path: root/Porting/release_managers_guide.pod

=encoding utf8

=head1 NAME

release_managers_guide - Releasing a new version of perl 5.x

Note that things change at each release, so there may be new things not
covered here, or tools may need updating.


=head1 SYNOPSIS

This document describes the series of tasks required - some automatic, some
manual - to produce a perl release of some description, be that a 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...

    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 ...


=head1 DETAILS

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


=head2 Release types

=over 4

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


=item Stable/Maint release (MAINT).

A release with an even version number, and subversion number > 0, such as
5.14.1 or 5.14.2.

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.

=item A blead point release (BLEAD-POINT)

A release with an odd version number, such as 5.15.0 or 5.15.1.

This isn't for production, so it has less stability requirements than for
other release types, and isn't preceded by RC releases. Other than that,
it is similar to a MAINT release.

=item Blead final release (BLEAD-FINAL)

A release with an even version number, and subversion number == 0, such as
5.14.0. That is to say, it's the big new release once per year.

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

=back


=head2 Prerequisites

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

=over 4

=item PAUSE account

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
L<https://pause.perl.org/pause/authenquery?ACTION=who_pumpkin> and check that
your PAUSE ID is listed there.  If not, ask Andreas KE<0xf6>nig 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

=item 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.

=item 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)

=item git checkout and commit bit

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


=item Quotation for release announcement epigraph

I<SKIP this step for RC>

For all except an RC release of perl, you will need a quotation
to use as an epigraph to your release announcement.


=back


=head2 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 I<must> be
done in the run up to a release.


=head3 dual-life CPAN module synchronisation

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
C<-d> and C<-v> options for more detail.  You'll probably want to use the
C<-c cachedir> option to avoid repeated CPAN downloads and may want to
use C<-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 C<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. 


=head3 dual-life CPAN module stability

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)


=head3 smoking

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

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


=head3 perldelta

Get perldelta in a mostly finished state.

Read  F<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.


=head3 Bump the version number

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

For a BLEAD-POINT 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:

     $ ./perl -Ilib Porting/bump-perl-version -i 5.10.0 5.10.1

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"!

Use git status and git diff to select changes you want to keep.

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

When doing a BLEAD-POINT or BLEAD-FINAL release, also make sure the
C<PERL_API_*> constants in F<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 MAINT perl version, the C<PERL_API_*>
constants C<MUST NOT> be changed as we aim to guarantee binary compatibility
in maint branches.

After editing, regenerate uconfig.h (this must be run on a system with a
/bin/sh available):

    $ perl regen/uconfig_h.pl

Test your changes:

    $ git clean -xdf   # careful if you don't have local files to keep!
    $ ./Configure -des -Dusedevel
    $ make
    $ make test

Commit your changes:

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

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

At this point you may want to compare the commit with a previous bump to
see if they look similar.  See commit 8891dd8d for an example of a
previous version bump.

When the version number is bumped, you should also update Module::CoreList
(as described below in L<"update Module::CoreList">) to reflect the new
version number.


=head3 update INSTALL

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".
The "X.Y" needs to be changed to the most recent version that we are
I<not> binary compatible with.

For MAINT and BLEAD-FINAL releases, this needs to refer to the last
release in the previous development cycle (so for example, for a 5.14.x
release, this would be 5.13.11).

For BLEAD-POINT releases, it needs to refer to the previous BLEAD-POINT
release (so for 5.15.3 this would be 5.15.2).

=head3 Check more build configurations

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.


=head3 update perlport

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



=head2 Building a release - on the day

This section describes the actions required to make a release
that are performed on the actual day.


=head3 re-check earlier actions

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


=head3 bump version number

For a BLEAD-POINT release, if you did not bump the perl version number as
part of I<advance actions>, do that now.


