3 release_managers_guide - Releasing a new version of perl 5.x
5 As of August 2009, this file is mostly complete, although it is missing
6 some detail on doing a major release (e.g. 5.10.0 -> 5.12.0). Note that
7 things change at each release, so there may be new things not covered
8 here, or tools may need updating.
12 This document describes the series of tasks required - some automatic, some
13 manual - to produce a perl release of some description, be that a snaphot,
14 release candidate, or final, numbered release of maint or blead.
16 The release process has traditionally been executed by the current
19 This document both helps as a check-list for the release engineer
20 and is a base for ideas on how the various tasks could be automated
23 The outline of a typical release cycle is as follows:
25 (5.10.1 is released, and post-release actions have been done)
29 an occasional snapshot is released, that still identifies itself as
34 a few weeks before the release, a number of steps are performed,
35 including bumping the version to 5.10.2
37 ...a few weeks passes...
39 perl-5.10.2-RC1 is released
41 perl-5.10.2 is released
43 post-release actions are performed, including creating new
46 ... the cycle continues ...
50 Some of the tasks described below apply to all four types of
51 release of Perl. (snapshot, RC, final release of maint, final
52 release of blead). Some of these tasks apply only to a subset
53 of these release types. If a step does not apply to a given
54 type of release, you will see a notation to that effect at
55 the beginning of the step.
63 A snapshot is intended to encourage in-depth testing from time-to-time,
64 for example after a key point in the stabilisation of a branch. It
65 requires fewer steps than a full release, and the version number of perl in
66 the tarball will usually be the same as that of the previous release.
68 =item Release Candidate (RC)
70 A release candidate is an attempt to produce a tarball that is a close as
71 possible to the final release. Indeed, unless critical faults are found
72 during the RC testing, the final release will be identical to the RC
73 barring a few minor fixups (updating the release date in F<perlhist.pod>,
74 removing the RC status from F<patchlevel.h>, etc). If faults are found,
75 then the fixes should be put into a new release candidate, never directly
78 =item Stable/Maint release
80 At this point you should have a working release candidate with few or no
83 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
84 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps.
88 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
89 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps.
95 Before you can make an official release of perl, there are a few
96 hoops you need to jump through:
102 I<SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
104 Make sure you have a PAUSE account suitable for uploading a perl release.
105 If you don't have a PAUSE account, then request one:
107 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=request_id
109 Check that your account is allowed to upload perl distros: goto
110 https://pause.perl.org/, login, then select 'upload file to CPAN'; there
111 should be a "For pumpkings only: Send a CC" tickbox. If not, ask Andreas
112 König to add your ID to the list of people allowed to upload something
113 called perl. You can find Andreas' email address at:
115 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=pause_04imprint
119 Some release engineering steps require a full mirror of the CPAN.
120 Work to fall back to using a remote mirror via HTTP is incomplete
121 but ongoing. (No, a minicpan mirror is not sufficient)
123 =item git checkout and commit bit
125 You will need a working C<git> installation, checkout of the perl
126 git repository and perl commit bit. For information about working
127 with perl and git, see F<pod/perlrepository.pod>.
129 If you are not yet a perl committer, you won't be able to make a
130 release. Have a chat with whichever evil perl porter tried to talk
131 you into the idea in the first place to figure out the best way to
135 =item Quotation for release announcement epigraph
137 I<SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT and RC>
139 For a numbered blead or maint release of perl, you will need a quotation
140 to use as an epigraph to your release announcement. (There's no harm
141 in having one for a snapshot, but it's not required).
147 =head2 Building a release - advance actions
149 The work of building a release candidate for a numbered release of
150 perl generally starts several weeks before the first release candidate.
151 Some of the following steps should be done regularly, but all I<must> be
152 done in the run up to a release.
