3 release_managers_guide - Releasing a new version of perl 5.x
5 XXX as of Jul 2009, this file is still a work-in-progress. I think it
6 contains all the actions needed to build a release, but things may have
7 got skipped, and some things could do with polishing. Note that things
8 change each release, there may be new things not covered here, or
9 tools may need updating. DAPM
13 This document describes the series of tasks required - some automatic, some
14 manual - to produce a perl release of some description, be that a snaphot,
15 release candidate, or final, numbered release of maint or blead.
17 The release process has traditionally been executed by the current
20 This document both helps as a check-list for the release engineer
21 and is a base for ideas on how the various tasks could be automated
24 The outline of a typical release cycle is as follows:
26 (5.10.1 is released, and post-release actions have been done)
30 an occasional snapshot is released, that still identifies itself as
35 a few weeks before the release, a number of steps are performed,
36 including bumping the version to 5.10.2
38 ...a few weeks passes...
40 perl-5.10.2-RC1 is released
42 perl-5.10.2 is released
44 post-release actions are performed, including creating new
47 ... the cycle continues ...
51 Some of the tasks described below apply to all four types of
52 release of Perl. (snapshot, RC, final release of maint, final
53 release of blead). Some of these tasks apply only to a subset
54 of these release types. If a step does not apply to a given
55 type of release, you will see a notation to that effect at
56 the beginning of the step.
64 A snapshot is intended to encourage in-depth testing from time-to-time,
65 for example after a key point in the stabilisation of a branch. It
66 requires fewer steps than a full release, and the version number of perl in
67 the tarball will usually be the same as that of the previous release.
69 =item Release Candidate (RC)
73 =item Stable/Maint release
75 At this point you should have a working release candidate with few or no
78 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
79 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps.
83 It's essentially the same procedure as for making a release candidate, but
84 with a whole bunch of extra post-release steps.
90 Before you can make an official release of perl, there are a few
91 hoops you need to jump through:
97 I<SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
99 Make sure you have a PAUSE account suitable for uploading a perl release.
100 If you don't have a PAUSE account, then request one:
102 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=request_id
104 Check that your account is allowed to upload perl distros: goto
105 https://pause.perl.org/, login, then select 'upload file to CPAN'; there
106 should be a "For pumpkings only: Send a CC" tickbox. If not, ask Andreas
107 König to add your ID to the list of people allowed to upload something
108 called perl. You can find Andreas' email address at:
110 https://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=pause_04imprint
114 Some release engineering steps require a full mirror of the CPAN.
115 Work to fall back to using a remote mirror via HTTP is incomplete
116 but ongoing. (No, a minicpan mirror is not sufficient)
118 =item git checkout and commit bit
120 You will need a working C<git> installation, checkout of the perl
121 git repository and perl commit bit. For information about working
122 with perl and git, see F<pod/perlrepository.pod>.
124 If you are not yet a perl committer, you won't be able to make a
125 release. Have a chat with whichever evil perl porter tried to talk
126 you into the idea in the first place to figure out the best way to
130 =item Quotation for release announcement epigraph
132 I<SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT and RC>
134 For a numbered blead or maint release of perl, you will need a quotation
135 to use as an epigraph to your release announcement. (There's no harm
136 in having one for a snapshot, but it's not required).
142 =head2 Building a release - advance actions
144 The work of building a release candidate for a numbered release of
145 perl generally starts several weeks before the first release candidate.
146 Some of these should be done regularly, but all I<must> be done in the
153 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
155 Ensure that dual-life CPAN modules are synchronised with CPAN. Basically,
158 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -a -o /tmp/corediffs
160 to see any inconsistencies between the core and CPAN versions of distros,
161 then fix the core, or cajole CPAN authors as appropriate. See also the
162 C<-d> and C<-v> options for more detail. You'll probably want to use the
163 C<-c cachedir> option to avoid repeated CPAN downloads.
165 To see which core distro versions differ from the current CPAN versions:
167 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/core-cpan-diff -x -a
169 if you are making a maint release, run C<core-cpan-diff> on both blead and
170 maint, then diff the two outputs. Compare this with what you expect, and if
171 necessary, fix things up. For example, you might think that both blead
172 and maint are synchronised with a particular CPAN module, but one might
173 have some extra changes.
177 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
179 Ensure dual-life CPAN modules are stable, which comes down to:
181 for each module that fails its regression tests on $current
182 did it fail identically on $previous?
183 if yes, "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem)
184 else work out why it failed (a bisect is useful for this)
186 attempt to group failure causes
188 for each failure cause
189 is that a regression?
190 if yes, figure out how to fix it
191 (more code? revert the code that broke it)
193 (presumably) it's relying on something un-or-under-documented
194 should the existing behaviour stay?