=head3 finalize perldelta

Finalize the perldelta.  In particular, fill in the Acknowledgements
section, which can be generated with something like:

  $ perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD

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


=head3 build a clean perl

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

    $ git status
    $ git clean -dxf

then configure and build perl so that you have a Makefile and porting tools:

    $ ./Configure -Dusedevel -des && make


=head3 update Module::CoreList

Update C<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 C<CoreList.pm> changes in
I<blead> and subsequently cherry-pick any releases since the last
maint release and then your recent commit.  XXX need a better example

F<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 C<wget> or C<curl> to fetch only package metadata remotely. (If you're
on Win32, then installing Cygwin is one way to have commands like C<wget>
and C<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
F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm> to delete the existing
entries for this version from the C<%released> and C<%version> hashes:
they will have a key like C<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
F<dist/Module-CoreList/lib/Module/CoreList.pm>.

Check that file over carefully:

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

If necessary, bump C<$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).
It may also happen that C<Module::CoreList> has been modified in blead, and
hence has a new version number already.  (But make sure it is not the same
number as a CPAN release.)

Edit the version number in the new C<< '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 F<Changes>
file.

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

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

=over 4 

=item *

Update this version's entry in the C<%released> hash with today's date.

=item *

Make sure that the script has correctly updated the C<CAVEATS> section

=back

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

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


=head3 check MANIFEST

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


=head3 update perlhist.pod

I<You MUST SKIP this step for a RC release>

Add an entry to F<pod/perlhist.pod> with the release date, e.g.:

    David    5.10.1       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
C<THE KEEPERS OF THE PUMPKIN>.

Be sure to commit your changes:

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


=head3 update patchlevel.h

I<You MUST SKIP this step for a BLEAD-POINT release>

Update F<patchlevel.h> to add a C<-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


=head3 build, test and check a fresh perl

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 C</tmp/perl-5.x.y-pretest/bin/perl -v> and
C</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.


=head3 push the work so far

Push all your recent commits:

    $ git push origin ....


=head3 tag the release

Tag the release (e.g.):

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

It is B<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.


=head3 build the tarball

Before you run the following, you might want to install 7-Zip (the
C<p7zip-full> package under Debian or the C<p7zip> port on MacPorts) or
the AdvanceCOMP suite (e.g. the C<advancecomp> package under Debian,
or the C<advancecomp> port on macports - 7-Zip on Windows is the
same code as AdvanceCOMP, so Windows users get the smallest files
first time). These compress about 5% smaller than gzip and bzip2.
Over the lifetime of your distribution this will save a lot of
people a small amount of download time and disk space, which adds
up.

Create a tarball. Use the C<-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 RC1            # for a release candidate
    $ perl Porting/makerel -b                   # for a final release

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

Finally, clean up the temporary directory, e.g.

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


=head3 test the tarball

=over 4

=item *

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

=item *

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.

=item *

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

    $ ./Configure -des && make all test

=item *

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

=item *

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

=item *

Run the Installation Verification Procedure utility:

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

=item *

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]

=item *

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.)

=item *

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
    $

=item *

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

=item *

Install an XS module, for example:

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

=item *

Check that the L<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 F<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!

=back


=head3 monitor smokes

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 I<BLEAD-POINT> 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 I<MAINT> and I<BLEAD-FINAL>
releases, but for I<BLEAD-POINT> 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.


=head3 upload to PAUSE

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


=head3 publish tag

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


=head3 disarm patchlevel.h

I<You MUST SKIP this step for BLEAD-POINT release>

Disarm the F<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 ....



=head3 announce to p5p

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


=head3 update epigraphs.pod

Add your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod> and commit it.
Your release announcement will probably not have reached the web-visible
archives yet, so you won't be able to include the customary link to the
release announcement yet.

=head3 Module::CoreList nagging

I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>

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


=head3 new perldelta

I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC>

Create a new perldelta.

B<Note>: currently, the buildtoc below must be run in a I<built> perl source
directory, as at least one of the pod files it expects to find is
autogenerated: perluniprops.pod. But you can't build perl if you've added
the new perldelta file and not updated toc. So, make sure you have a built
perl (with a pod/perluniprops.pod file) now, I<before> continuing.

First, update the F<pod/.gitignore> file  to ignore the next
release's generated F<pod/perlNNNdelta.pod> file rather than this release'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).