158 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
160 Ensure that dual-life CPAN modules are synchronised with CPAN. Basically,
163 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -a -o /tmp/corediffs
165 to see any inconsistencies between the core and CPAN versions of distros,
166 then fix the core, or cajole CPAN authors as appropriate. See also the
167 C<-d> and C<-v> options for more detail. You'll probably want to use the
168 C<-c cachedir> option to avoid repeated CPAN downloads.
170 To see which core distro versions differ from the current CPAN versions:
172 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -x -a
174 If you are making a maint release, run C<core-cpan-diff> on both blead and
175 maint, then diff the two outputs. Compare this with what you expect, and if
176 necessary, fix things up. For example, you might think that both blead
177 and maint are synchronised with a particular CPAN module, but one might
178 have some extra changes.
182 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
184 Ensure dual-life CPAN modules are stable, which comes down to:
186 for each module that fails its regression tests on $current
187 did it fail identically on $previous?
188 if yes, "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem)
189 else work out why it failed (a bisect is useful for this)
191 attempt to group failure causes
193 for each failure cause
194 is that a regression?
195 if yes, figure out how to fix it
196 (more code? revert the code that broke it)
198 (presumably) it's relying on something un-or-under-documented
199 should the existing behaviour stay?
200 yes - goto "regression"
201 no - note it in perldelta as a significant bugfix
202 (also, try to inform the module's author)
206 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
208 Similarly, monitor the smoking of core tests, and try to fix.
212 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
214 Similarly, monitor the smoking of perl for compiler warnings, and try to
219 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
221 Run F<Porting/cmpVERSION.pl> to compare the current source tree with the
222 previous version to check for for modules that have identical version
223 numbers but different contents, e.g.:
225 $ cd ~/some-perl-root
226 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/cmpVERSION.pl -xd ~/my_perl-tarballs/perl-5.10.0 .
228 then bump the version numbers of any non-dual-life modules that have
229 changed since the previous release, but which still have the old version
230 number. If there is more than one maintenance branch (e.g. 5.8.x, 5.10.x),
231 then compare against both.
233 Note that some of the files listed may be generated (e.g. copied from ext/
234 to lib/, or a script like lib/lib_pm.PL is run to produce lib/lib.pm);
235 make sure you edit the correct file!
237 Once all version numbers have been bumped, re-run the checks.
239 Then run again without the -x option, to check that dual-life modules are
244 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
246 Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.
248 Peruse F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>, and try to make sure that
249 every section it lists is, if necessary, populated and complete. Copy
250 edit the whole document.
254 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
256 A week or two before the first release candidate, bump the perl version
257 number (e.g. from 5.10.0 to 5.10.1), to allow sufficient time for testing
258 and smoking with the target version built into the perl executable. For
259 subsequent release candidates and the final release, it it not necessary
260 to bump the version further.
262 There is a tool to semi-automate this process. It works in two stages.
263 First, it generates a list of suggested changes, which you review and
264 edit; then you feed this list back and it applies the edits. So, first
265 scan the source directory looking for likely candidates. The command line
266 arguments are the old and new version numbers, and -s means scan:
268 $ Porting/bump-perl-version -s 5.10.0 5.10.1 > /tmp/scan
270 This produces a file containing a list of suggested edits, e.g.:
274 89: -MODULE_DESC = "Perl 5.10.0 for NetWare"
275 +MODULE_DESC = "Perl 5.10.1 for NetWare"
277 i.e. in the file F<NetWare/Makefile>, line 89 would be changed as shown.
278 Review the file carefully, and delete any -/+ line pairs that you don't
279 want changing. You can also edit just the C<+> line to change the
280 suggested replacement text. Remember that this tool is largely just
281 grepping for '5.10.0' or whatever, so it will generate false positives. Be
282 careful not change text like "this was fixed in 5.10.0"! Then run:
284 $ Porting/bump-perl-version -u < /tmp/scan
286 which will update all the files shown; then commit the changes.
