1 README for MAKING BINUTILS RELEASES
3 This is a collection of notes on how to perform a binutils release. A
4 lot of this information can also be found in the maintain.texi file in
7 https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/
9 It is useful to have a cloned copy of the sources of this project as
10 it also contains an upload script used to install tarballs on the GNU
13 Make sure that you have upload authority on sourceware and fencepost.
14 Beware - this is an involved process and can take weeks to complete.
15 See the maintain.texi file for details on how to obtain these
18 -------------------------------------------------
19 How to perform a release.
20 -------------------------------------------------
22 1. Send an email out warning contributors about the forthcoming
23 branch. Set a date for the branch (weekends are better because
26 2. Update the libiberty and config directories and the top level
29 3. When branch day arrives add markers for the upcoming release to
30 gas, ld, gold and binutils NEWS files.
31 [If using the make-prerelease.sh script, check that
32 common.sh has the right values].
33 [make-prelease.sh command i]
34 [make-prelease.sh command C]
35 Likewise for all of the ChangeLog files.
36 Add a note of the name of the new branch to binutils/BRANCHES.
38 [make-prerelease.sh command C]
40 4. Create the release branch using:
42 git tag -a binutils-2_30-branch [eg for the 2.30 branch...]
43 git push --tags origin binutils-2_30-branch
45 5. Update bfd/configure and bfd/configure.ac on HEAD to indicate
46 snapshot of the following release.
47 [make-prerelease.sh command hv + C]
49 6. Rename the current HEAD version entry in Bugzilla, and create a
50 new one. E.g. rename "2.30 (HEAD)" to 2.30, and create "2.31
51 (HEAD)". Go to "Edit products" from the bottom toolbar, click on
52 "binutils", then on "Edit versions". If you don't have
53 permissions to do this, either ask Daniel Berlin to fix your
54 account or ask Daniel Jacobowitz to do it.
56 7. Regenerate various files on both branch and HEAD by configuring
57 with --enable-maintainer-mode. No need to check in changes to
58 the autoconf/automake/etc files, but be sure the .pot files are
59 up to date. NB/ Remember to include gold and gprof.
61 8. Create an initial prerelease:
63 a. Change the version on the branch (bfd/version.m4), regenerate
64 the files, and check this in.
66 b. Create a source tarball of the branch sources:
68 ./src-release -x binutils
70 c. Build a test target using this tarball.
72 d. Upload the prerelease snapshot to the FTP:
74 scp ../binutils-$version.tar.xz sourceware.org:~ftp/pub/binutils/snapshots
75 ssh sourceware.org md5sum ~ftp/pub/binutils/snapshots/binutils-$version.tar.xz
77 9. Send it to the Translation Project:
79 http://translationproject.org/html/maintainers.html
81 Sending mail for one of the POT files is sufficient.
83 10. Announce the availability of the snapshot and the branch on the
84 binutils mailing list. Set a date for when the release will
85 actually happen. Nag maintainers to fix any testsuite failures
86 for their architectures...
88 xxx -- fill in stuff here -- xxx
90 -------------------------------------------------
91 How to perform a point release.
92 -------------------------------------------------
94 A point release is easier than a normal release since a lot of the
95 work has already been done. The branch has been created, the
96 translations updated and the documentation uploaded. So the procedure
99 0. Decide that a point release is necessary.
101 Usually this only happens when a sufficient number of serious
102 bugs have been found and fixed since the previous release, and a
103 new official release is not imminent.
105 1. Tell the community that a point release is happening. Ask
106 maintainers to ensure that their ports are up to date on the
107 release branch. Ask the community if there are any bug fixes
108 which are missing from the branch. Allow some time for the
109 responses to this step.
111 2. Make sure that the branch sources build, test and install
114 2.5 Prepare a list of the bugs which have been fixed. This
115 will be needed for step 8.
117 3. In the branch sources:
119 a. Update the minor release number in bfd/version.m4.
120 b. Edit bfd/development.sh and set "development=false".
121 c. Regenerate the configure files.
122 d. Commit the updates along with a "this-is-the-2.XX.X-release"
123 note in all of the changelogs.
124 e. Tag the branch with the new release number:
126 git tag -a binutils-2_XX_X
127 [optional: add "-u XXXXX" to sign with a gpg key]
128 git push origin binutils-2_XX_X
130 f. Check that your file creation mask will create the
131 correct file permissions. Eg:
135 g. Create the release tarballs:
136 ./src-release -b -g -l -x binutils
138 h. Check that the files in the tarballs have the correct
141 i. Edit bfd/development.sh and set "development=true".
142 j. Commit this change into the git repository.
143 k. Clean up the source tree. (Use "git status" to find new
144 files, and remove them).
146 FIXME: The tarballs will contain spurious autom4te.cache
147 directories which could be removed to reduce their size.
149 4. [If paranoid - upload the tarballs to one of the FTP servers and
150 ask people to test it before going on to step 5].
152 5. Upload the tarballs to ftp.gnu.org.
154 gnupload --to ftp.gnu.org:binutils binutils-X.XX.X.tar.*
156 The gnupload script is in the gnulib/build-aux directory.
158 6. Upload the tarballs to sourceware.org:
161 cd /ftp/pub/binutils/releases
162 put binutils-X.XX.X.tar.*
163 chmod 644 binutils-X.XX.X.tar.*
166 FIXME: Should the signatures (created by the gnupload script in
167 step 5) be uploaded as well ?
169 7. Update web pages. For sourceware.org:
171 * Log on to sourceware.org
172 * Go /www/htdocs/binutils
175 For the www.gnu.org site you have to email webmasters@gnu.org
176 and ask them to make the change(s).
178 8. Send an emails to the binutils list, info-gnu@gnu.org and
179 David Edelsohn <dje.gcc@gmail.com> announcing the new release.
180 (The email to Davis is so that he can update the GNU Toolchain
181 social media). Something like this:
182 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
185 We are pleased to announce that version 2.XX.X of the Binutils project
186 sources have been released and are now available for download at:
188 https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils
189 https://sourceware.org/pub/binutils/releases/
191 This is a point release over the previous 2.XX version, containing bug
192 fixes but no new features.
194 Our thanks go out to all of the binutils contributors, past and
195 present, for helping to make this release possible.
197 Here is a list of the bugs that have been fixed:
202 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
205 Copyright (C) 2017-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
207 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
208 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
209 notice and this notice are preserved.