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NAME

release_managers_guide - Releasing a new version of perl 5.x

As of August 2009, this file is mostly complete, although it is missing some detail on doing a major release (e.g. 5.10.0 -> 5.12.0). Note that things change at each release, so there may be new things not covered here, or tools may need updating.

SYNOPSIS

This document describes the series of tasks required - some automatic, some manual - to produce a perl release of some description, be that a snaphot, 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 outline of a typical release cycle is as follows:

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

    ...time passes...

    an occasional snapshot is released, that still identifies itself as
	5.10.1

    ...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 ...

DETAILS

Some of the tasks described below apply to all four types of release of Perl. (snapshot, 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.

Release types

Snapshot

A snapshot is intended to encourage in-depth testing from time-to-time, for example after a key point in the stabilisation of a branch. It requires fewer steps than a full release, and the version number of perl in the tarball will usually be the same as that of the previous release.

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 perlhist.pod, removing the RC status from patchlevel.h, etc). If faults are found, then the fixes should be put into a new release candidate, never directly into a final release.

Stable/Maint release

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.

Blead release

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

Prerequisites

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

PAUSE account

SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

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 https://pause.perl.org/pause/authenquery?ACTION=who_pumpkin and check that your PAUSE ID is listed there. If not, ask Andreas König 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
search.cpan.org

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.

CPAN mirror

Some release engineering steps require a full mirror of the CPAN. Work to fall back to using a remote mirror via HTTP is incomplete but ongoing. (No, a minicpan mirror is not sufficient)

git checkout and commit bit

You will need a working git installation, checkout of the perl git repository and perl commit bit. For information about working with perl and git, see 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.

Quotation for release announcement epigraph

SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT and RC

For a numbered blead or maint release of perl, you will need a quotation to use as an epigraph to your release announcement. (There's no harm in having one for a snapshot, but it's not required).

Building a release - advance actions

The work of building a release candidate for a numbered release of perl generally starts several weeks before the first release candidate. Some of the following steps should be done regularly, but all must be done in the run up to a release.

  • You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

    Ensure that dual-life CPAN modules are synchronised with CPAN. Basically, run the following:

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

    to see any inconsistencies between the core and CPAN versions of distros, then fix the core, or cajole CPAN authors as appropriate. See also the -d and -v options for more detail. You'll probably want to use the -c cachedir option to avoid repeated CPAN downloads and may want to use -m file:///mirror/path if you made a local CPAN mirror.

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

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

    If you are making a maint release, run 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.

  • You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

    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)

  • You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

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

  • You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

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

  • You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

    Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.

    Read 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.

  • You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

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

    For a blead 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. It works in two stages. First, it generates a list of suggested changes, which you review and edit; then you feed this list back and it applies the edits. So, first scan the source directory looking for likely candidates. The command line arguments are the old and new version numbers, and -s means scan:

    $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/bump-perl-version -s 5.10.0 5.10.1 > /tmp/scan

    This produces a file containing a list of suggested edits, e.g.:

        NetWare/Makefile

       89: -MODULE_DESC     = "Perl 5.10.0 for NetWare"
	   +MODULE_DESC     = "Perl 5.10.1 for NetWare"

    i.e. in the file NetWare/Makefile, line 89 would be changed as shown. Review the file carefully, and delete any -/+ line pairs that you don't want changing. You can also edit just the + line to change the suggested replacement text. 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"! Then run:

    $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/bump-perl-version -u < /tmp/scan

    which will update all the files shown.

    Be particularly careful with INSTALL, which contains a mixture of 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 INSTALL about "is binary incompatible with" requires a correct choice of earlier version to declare incompatibility with.

    Also note that this tool currently only detects a single substitution per line: so in particular, this line in README.vms needs special handling:

    rename perl-5^.10^.1.dir perl-5_10_1.dir

    When doing a blead release, also make sure the PERL_API_* constants in 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 stable perl version, the PERL_API_* constants MUST NOT be changed as we aim to guarantee binary compatibility in maint branches.