288 Be particularly careful with F<INSTALL>, which contains a mixture of
289 C<5.10.0>-type strings, some of which need bumping on every release, and
290 some of which need to be left unchanged. Also note that this tool
291 currently only detects a single substitution per line: so in particular,
292 this line in README.vms needs special handling:
294 rename perl-5^.10^.1.dir perl-5_10_1.dir
299 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
301 Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number;
302 in particular, the "Coexistence with earlier versions of perl 5" section.
306 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
308 Update the F<Changes> file to contain the git log command which would show
309 all the changes in this release. You will need assume the existence of a
310 not-yet created tag for the forthcoming release; e.g.
312 git log ... perl-5.10.0..perl5.12.0
314 Due to warts in the perforce-to-git migration, some branches require extra
315 exclusions to avoid other branches being pulled in. Make sure you have the
316 correct incantation: replace the not-yet-created tag with C<HEAD> and see
317 if C<git log> produces roughly the right number of commits across roughly the
318 right time period (you may find C<git log --pretty=oneline | wc> useful).
322 Check some more build configurations. The check that setuid builds and
323 installs is for < 5.11.0 only.
325 $ sh Configure -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y -Uinstallusrbinperl \
326 -Duseshrplib -Dd_dosuid
328 $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd` make test # or similar for useshrplib
331 $ su -c 'make install'
332 $ ls -l .../bin/sperl
333 -rws--x--x 1 root root 69974 2009-08-22 21:55 .../bin/sperl
335 (Then delete the installation directory.)
337 XXX think of other configurations that need testing.
341 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
343 Update F<AUTHORS>, using the C<Porting/checkAUTHORS.pl> script, and if
344 necessary, update the script to include new alias mappings for porters
345 already in F<AUTHORS>
347 $ git log | perl Porting/checkAUTHORS.pl --acknowledged AUTHORS -
351 =head2 Building a release - on the day
353 This section describes the actions required to make a release (or snapshot
354 etc) that are performed on the actual day.
360 Review all the items in the previous section,
361 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
366 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
368 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
369 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
370 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
371 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
373 $ podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perl5101delta.pod
374 $ spell pod/perl5101delta.pod
376 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
379 $ perl pod/pod2html pod/perl5101delta.pod > /tmp/perl5101delta.html
383 Make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
384 unpushed commits etc):
390 If not already built, Configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile
393 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make
397 Check that files managed by F<regen.pl> and friends are up to date. From
398 within your working directory:
405 If any of the files managed by F<regen.pl> have changed, then you should
406 re-make perl to check that it's okay, then commit the updated versions:
408 $ git commit -a -m 'make regn; make regn_perly'
418 XXX it would be nice to make Porting/makemeta use regen_lib.pl
419 to get the same 'update the file if its changed' functionality
420 we get with 'make regen' etc.
422 Commit META.yml if it has changed:
424 $ git commit -m 'Update META.yml' META.yml
428 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
430 Update C<Module::Corelist> with module version data for the new release.
432 Note that if this is a maint release, you should run the following actions
433 from the maint directory, but commit the C<Corelist.pm> changes in
434 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick it.
436 F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
437 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror or fall back
438 to C<wget> or C<curl> to fetch only package metadata remotely.
440 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
441 http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN)
443 Then change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
447 If this not the first update for this version, first edit
448 F<lib/Module/CoreList.pm>to delete the existing entries for this version
449 from the C<%released> and C<%version> hashes: they will have a key like
450 C<5.010001> for 5.10.1.
452 XXX the edit-in-place functionality of Porting/corelist.pl should
453 be fixed to handle this automatically.
455 Then, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
457 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
461 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
463 This will chug for a while, possibly reporting various warnings about
464 badly-indexed CPABN modules unreltaed to the modules actually in core.