195 yes - goto "regression"
196 no - note it in perldelta as a significant bugfix
197 (also, try to inform the module's author)
201 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
203 Similarly, monitor the smoking of core tests, and try to fix.
207 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
209 Similarly, monitor the smoking of perl for compiler warnings, and try to
214 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
216 Run F<Porting/cmpVERSION.pl> to compare the current source tree with the
217 previous version to check for for modules that have identical version
218 numbers but different contents, e.g.:
220 $ cd ~/some-perl-root
221 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/cmpVERSION.pl -xd ~/my_perl-tarballs/perl-5.10.0 .
223 then bump the version numbers of any non-dual-life modules that have
224 changed since the previous release, but which still have the old version
225 number. If there is more than one maintenance branch (e.g. 5.8.x, 5.10.x),
226 then compare against both.
228 Note that some of the files listed may be generated (e.g. copied from ext/
229 to lib/, or a script like lib/lib_pm.PL is run to produce lib/lib.pm);
230 make sure you edit the correct file!
232 Once all version numbers have been bumped, re-run the checks.
234 Then run again without the -x option, to check that dual-life modules are
239 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
241 Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.
243 Peruse F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>, and try to make sure that
244 every section it lists is, if necessary, populated and complete. Copy
245 edit the whole document.
249 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
251 A week or two before the first release candidate, bump the perl version
252 number (e.g. from 5.10.0 to 5.10.1), to allow sufficient time for testing
253 and smoking with the target version built into the perl executable. For
254 subsequent release candidates and the final release, it it not necessary
255 to bump the version further.
257 There is a tool to semi-automate this process. It works in two stages.
258 First, it generates a list of suggested changes, which you review and
259 edit; then you feed this list back and it applies the edits. So, first
260 scan the source dir looking for likely candidates:
262 $ Porting/bump-perl-version -s 5.10.0 5.10.1 > /tmp/scan
264 This produces a file containing a list of suggested edits, eg:
268 89: -MODULE_DESC = "Perl 5.10.0 for NetWare"
269 +MODULE_DESC = "Perl 5.10.1 for NetWare"
271 i.e. in the file F<NetWare/Makefile>, line 89 would be changed as shown.
272 Review the file carefully, and delete any -/+ line pairs that you don't
273 want changing. Remember that this tool is largely just grepping for '5.10.0'
274 or whatever, so it will generate false positives. Be careful not change
275 text like "this was fixed in 5.10.0"! Then run:
277 $ Porting/bump-perl-version -u < /tmp/scan
279 which will update all the files shown; then commit the changes.
281 Be particularly careful with F<INSTALL>, which contains a mixture of
282 C<5.10.0>-type strings, some of which need bumping on every release, and
283 some of which need to be left. Also note that this tool currently only
284 performs a single change per line, so in particular, this line in
285 README.vms needs special handling:
287 rename perl-5^.10^.1.dir perl-5_10_1.dir
292 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
294 Review and update INSTALL to account for the change in version number;
295 in particular, the "Coexistence with earlier versions of perl 5" section.
299 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
301 Update the F<Changes> file to contain the git log command which would show
302 all the changes in this release. You will need assume the existence of a
303 not-yet created tag for the forthcoming release; e.g.
305 git log ... perl-5.10.0..perl5.12.0
307 Due to warts in the perforce-to-git migration, some branches require extra
308 exclusions to avoid other branches being pulled in. Make sure you have the
309 correct incantation: replace the not-yet-created tag with C<HEAD> and see
310 if git log produces roughly the right number of commits across roughly the
316 Check some more build configurations, e.g.
318 -Duseshrplib -Dd_dosuid
321 Check that setuid installs works (for < 5.11.0 only).
322 XXX any other configs?
327 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
329 Update F<AUTHORS>, using the C<Porting/checkAUTHORS.pl> script, and if
330 necessary, update the script to include new alias mappings for porters
331 already in F<AUTHORS>
333 $ git log | perl Porting/checkAUTHORS.pl --acknowledged AUTHORS -
337 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
339 As there are no regular smokes [ XXX yet - please fix?] find out about the
340 state of the current branch on VMS. If the branch you're releasing on
341 is failing tests on VMS, you may not want to do a release.
345 =head2 Building a release - on the day
347 This section describes the actions required to make a release (or snapshot
348 etc) that are performed on the actual day.
354 Review all the items in the previous section,
355 L<"Building a release - advance actions"> to ensure they are all done and
360 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
362 Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos;
363 remove any C<TODO> or C<XXX> flags; update the "Known Problems" section
364 with any serious issues for which fixes are not going to happen now; and
365 run through pod and spell checkers, e.g.