    $ (edit pod/.gitignore )
    $ git add pod/.gitignore

Then, move the existing F<pod/perldelta.pod> to F<pod/perlNNNdelta.pod>,
and edit the moved delta file to change the C<NAME> from C<perldelta> to
C<perlNNNdelta>.  For example, assuming you just released 5.10.1, and are
about to create the 5.10.2 perldelta:

    $ rm  pod/perl5101delta.pod # remove the auto-generated file, if any
    $ git mv pod/perldelta.pod pod/perl5101delta.pod
    $ (edit pod/perl5101delta.pod to retitle)
    $ git add pod/perl5101delta.pod

Then create a new empty perldelta.pod file for the new release; see
F<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.

    $ 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'

=head3 update perldelta TOC and references

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

Edit F<pod.lst>: add the new entry for the perlNNNdelta file for the
current version (the file that will be symlinked to perldelta).

Manually create a temporary link to the new delta file; normally this is
done from the Makefile, but the Makefile is updated by buildtoc, and
buildtoc won't run without the file there:

    $ ln -s perldelta.pod pod/perl5102delta.pod

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

    MANIFEST
    Makefile.SH
    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 dd885b5 for an example of a
previous version bump.


=head3 bump version

I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>

If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. the first release of a new maint
series, 5.x.0 where x is even), then bump the version in the blead branch
in git, e.g. 5.12.0 to 5.13.0.

First, add a new feature bundle to F<lib/feature.pm>, initially by just
copying the exiting entry, and bump the file's $VERSION; e.g.

	 "5.14" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],
    +    "5.15" => [qw(switch say state unicode_strings)],

Then follow the section L<"Bump the version number"> to bump the version
in the remaining files and test and commit.


=head3 clean build and test

Run a clean build and test to make sure nothing obvious is broken.

In particular, F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> is intentionally exempted
from podchecker tests, to avoid false positives about placeholder text.
However, once it's copied to F<pod/perldelta.pod> the contents can now
cause test failures. Problems should resolved by doing one of the
following:

=over

=item 1

Replace placeholder text with correct text.

=item 2

If the problem is from a broken placeholder link, you can add it to the
array C<@perldelta_ignore_links> in F<t/porting/podcheck.t>.  Lines
containing such links should be marked with C<XXX> so that they get
cleaned up before the next release.

=item 3

Following the instructions output by F<t/porting/podcheck.t> on how to
update its exceptions database.

=back

=head3 push commits

Finally, push any commits done above.

    $ git push origin ....


=head3 create maint branch

I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT, MAINT>

If this was a BLEAD-FINAL release (i.e. 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.

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

    $ git checkout -b maint-5.12 v5.12.0
    $ git push origin -u maint-5.12


=head3 make the maint branch available in the APC

Clone the new branch into /srv/gitcommon/branches on camel so the APC will
receive its changes.

    $ git clone --branch maint-5.14 /gitroot/perl.git \
    ?  /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x
    $ chmod -R g=u /srv/gitcommon/branches/perl-5.14.x

And nag the sysadmins to make this directory available via rsync.


=head3 copy perldelta.pod to other branches

I<You MUST SKIP this step for RC, BLEAD-POINT>

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 F<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'


=head3 update perlhist.pod in other branches

Make sure any recent F<pod/perlhist.pod> entries are copied to
F<perlhist.pod> on other branches
e.g.

          5.8.9         2008-Dec-14


=head3 bump RT version number

Log into http://rt.perl.org/ and check whether the new version is
in the RT fields C<Perl Version> and C<Fixed In>. If not, send an
email to C<perlbug-admin at perl.org> requesting this.

=head3 Relax!

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

Thanks for releasing perl!


=head2 Building a release - the day after

=head3 link announcement in epigraphs.pod

Add, to your quote to F<Porting/epigraphs.pod>, a link to the release
announcement in the web-visible mailing list archive.  Commit it.

=head3 check tarball availability

Check various website entries to make sure the that tarball has appeared
and is properly indexed:

=over 4

=item *

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

=item *

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

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

=item *

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

=item *

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

=back


=head3 update dev.perl.org

I<This step ONLY for BLEAD-FINAL and MAINT>

Ask Leo Lapworth to update L<http://dev.perl.org/perl5/>.


=head1 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.

=cut