Instructions to create pretest or release tarballs. -*- coding: utf-8 -*- -- originally written by Gerd Moellmann, amended by Francesco Potortì with the initial help of Eli Zaretskii Steps to take before starting on the first pretest in any release sequence: 0. The release branch (e.g. emacs-26) should already have been made and you should use it for all that follows. Diffs from this branch should be going to the emacs-diffs mailing list. 1. Decide on versions of m4 and autoconf, and ensure you will have them available for the duration of the release process. 2. Consider increasing the value of the variable 'customize-changed-options-previous-release' in cus-edit.el to refer to a newer version of Emacs. (This is probably needed only when preparing the first pretest for a major Emacs release.) Commit cus-edit.el if changed. 3. Remove any old pretests from https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest. You can use 'gnupload --delete' (see below for more gnupload details). General steps (for each step, check for possible errors): 1. git pull # fetch from the repository git status # check for locally modified files Ensure that you have a clean, unmodified state. If you switched in-place from another branch to the release branch, there could be inappropriate generated ignored files left over. You might want to use "git status --ignored" to check for such files, or some form of "git clean -x". It's probably simpler and safer to make a new working directory exclusively for the release branch. 2. Regenerate the etc/AUTHORS file: M-: (require 'authors) RET M-x authors RET (This first updates the current versioned ChangeLog.N) If there is an "*Authors Errors*" buffer, address the issues. If there was a ChangeLog typo, fix the relevant entry. If a file was deleted or renamed, consider adding an appropriate entry to authors-ignored-files, authors-valid-file-names, or authors-renamed-files-alist. If necessary, repeat 'C-u M-x authors' after making those changes. Save the "*Authors*" buffer as etc/AUTHORS. Check the diff looks reasonable. Maybe add entries to authors-ambiguous-files or authors-aliases, and repeat. Commit any fixes to authors.el. 3. Set the version number (M-x load-file RET admin/admin.el RET, then M-x set-version RET). For a pretest, start at version .90. After .99, use .990 (so that it sorts). The final pretest should be a release candidate. Before a release candidate is made, the tasks listed in admin/release-process must be completed. Set the version number to that of the actual release. Pick a date about a week from now when you intend to make the release. Use M-x add-release-logs to add entries to etc/HISTORY and the ChangeLog file. It's best not to commit these files until the release is actually made. Merge the entries from (unversioned) ChangeLog into the top of the current versioned ChangeLog.N and commit that along with etc/HISTORY. Then you can tag that commit as the release. Name the tar file as emacs-XX.Y-rc1.tar. If all goes well in the following week, you can simply rename the file and use it for the actual release. If you need another release candidate, remember to adjust the ChangeLog and etc/HISTORY entries. If you need to change only a file(s) that cannot possibly affect the build (README, ChangeLog, NEWS, etc.) then rather than doing an entirely new build, it is better to unpack the existing tarfile, modify the file(s), and tar it back up again. Never replace an existing tarfile! If you need to fix something, always upload it with a different name. 4. autoreconf -i -I m4 --force make bootstrap make -C etc/refcards make -C etc/refcards clean If some of the non-English etc/refcards fail to build, you probably need to install some TeX foreign language packages. For more information, search for the string "refcard" in the file admin/release-process. 5. Copy lisp/loaddefs.el to lisp/ldefs-boot.el. Commit ChangeLog.N, etc/AUTHORS, lisp/ldefs-boot.el, and the files changed by M-x set-version. If someone else made a commit between step 1 and now, you need to repeat from step 4 onwards. (You can commit the files from step 2 and 3 earlier to reduce the chance of this.) 6. ./make-dist --snapshot --no-compress Check the contents of the new tar with admin/diff-tar-files against the previous release (if this is the first pretest) or the previous pretest. If you did not make the previous pretest yourself, find it at . Releases are of course at . If this is the first pretest of a major release, just comparing with the previous release may overlook many new files. You can try something like 'find . | sort' in a clean repository, and compare the results against the new tar contents. 7. tar -xf emacs-NEW.tar; cd emacs-NEW ./configure --prefix=/tmp/emacs && make check && make install Use 'script' or M-x compile to save the compilation log in compile-NEW.log and compare it against an old one. The easiest way to do that is to visit the old log in Emacs, change the version number of the old Emacs to __, do the same with the new log and do M-x ediff. Especially check that Info files aren't built, and that no autotools (autoconf etc) run. 8. cd EMACS_ROOT_DIR && git tag -a TAG && git push origin tag TAG TAG is emacs-XX.Y.ZZ for a pretest, emacs-XX.Y for a release. 9. Decide what compression schemes to offer. For a release, at least gz and xz: gzip --best --no-name -c emacs-NEW.tar > emacs-NEW.tar.gz xz -c emacs-NEW.tar > emacs-NEW.tar.xz For pretests, just xz is probably fine (saves bandwidth). Now you should upload the files to the GNU ftp server. In order to do that, you must be registered as an Emacs maintainer and have your GPG key acknowledged by the ftp people. For instructions, see https://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Automated-Upload-Registration.html The simplest method to upload is to use the gnulib script "build-aux/gnupload": For a pretest: gnupload [--user your@gpg.key.email] --to alpha.gnu.org:emacs/pretest \ FILE.gz FILE.xz ... For a release: gnupload [--user your@gpg.key.email] --to ftp.gnu.org:emacs \ FILE.gz FILE.xz ... You only need the --user part if you have multiple GPG keys and do not want to use the default. Obviously, if you do not have a fast uplink, be prepared for the upload to take a while. If you prefer to do it yourself rather than use gnupload: For each FILE, create a detached GPG binary signature and a clearsigned directive file like this: gpg -b FILE echo directory: emacs/pretest > FILE.directive (for a pretest) echo directory: emacs > FILE.directive (for a release) gpg --clearsign FILE.directive Upload by anonymous ftp to ftp://ftp-upload.gnu.org/ the files FILE, FILE.sig, FILE.directive.asc. For a release, place the files in the /incoming/ftp directory. For a pretest, place the files in /incoming/alpha instead, so that they appear on https://alpha.gnu.org/. 10. After five minutes, verify that the files are visible at https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest/ for a pretest, or https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/ for a release. Download them and check the signatures. Check they build. 11. Send an announcement to: emacs-devel, and bcc: info-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. For a pretest, also bcc: platform-testers@gnu.org. For a release, also bcc: info-gnu@gnu.org. (The reason for using bcc: is to make it less likely that people will followup on the wrong list.) See the info-gnu-emacs mailing list archives for the form of past announcements. The first pretest announcement, and the release announcement, should have more detail. Use the emacs-devel topic 'emacs-announce'. The best way to do this is to add a header "Keywords: emacs-announce" to your mail. (You can also put it in the Subject, but this is not as good because replies that invariably are not announcements also get sent out as if they were.) 12. After a release, update the Emacs pages as below. UPDATING THE EMACS WEB PAGES AFTER A RELEASE As soon as possible after a release, the Emacs web pages should be updated. (See admin/notes/www for general information.) The pages to update are: emacs.html (for a new major release, a more thorough update is needed) history.html add the new NEWS file as news/NEWS.xx.y For every new release, a banner is displayed on top of the emacs.html page. Uncomment and the release banner in emacs.html. Keep it on the page for about a month, then comment it again. Regenerate the various manuals in manual/. The scripts admin/make-manuals and admin/upload-manuals summarize the process. Browsing is one way to check for any files that still need updating.