465 Assuming all goes well, it will update F<lib/Module/CoreList.pm>.
467 Check that file over carefully:
469 $ git diff lib/Module/CoreList.pm
471 If necessary, bump C<$VERSION> (there's no need to do this for
472 every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
473 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
475 Edit the version number in the new C<< 'Module::CoreList' => 'X.YZ' >>
476 entry, as that is likely to reflect the previous version number.
478 In addition, if this is a final release (rather than a release candidate):
484 Update this version's entry in the C<%released> hash with today's date.
488 Make sure that the script has correctly updated the C<CAVEATS> section
492 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
493 (unless this is for maint; in which case commit it blead first, then
494 cherry-pick it back).
496 $ git commit -m 'Update Module::CoreList for 5.x.y' lib/Module/CoreList.pm
500 Check that the manifest is sorted and correct:
504 $ perl Porting/manicheck
507 Commit MANIFEST if it has changed:
509 $ git commit -m 'Update MANIFEST' MANIFEST
513 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
515 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the current date, e.g.:
517 David 5.10.1-RC1 2009-Aug-06
519 Make sure that the correct pumpking is listed in the left-hand column, and
520 if this is the first release under the stewardship of a new pumpking, make
521 sure that his or her name is listed in the section entitled
522 C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
524 Be sure to commit your changes:
526 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
530 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
532 Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is
533 a final release, remove it. For example:
535 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
538 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
540 Be sure to commit your change:
542 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
546 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
549 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
551 # or if it's an odd-numbered version:
552 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
558 Check that the output of C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
559 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -V> are as expected,
560 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
561 paths. Note that as they have been been built from a git working
562 directory, they will still identify themselves using git tags and
565 Then delete the temporary installation.
569 If this is maint release, make sure F<Porting/mergelog> is saved and
574 Push all your recent commits:
576 $ git push origin ....
580 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
581 the tarball and directory name:
583 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
585 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
586 $ git status # and there's nothing lying around
588 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s `git describe` # for a snapshot
589 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s RC1 # for a release candidate
590 $ perl Porting/makerel -b # for a final release
592 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
593 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them,
594 adds DOS line endings to some, then tars it up as
595 F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. With C<-b>, it also creates a C<tar.bz2> file.
597 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
602 Clean up the temporary directory, e.g.
604 $ rm -rf ../perl-x.y.z-RC1
608 Copy the tarballs (.gz and possibly .bz2) to a web server somewhere you
613 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
614 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
615 and architectures. The #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org is a good place
616 to find willing victims.
620 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
622 $ ./Configure -des && make all test
626 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
629 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
634 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
635 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
638 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
639 which is why you should test from the tarball.
643 Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility:
647 All tests successful.
652 Compare the pathnames of all installed files with those of the previous
653 release (i.e. against the last installed tarball on this branch which you
654 have previously verified using this same procedure). In particular, look
655 for files in the wrong place, or files no longer included which should be.
656 For example, suppose the about-to-be-released version is 5.10.1 and the
659 cd installdir-5.10.0/
660 find . -type f | perl -pe's/5\.10\.0/5.10.1/g' | sort > /tmp/f1
661 cd installdir-5.10.1/
662 find . -type f | sort > /tmp/f2
667 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
669 $ bin/perl -MCPAN -e'shell'
673 Try installing a popular CPAN module that's reasonably complex and that
674 has dependencies; for example:
679 Check that your perl can run this:
681 $ bin/perl -lwe 'use Inline C => "int f() { return 42;} "; print f'
687 Bootstrap the CPANPLUS client on the clean install:
693 Install an XS module, for example:
697 $ bin/perl -MDBI -e 1
702 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
704 Check that the C<perlbug> utility works. Try the following:
708 Subject: test bug report
709 Local perl administrator [yourself]:
715 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): f
716 Name of file to save message in [perlbug.rep]:
717 Action (Send/Display/Edit/Subject/Save to File): q
719 and carefully examine the output (in F<perlbug.rep]>), especially
720 the "Locally applied patches" section. If everything appears okay, then
721 delete the file, and try it again, this time actually submitting the bug
722 report. Check that it shows up, then remember to close it!
