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 [make-prelease.sh command i]
32 [make-prelease.sh command C]
33 Likewise for all of the ChangeLog files.
34 Add a note of the name of the new branch to binutils/BRANCHES.
36 [make-prerelease.sh command C]
38 4. Create the release branch using:
40 git tag -a binutils-2_30-branch [eg for the 2.30 branch...]
41 git push --tags origin binutils-2_30-branch
43 5. Update bfd/configure and bfd/configure.ac on HEAD to indicate
44 snapshot of the following release.
45 [make-prerelease.sh command hv + C]
47 6. Rename the current HEAD version entry in Bugzilla, and create a
48 new one. E.g. rename "2.30 (HEAD)" to 2.30, and create "2.31
49 (HEAD)". Go to "Edit products" from the bottom toolbar, click on
50 "binutils", then on "Edit versions". If you don't have
51 permissions to do this, either ask Daniel Berlin to fix your
52 account or ask Daniel Jacobowitz to do it.
54 7. Regenerate various files on both branch and HEAD by configuring
55 with --enable-maintainer-mode. No need to check in changes to
56 the autoconf/automake/etc files, but be sure the .pot files are
59 8. Create an initial prerelease:
61 a. Bump the version on the branch, and check this in.
63 b. Create a source tarball:
66 CFLAGS="-O -g0" ./src-release.sh -b binutils
67 rm -rf $release_dir/proto-toplev
68 rm $release_dir/binutils-$version
69 rm $release_dir/binutils-$version.tar
70 mv $release_dir/binutils-$version.tar.lzip ..
72 c. Build a test target using this tarball.
74 d. Upload the prerelease snapshot to the FTP:
76 scp ../binutils-$version.tar.bz2 sourceware.org:~ftp/pub/binutils/snapshots
77 ssh sourceware.org md5sum \~ftp/pub/binutils/snapshots/binutils-$version.tar.bz2
78 md5sum ../binutils-$version.tar.bz2
80 9. Send it to the Translation Project:
82 http://translationproject.org/html/maintainers.html
84 Sending mail for one of the POT files is sufficient.
86 10. Announce the availability of the snapshot and the branch on the
87 binutils mailing list. Set a date for when the release will
88 actually happen. Nag maintainers to fix any testsuite failures
89 for their architectures...
91 xxx -- fill in stuff here -- xxx
93 -------------------------------------------------
94 How to perform a point release.
95 -------------------------------------------------
97 A point release is easier than a normal release since a lot of the
98 work has already been done. The branch has been created, the
99 translations updated and the documentation uploaded. So the procedure
102 0. Decide that a point release is necessary.
104 Usually this only happens when a sufficient number of serious
105 bugs have been found and fixed since the previous release, and a
106 new official release is not imminent.
108 1. Tell the community that a point release is happening. Ask
109 maintainers to ensure that their ports are up to date on the
110 release branch. Ask the community if there are any bug fixes
111 which are missing from the branch. Allow some time for the
112 responses to this step.
114 2. Make sure that the branch sources build, test and install
117 2.5 Prepare a list of the bugs which have been fixed. This
118 will be needed for step 8.
120 3. In the branch sources:
122 a. Update the minor release number in bfd/version.m4.
123 b. Edit bfd/development.sh and set "development=false".
124 c. Regenerate the configure files.
125 d. Commit the updates along with a "this-is-the-2.XX.X-release"
126 note in all of the changelogs.
127 e. Tag the branch with the new release number:
129 git tag -a binutils-2_XX_X
130 [optional: add "-u XXXXX" to sign with a gpg key]
131 git push origin binutils-2_XX_X
133 f. Check that your file creation mask will create the
134 correct file permissions. Eg:
138 g. Create the release tarballs:
139 ./src-release -b -g -l -x binutils
141 h. Check that the files in the tarballs have the correct
144 i. Edit bfd/development.sh and set "development=true".
145 j. Commit this change into the git repository.
146 k. Clean up the source tree. (Use "git status" to find new
147 files, and remove them).
149 FIXME: The tarballs will contain spurious autom4te.cache
150 directories which could be removed to reduce their size.
152 4. [If paranoid - upload the tarballs to one of the FTP servers and
153 ask people to test it before going on to step 5].
155 5. Upload the tarballs to ftp.gnu.org.
157 gnupload --to ftp.gnu.org:binutils binutils-X.XX.X.tar.*
159 The gnupload script is in the gnulib/build-aux directory.
161 6. Upload the tarballs to sourceware.org:
164 cd /ftp/pub/binutils/releases
165 put binutils-X.XX.X.tar.*
166 chmod 644 binutils-X.XX.X.tar.*
169 FIXME: Should the signatures (created by the gnupload script in
170 step 5) be uploaded as well ?
172 7. Update web pages. For sourceware.org:
174 * Log on to sourceware.org
175 * Go /www/htdocs/binutils
178 For the www.gnu.org site you have to email webmasters@gnu.org
179 and ask them to make the change(s).
181 8. Send an emails to the binutils list, info-gnu@gnu.org and
182 David Edelsohn <dje.gcc@gmail.com> announcing the new release.
183 (The email to Davis is so that he can update the GNU Toolchain
184 social media). Something like this:
185 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
188 We are pleased to announce that version 2.XX.X of the Binutils project
189 sources have been released and are now available for download at:
191 https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils
192 https://sourceware.org/pub/binutils/releases/
194 This is a point release over the previous 2.XX version, containing bug
195 fixes but no new features.
197 Our thanks go out to all of the binutils contributors, past and
198 present, for helping to make this release possible.
200 Here is a list of the bugs that have been fixed:
205 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
208 Copyright (C) 2017-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
210 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
211 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
212 notice and this notice are preserved.