367 podchecker -warnings -warnings pod/perl5101delta.pod
368 spell pod/perl5101delta.pod
370 Also, you may want to generate and view an HTML version of it to check
373 perl pod/pod2html pod/perl5101delta.pod > /tmp/perl5101delta.html
377 Make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files,
378 unpushed commits etc):
384 If not already built, Configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile
387 $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des
392 Check that files managed by F<regen.pl> and friends are up to date. From
393 within your working directory:
400 If any of the files managed by F<regen.pl> have changed, then you should
401 re-make perl to check that it's okay, then commit the updated versions:
403 $ git commit -a -m 'make regn; make regn_perly'
413 XXX it would be nice to make Porting/makemeta use regen_lib.pl
414 to get the same 'update the file if its changed' functionality
415 we get with 'make regen' etc.
417 Commit META.yml if it has changed:
419 $ git commit -m 'Update META.yml' META.yml
423 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
425 Update C<Module::Corelist>.
427 Note that if this is a maint release, you should run the following actions
428 from the maint directory, but commit the C<Corelist.pm> changes in
429 I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick it.
431 F<corelist.pl> uses ftp.funet.fi to verify information about dual-lived
432 modules on CPAN. It can use a full, local CPAN mirror or fall back
433 to C<wget> or C<curl> to fetch only package metadata remotely.
435 (If you'd prefer to have a full CPAN mirror, see
436 http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_mirror_CPAN)
438 Then change to your perl checkout, and if necessary,
442 Thenn, If you have a local CPAN mirror, run:
444 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl ~/my-cpan-mirror
448 $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/corelist.pl cpan
450 This will chug for a while. Assuming all goes well, it will
451 update F<lib/Module/CoreList.pm>.
453 Check that file over carefully:
455 $ git diff lib/Module/CoreList.pm
457 In particular, if this not the first update for this version, make sure
458 that there isn't a duplicated entry (e.g. '5.010001' entries for both RC1
461 XXX the edit-in-place functionality of Porting/corelist.pl should
462 be fixed to allow for this
464 If necessary, bump C<$VERSION> (there's no need to do this for
465 every RC; in RC1, bump the version to a new clean number that will
466 appear in the final release, and leave as-is for the later RCs and final).
468 Edit the version number in the new C<< 'Module::CoreList' => 'X.YZ' >>
469 entry, as that is likely to reflect the previous version number.
471 In addition, if this is a final release (rather than a release candidate):
477 Update this version's entry in the C<%released> hash with today's date.
481 Make sure that the script has correctly updated the C<CAVEATS> section
485 Finally, commit the new version of Module::CoreList:
486 (unless this is for maint; in which case commit it blead first, then
487 cherry-pick it back).
489 $ git commit -m 'Updated Module::CoreList for the 5.x.y release' \
490 lib/Module/CoreList.pm
495 Check that the manifest is sorted and correct:
499 $ perl Porting/manicheck
501 Commit MANIFEST if it has changed:
503 $ git commit -m 'Update MANIFEST' MANIFEST
507 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
509 Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the current date, e.g.:
511 David 5.10.1-RC1 2009-Aug-06
513 Make sure that the correct pumpking is listed in the left-hand column, and
514 if this is the first release under the stewardship of a new pumpking, make
515 sure that his or her name is listed in the section entitled
516 C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.
518 Be sure to commit your changes:
520 $ git commit -m 'add new release to perlhist' pod/perlhist.pod
524 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
526 Update patchlevel.h to add a C<-RC1>-or-whatever string; or, if this is a
527 final release, remove it. For example:
529 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
532 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
534 Be sure to commit your change:
536 $ git commit -m 'bump version to RCnnn' patchlevel.h
540 Build perl, then make sure it passes its own test suite, and installs:
543 $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest
548 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
549 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
554 Push all your recent commits:
556 $ git push origin ....
561 Create a tarball. Use the C<-s> option to specify a suitable suffix for
562 the tarball and directory name:
564 $ cd root/of/perl/tree
566 $ git clean -xdf # make sure perl and git agree on files
568 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s `git describe` # for a snapshot
569 $ perl Porting/makerel -b -s RC1 # for a release candidate
570 $ perl Porting/makerel -b # for a final release
572 This creates the directory F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1> or similar, copies all
573 the MANIFEST files into it, sets the correct permissions on them,
574 adds DOS line endings to some, then tars it up as
575 F<../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz>. With C<-b>, it also creates a C<tar.bz2> file.
577 XXX if we go for extra tags and branches stuff, then add the extra details
582 Copy the tarballs (.gz and possibly .bz2) to a web server somewhere you
587 Download the tarball to some other machine. For a release candidate,
588 you really want to test your tarball on two or more different platforms
589 and architectures. The #p5p IRC channel on irc.perl.org is a good place
590 to find willing victims.