726 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
728 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
729 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
731 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
737 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
739 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
740 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
741 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
743 https://pause.perl.org/
745 (Login, then select 'Upload a file to CPAN')
747 Upload both the .gz and .bz2 versions of the tarball.
751 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
753 Create a tag for the exact git revision you built the release from.
754 C<commit> below is the commit corresponding to the tarball. It can be
755 omitted if there have been no further commits since the tarball was
756 created, for example:
758 $ git tag perl-5.10.1-RC1 -m'Release Candidate 1 of Perl 5.10.1' <commit>
759 $ git push origin tag perl-5.10.1-RC1
763 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
765 Disarm the F<patchlevel.h> change; for example,
767 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
770 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
772 Be sure to commit your change:
774 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
775 $ git push origin ....
780 Mail p5p to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
784 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
786 Wait 24 hours or so, then post the announcement to use.perl.org.
787 (if you don't have access rights to post news, ask someone like Rafael to
792 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
794 Ask Jarkko to add the tarball to http://www.cpan.org/src/
798 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC, BLEAD>
800 Ask Jarkko to update the descriptions of which tarballs are current in
801 http://www.cpan.org/src/README.html, and Rafael to update
802 http://dev.perl.org/perl5/
806 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC>
808 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
813 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC>
815 Bump the perlXYZ version number.
817 First, create a new empty perlNNNdelta.pod file for the current release + 1;
818 see F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>.
820 You should be able to do this by just copying in a skeleton template and
821 then doing a quick fix up of the version numbers, e.g.
823 $ cp -i Porting/perldelta_template pod/perl5102delta.pod
825 $ git add pod/perl5102delta.pod
827 Edit F<pod.lst>: add the new entry, flagged as 'D', and unflag the previous
828 entry from being 'D'; for example:
830 -D perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
831 +D perl5102delta Perl changes in version 5.10.2
832 + perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
834 Run C<perl pod/buildtoc --build-all> to update the F<perldelta> version in
841 vms/descrip_mms.template
846 Then manually edit (F<vms/descrip_mms.template> to bump the version
847 in the following entry:
849 [.pod]perldelta.pod : [.pod]perl5101delta.pod
851 XXX this previous step needs to fixed to automate it in pod/buildtoc.
853 Manually update references to the perlNNNdelta version in these files:
858 Edit the previous delta file to change the C<NAME> from C<perldelta>
861 These two lists of files probably aren't exhaustive; do a recursive grep
862 on the previous filename to look for suitable candidates that may have
867 $ git commit -a -m 'create perlXXXdelta'
869 At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
870 see if they look similar. See commit ca8de22071 for an example of a
871 previous version bump.
875 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC, BLEAD>
877 If this was a maint release, then edit F<Porting/mergelog> to change
878 all the C<d> (deferred) flags to C<.> (needs review).
882 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC, BLEAD>
884 If this was a major release (5.x.0), then create a new maint branch
885 based on the commit tagged as the current release and bump the version
886 in the blead branch in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
888 [ XXX probably lots more stuff to do, including perldelta,
891 XXX need a git recipe
895 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC, BLEAD>
897 Copy the perlNNNdelta.pod for this release into the other branches; for
900 $ cp -i ../5.10.x/pod/perl5101delta.pod pod/ # for example
901 $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod
903 Edit F<pod.lst> to add an entry for the file, e.g.:
905 perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
907 Then rebuild various files:
909 $ perl pod/buildtoc --build-all
913 $ git commit -a -m 'add perlXXXdelta'
917 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
919 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
920 F<perlhist.pod> on other branches; typically the RC* and final entries,
923 5.8.9-RC1 2008-Nov-10
924 5.8.9-RC2 2008-Dec-06
929 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some much-needed
930 rest and relaxation>.
932 Thanks for releasing perl!
939 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html,
940 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.