    Commit your changes:

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

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

    When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList (as described below in "Building a release - on the day") to reflect the new version number.

  • You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

    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". For stable releases, this needs to refer to the last release in the previous development cycle. For blead releases, it needs to refer to the previous blead release.

  • You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

    Update the Changes file to contain the git log command which would show all the changes in this release. You will need assume the existence of a not-yet created tag for the forthcoming release; e.g.

    git log ... perl-5.10.0..perl-5.12.0

    Due to warts in the perforce-to-git migration, some branches require extra exclusions to avoid other branches being pulled in. Make sure you have the correct incantation: replace the not-yet-created tag with HEAD and see if git log produces roughly the right number of commits across roughly the right time period (you may find git log --pretty=oneline | wc useful).

  • Check some more build configurations. The check that setuid builds and installs is for < 5.11.0 only.

    $ sh Configure -Dprefix=/tmp/perl-5.x.y  -Uinstallusrbinperl \
    -Duseshrplib -Dd_dosuid
$ make
$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd` make test     # or similar for useshrplib

$ make suidperl
$ su -c 'make install'
$ ls -l .../bin/sperl
-rws--x--x 1 root root 69974 2009-08-22 21:55 .../bin/sperl

    (Then delete the installation directory.)

    XXX think of other configurations that need testing.

  • You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

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

Building a release - on the day

This section describes the actions required to make a release (or snapshot etc) that are performed on the actual day.

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

  • For a blead release, if you did not bump the perl version number as part of advance actions, do that now.

  • You MAY SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

    Finalize the perldelta. In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements section. You can generate a list of contributors with checkAUTHORS.pl. For example:

    $ git log --pretty=fuller v5.13.2..HEAD | \
  perl Porting/checkAUTHORS.pl --who -

    Look at the previous perldelta for how to write the opening paragraph of the Acknowledgements section. To get the amount of changed files and number of lines use this command:

    $ git diff --shortstat v5.13.8..v5.13.9 | \
  ./perl -Ilib -nE 'my ($files, $insert, $delete) = /(\d+)/ga; say "$files files and ", $insert + $delete, " lines changed"'

    Making sure to round off the number of lines changed.

    Re-read the perldelta to try to find any embarrassing typos and thinkos; remove any TODO or 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/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.

  • Make sure you have a gitwise-clean perl directory (no modified files, unpushed commits etc):

    $ git status
$ git clean -dxf

  • If not already built, Configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:

    $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make

  • You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

    Update 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 CoreList.pm changes in blead and subsequently cherry-pick it. XXX need a better example

    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 wget or curl to fetch only package metadata remotely. (If you're on Win32, then installing Cygwin is one way to have commands like wget and 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 not the first update for this version (e.g. if it was updated when the version number was originally bumped), first edit dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm to delete the existing entries for this version from the %released and %version hashes: they will have a key like 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 dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm.

    Check that file over carefully:

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

    If necessary, bump $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).

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

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

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

    You should also add the version you're about to release to the "CAVEATS" in Module::CoreList section which enumerates the perl releases that Module::CoreList covers.

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

    • Update this version's entry in the %released hash with today's date.

    • Make sure that the script has correctly updated the CAVEATS section

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

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

  • Check that the manifest is sorted and correct:

    $ make distclean
$ git clean -xdf # This shouldn't be necessary if distclean is correct
$ perl Porting/manicheck

    If manicheck turns up anything wrong, update MANIFEST and begin this step again.

    $ ./configure -des -Dusedevel
$ make test_porting
$ git commit -m 'Update MANIFEST' MANIFEST

  • You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

    Add an entry to pod/perlhist.pod with the current date, e.g.:

    David    5.10.1-RC1    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 THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN.

    Be sure to commit your changes:

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

  • You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT or BLEAD release

    Update patchlevel.h to add a -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

  • 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 /tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v and /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.

    Then delete the temporary installation.

  • Push all your recent commits:

    $ git push origin ....

  • You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT

    Tag the release (e.g.):

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

    It is 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.

