mishmash of
+Over the years Perl has become a mishmash of
various indentation styles, but the original "Larry style" can
probably be restored with (GNU) indent somewhat like this:
places like sv.c:Perl_sv_upgrade() or sv.c:Perl_clone_using().
Similarly nicely aligned &&s, ||s and ==s would not be respected.
-=back
-
=head1 Upload Your Work to CPAN
You can upload your work to CPAN if you have a CPAN id. Check out
-http://www.cpan.org/modules/04pause.html for information on
+L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/04pause.html> for information on
_PAUSE_, the Perl Author's Upload Server.
I typically upload both the patch file, e.g. F<perl5.004_08.pat.gz>
=over 4
-=item MacPerl
-
-Get some of the Macintosh stuff folded back into the main distribution.
-
=item gconvert replacement
Maybe include a replacement function that doesn't lose data in rare
=back
+=head2 Copyright Issues
+
+The following is based on the consensus of a couple of IPR lawyers,
+but it is of course not a legally binding statement, just a common
+sense summary.
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+Tacking on copyright statements is unnecessary to begin with because
+of the Berne convention. But assuming you want to go ahead...
+
+=item *
+
+The right form of a copyright statement is
+
+ Copyright (C) Year, Year, ... by Someone
+
+The (C) is not required everywhere but it doesn't hurt and in certain
+jurisdictions it is required, so let's leave it in. (Yes, it's true
+that in some jurisdictions the "(C)" is not legally binding, one should
+use the true ringed-C. But we don't have that character available for
+Perl's source code.)
+
+The years must be listed out separately. Year-Year is not correct.
+Only the years when the piece has changed 'significantly' may be added.
+
+=item *
+
+One cannot give away one's copyright trivially. One can give one's
+copyright away by using public domain, but even that requires a little
+bit more than just saying 'this is in public domain'. (What it
+exactly requires depends on your jurisdiction.) But barring public
+domain, one cannot "transfer" one's copyright to another person or
+entity. In the context of software, it means that contributors cannot
+give away their copyright or "transfer" it to the "owner" of the software.
+
+Also remember that in many cases if you are employed by someone,
+your work may be copyrighted to your employer, even when you are
+contributing on your own time (this all depends on too many things
+to list here). But the bottom line is that you definitely can't give
+away a copyright you may not even have.
+
+What is possible, however, is that the software can simply state
+
+ Copyright (C) Year, Year, ... by Someone and others
+
+and then list the "others" somewhere in the distribution.
+And this is exactly what Perl does. (The "somewhere" is
+AUTHORS and the Changes* files.)
+
+=item *
+
+Split files, merged files, and generated files are problematic.
+The rule of thumb: in split files, copy the copyright years of
+the original file to all the new files; in merged files make
+an union of the copyright years of all the old files; in generated
+files propagate the copyright years of the generating file(s).
+
+=item *
+
+The files of Perl source code distribution do carry a lot of
+copyrights, by various people. (There are many copyrights embedded in
+perl.c, for example.) The most straightforward thing for pumpkings to
+do is to simply update Larry's copyrights at the beginning of the
+*.[hcy], x2p/*.[hcy], *.pl, and README files, and leave all other
+copyrights alone. Doing more than that requires quite a bit of tracking.
+
+=back
+
=head1 AUTHORS
-Original author: Andy Dougherty doughera@lafcol.lafayette.edu .
+Original author: Andy Dougherty doughera@lafayette.edu .
Additions by Chip Salzenberg chip@perl.com and
Tim Bunce Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk .
=head1 LAST MODIFIED
-$Id: pumpkin.pod,v 1.23 2000/01/13 19:45:13 doughera Released $
+2009-07-08-01 Jesse Vincent
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff