docs/internals/release-HOWTO.txt

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TODO list when doing a Valgrind release (with release number "X.Y.Z")
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There are two kinds of releases:

- Feature releases:  X.Y.0, which can include new features.

- Bug-fix releases:  X.Y.[12...], which only include bug fixes.


First of all:

- Tell valgrind-developers you want to do a release.  Give a timeframe for
  everyone to check in any final features/bug-fixes they want in the
  release.

- Go over the docs, make sure they're up to date.

- Update version number and date in docs/xml/vg-entities.xml.  (Exact
  release date probably won't be known yet, updating it is in the list below
  of tasks for the official release.)

- Make sure __VALGRIND_MAJOR__ and __VALGRIND_MINOR__ are correct
  for the release.  (include/valgrind.h)

- Write release notes, add to NEWS.  Include a list of fixed bugs from
  Bugzilla.  It's unclear how to do this consistently.  The approach
  taken for 3.0.0 was to go to this page in KDE's bugzilla:
     http://bugs.kde.org/query.cgi
  and to create a search where
     "Status and severity" / Status field is set to RESOLVED
  and
     "Involved People" / Email, bug-owner contains "jseward"
  since I believe jseward@acm.org is the owner of all bugs.
  This creates a long list of bugs which does not conveniently stop 
  at the previous release.  Work backwards through this list until
  either (1) you run out of patience, or (2) most of the bugs seem
  to pertain to previous releases and are now irrelevant.  In short
  this is not a very scientific or robust way to collect up all
  bugs fixed since last time.

  Suggestion for next release: when a bug is fixed, update NEWS
  directly => less chance to forget, and NEWS always up to date
  in SVN.

- Other files that might need updating:  README, README_DEVELOPERS,
  README_PACKAGERS.

- Add X.Y.Z and X.Y+1.Z.SVN versions to Bugzilla.

- Add "wantedX.Y.Z+1" and "wantedX.Y+1.Z" milestones to Bugzilla.

- Check whether copyright years need updating.
  If so, run  auxprogs/change-copyright-year  in the top of the tree.

- Consider upgrading the C++ demangler.
  auxprogs/update-demangler   helps with that

- Contact Gregory Czajkowski ( gregczajkowski@yahoo.com ) and ask him
  to build (make && make check) valgrind with ICC.

For each release candidate (should do release candidates for feature
releases, bug-fix-only releases might not need one):

- Build.

- Do pre-release testing:

  * Check it builds and regtests on a vanilla gcc-2.96 / RedHat 7.3 distro.
  ??? is this really still up to date ???

  * Check standard build and regtest on the following cpus:
       x86, sse2 (P4)
       x86, sse1 (PIII)
       x86, no sse (eg older VIA C3s, or perhaps even Pentium-MMX)
       amd64
       ppc32, altivec
       ppc32, no altivec (eg old iMac G3s)

  * Check that the regression tests work on all platforms with more self checks:
     export EXTRA_REGTEST_OPTS="--sanity-level=4 --helgrind:hg-sanity-flags=011111"
     make regtest

  * check there are no memleaks or similar bugs by running all regtests
    in an outer/inner setup (see README_DEVELOPERS).

  * Check valgrind-listener works on all archs, also connecting to it
    from all archs.

  * Check memcheck can run all the insn-set tests.  The testsuite
    only runs those on 'none', but memcheck looks at all primops, and I've
    been caught out by this before.  Basically all the programs in
    none/tests/{x86,amd64,ppc32}.

  * Check XML output is still readable by Valkyrie and vk_logmerge tools

  * Test with large applications (firefox and OOo 2.0) on all platforms.

  * Run regression tests from gsl-1.6 on all platforms.  This is a good,
    thorough test of FP.  Easy, using the scripts auxprogs/gsl16test.

  * s390x: Run regression tests on a z900 machine. That is the oldest
    supported model and there is no nightly build for it.

  * s390x: Ensure README.s390 is up-to-date and URLs therein are not stale.

- Change release number in AC_INIT() in configure.in to "X.Y.Z-rcN", where
  'N' is the release candidate number.

- Make the tarball ("make dist") and put it on the web somewhere (it doesn't
  have to be on valgrind.org if another site is easier).

- Ensure the tarball builds, runs, regtests on the platforms of interest.
  However redundant this seems, sometimes it can be that a from-the-repo
  build works whereas a from-the-tarball one doesn't, usually due to some
  trivial installation problem.

- Also check the HTML and print docs look sane (eg. links work).  And the
  man pages, esp. that there are no broken references (look for "???").

- Announce the release:
  - Email valgrind-users and valgrind-developers (but not valgrind-announce).  
  - Make clear it's a release candidate.  
  - Make sure you tell everyone where to download from.
  - Include the release notes in the email (maybe not necessary for release
    candidates 2+).

- Wait 2--3 days for feedback.  If bugs appear:
  - Fix them.
  - Update the bug-fix list in NEWS if necessary.
  - Do another release candidate.


For the official release:

- Again, update date in docs/xml/vg-entities.xml for the official release
  date.

- Do pre-release testing:
  - Make sure regtests run ok on all platforms of interest.
  - Make sure Mozilla and OpenOffice run ok on all platforms of interest.

- Change release number in AC_INIT() in configure.in to "X.Y.Z".

- Make the tarball ("make dist").

- Check tarball builds, installs, regtests on platforms of interest.
  If not, fix and repeat until success.

- Tag the repositories ("VALGRIND_X_Y_Z" and "VEX_X_Y_Z").  Point the Vex
  external for VALGRIND_X_Y_Z to VEX_X_Y_Z.

  If it's a X.Y.0 release, make "VALGRIND_X_Y_BRANCH" and "VEX_X_Y_BRANCH"
  branches too.  Useful examples (X.Y.0 major release):

    cd valgrind
    svn copy trunk tags/VALGRIND_3_3_0
    svn copy trunk branches/VALGRIND_3_3_BRANCH

    cd vex
    svn copy trunk tags/VEX_3_3_0
    svn copy trunk branches/VEX_3_3_BRANCH

    cd valgrind
    cd tags/VALGRIND_3_3_0
    svn propset svn:externals \
       "VEX svn://svn.valgrind.org/vex/tags/VEX_3_3_0" .
    cd branches/VALGRIND_3_3_BRANCH
    svn propset svn:externals \
       "VEX svn://svn.valgrind.org/vex/branches/VEX_3_3_BRANCH" .

  (X.Y.Z minor release):

    cd vex
    svn copy branches/VEX_3_6_BRANCH tags/VEX_3_6_1

    cd valgrind
    svn copy branches/VALGRIND_3_6_BRANCH tags/VALGRIND_3_6_1

    cd tags/VALGRIND_3_6_1
    svn propset svn:externals \
       "VEX svn://svn.valgrind.org/vex/tags/VEX_3_6_1" .



- Update website: 
  - Put the tarball up.
  - Update the docs -- both the tarball'd docs, and the online-readable docs.
  - Update www.valgrind.org/downloads/current.html.  
  - Update www.valgrind.org/downloads/old.html.  
  - Add a news item to the front page and also to valgrind.org/info/news.html.
    Include a link to the release notes.  Possibly remove any old release
    notices form the front page.
  - Update the "release-date" and "release-version" in php/.htconfx.
  - Other pages that might need updating:  downloads/repository.html.

- Change release number in AC_INIT() in configure.in to "X.Y.Z.SVN", where
  X.Y.Z is one more than the release just done.

- Make sure the release notes are present in the NEWS file on the trunk and
  the branch.

- Announce the release:
  - Email valgrind-users, valgrind-developers, and valgrind-announce.
  - Email Linux Weekly News.
  - Include the release notes in the email.

- Go on holiday.