  • Create a tarball. Use the -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 `git describe` # for a snapshot
$ perl Porting/makerel -b -s RC1            # for a release candidate
$ perl Porting/makerel -b                   # for a final release

    This creates the directory ../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 ../perl-x.y.z-RC1.tar.gz. With -b, it also creates a 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

  • Clean up the temporary directory, e.g.

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

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

  • 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.

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

    $ ./Configure -des && make all test

  • 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

  • Check that the output of perl -v and 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 .git/ directory, which is why you should test from the tarball.

  • Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility:

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

  • 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]

  • 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.)

  • 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
$

  • 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 bin/cpan* programs being found on the PATH before those of the Perl that you're trying to test.)

  • Install an XS module, for example:

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

  • If you're building a SNAPSHOT, you should STOP HERE

  • Check that the perlbug utility works. Try 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 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!

  • 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 BLEAD 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 MAINT releases, but for BLEAD 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.

  • 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: http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~USERNAME maps to /home/USERNAME/public_html, where USERNAME is your login account on dromedary. 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.

    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.

    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.

  • 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

  • You MUST SKIP this step for SNAPSHOT or BLEAD release

    Disarm the 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 ....

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

  • Add your quote to Porting/epigraphs.pod and commit it.

  • You MUST SKIP this step for RC

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

  • You MUST SKIP this step for RC

    Create a new perldelta.

    First, update the .gitignore file in the pod/ folder to ignore the next release's generated pod/perlNNNdelta.pod file rather than this releases's one which we are about to set in stone (where NNN is the perl version number without the dots. i.e. 5135 for 5.13.5).

    Then, move the existing pod/perldelta.pod to pod/perlNNNdelta.pod.

    Now edit the moved delta file to change the NAME from perldelta to perlNNNdelta.

    Then create a new empty perldelta.pod file for the new release; see Porting/how_to_write_a_perldelta.pod.

    You should be able to do this by just copying in a skeleton template and then doing a quick fix up of the version numbers.

    Then commit the move and the new file.

    For example, assuming you just released 5.10.1:

    $ git mv pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod
$ (edit pod/perl5101delta.pod to retitle)
$ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod

$ cp -i Porting/perldelta_template.pod pod/perldelta.pod
$ (edit pod/perldelta.pod)
$ git add pod/perldelta.pod
$ git commit -m 'create perldelta for 5.10.2'

    Now you need to update various tables of contents, most of which can be generated automatically.

    Edit pod.lst: add the new entry, flagged as 'd', and unflag the previous entry from being 'd'; for example:

    -d perl5101delta                Perl changes in version 5.10.1
+d perl5102delta                Perl changes in version 5.10.2
+  perl5101delta                Perl changes in version 5.10.1

    Run perl pod/buildtoc --build-all to update the perldelta version in the following files:

    MANIFEST
Makefile.SH
pod.lst
pod/perl.pod
vms/descrip_mms.template
win32/Makefile
win32/makefile.mk
win32/pod.mak

    Finally, commit:

    $ git commit -a -m 'update TOC for perlNNNdelta'

    At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to see if they look similar. See commit 2b6e134265 for an example of a previous version bump.

  • You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD

    If this was 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 and bump the version in the blead branch in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.

    [ XXX probably lots more stuff to do, including perldelta, lib/feature.pm ]

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

    $ git checkout -b maint-5.12
$ git push origin -u maint-5.12

  • You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD

    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 pod.lst 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'

  • Make sure any recent pod/perlhist.pod entries are copied to perlhist.pod on other branches; typically the RC* and final entries, e.g.

    5.8.9-RC1     2008-Nov-10
5.8.9-RC2     2008-Dec-06
5.8.9         2008-Dec-14

  • If necessary, send an email to perlbug-admin at perl.org requesting that new version numbers be added to the RT fields Perl Version and Fixed In.

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

    Thanks for releasing perl!

Building a release - the day after

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

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

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

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

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

  • This step ONLY for STABLE

    Ask Rafael to update http://dev.perl.org/perl5/.

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.