594 Check that basic configuration and tests work on each test machine:
596 $ ./Configure -des && make all test
600 Check that the test harness and install work on each test machine:
602 $ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/install/path && make all test_harness install
606 Check that the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V> are as expected,
607 especially as regards version numbers, patch and/or RC levels, and @INC
610 Note that the results may be different without a F<.git/> directory,
611 which is why you should test from the tarball.
615 Bootstrap the CPAN client on the clean install:
617 $ ./bin/perl -MCPAN -e'shell'
623 $ ./bin/perl -MCPAN -e'install Inline'
625 Check that your perl can run this:
627 $ ./bin/perl -lwe 'use Inline C => "int answer() { return 42;} "; print answer'
631 Bootstrap the CPANPLUS client on the clean install:
638 Install an XS module.
642 If all is well, announce the snapshot to p5p. (For a release candidate,
643 instead follow the further steps described later.)
648 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
650 Wait for the smoke tests to catch up with the commit which this release is
651 based on (or at least the last commit of any consequence).
653 Then check that the smoke tests pass (particularly on Win32). If not, go
659 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
661 Once smoking is okay, upload it to PAUSE. This is the point of no return.
662 If anything goes wrong after this point, you will need to re-prepare
663 a new release with a new minor version or RC number.
665 You may wish to create a .bz2 version of the tarball and upload that too.
669 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
671 Create a tag for the exact git revision you built the release from.
672 C<commit> below is the commit corresponding to the tarball. It can be
673 omitted if there have been no further commits since the tarball was
676 $ git tag perl-5.10.1-RC1 -m'Release Candidate 1 of Perl 5.10.1' <commit>
677 $ git push origin tag perl-5.10.1-RC1
681 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
683 Disarm the patchlevel.h change; for example,
685 static const char * const local_patches[] = {
688 PERL_GIT_UNPUSHED_COMMITS /* do not remove this line */
690 Be sure to commit your change:
692 $ git commit -m 'disarm RCnnn bump' patchlevel.h
697 Mail p5p to announce your new release, with a quote you prepared earlier.
701 I<You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
703 Wait 24 hours or so, then post the announcement to use.perl.org.
704 (if you don't have access rights to post news, ask someone like Rafael to
709 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC, BLEAD>
711 Ask Jarkko to update http://www.cpan.org/src/README.html and
712 Rafael to update http://dev.perl.org/perl5/
716 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC>
718 Create a new empty perlNNNdelta.pod file for the current release + 1;
719 see F<Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod>.
720 [ XXX Perhaps we should have an empty template file we can copy in. ]
722 In addition, edit F<pod.lst>, adding the new entry as 'D', and unmark previous
725 Change perlNNNdelta references to the new version in these files
733 Also, edit the previous delta file to change the C<NAME> from C<perldelta>
736 These two lists of files probably aren't exhaustive; do a recursive grep
737 on the previous filename to look for suitable candidates.
739 (see 16410843ea for an example).
743 Run C<perl pod/buildtoc --build-all> to update the following files:
748 vms/descrip_mms.template
750 If you modified perldelta.pod, (F<vms/descrip_mms.template> will
751 needs a manual edit to bump the C<perldelta.pod> entry - it would
752 be good for someone to figure out the fix.)
756 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC, BLEAD>
758 If this was a maint release, then edit F<Porting/mergelog> to change
759 all the C<d> (deferred) flags to C<.> (needs review).
763 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC, BLEAD>
765 If this was a major release (5.x.0), then create a new maint branch
766 based on the commit tagged as the current release and bump the version
767 in the blead branch in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.
769 [ XXX probably lots more stuff to do, including perldelta,
772 XXX need a git recipe
776 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC, BLEAD>
778 Copy the perlNNNdelta.pod for this release into the other branches, and
779 remember to update these files on those branches too:
784 vms/descrip_mms.template
787 (see fc5be80860 for an example).
791 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT>
793 Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
794 F<perlhist.pod> on other branches; typically the RC* and final entries,
797 5.8.9-RC1 2008-Nov-10
798 5.8.9-RC2 2008-Dec-06
803 I<You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT, RC>
805 Remind the current maintainer of C<Module::CoreList> to push a new release
810 I<You MUST RETIRE to your preferred PUB, CAFE or SEASIDE VILLA for some much-needed
811 rest and relaxation>.
813 Thanks for releasing perl!
820 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2009-05/msg00608.html,
821 plus a whole bunch of other sources, including private correspondence.