admin/make-tarball.txt

   1 Instructions to create pretest or release tarballs. -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
   2 -- originally written by Gerd Moellmann, amended by Francesco Potortì
   3    with the initial help of Eli Zaretskii
   4
   5
   6 Steps to take before starting on the first pretest in any release sequence:
   7
   8 1.  Decide on versions of automake and autoconf, and ensure you will
   9     have them available for the duration of the release process.
  10
  11 2.  Consider increasing the value of the variable
  12     `customize-changed-options-previous-release' in cus-edit.el to
  13     refer to a newer version of Emacs.  (This is probably needed only
  14     when preparing the first pretest for a major Emacs release.)
  15     Commit cus-edit.el if changed.
  16
  17
  18 General steps (for each step, check for possible errors):
  19
  20 1.  `bzr update' (for a bound branch), or `bzr pull'.
  21      bzr status   # check for locally modified files
  22
  23 2.  Bootstrap to make 100% sure all elc files are up-to-date, and to
  24     make sure that the later tagged version will bootstrap, should it be
  25     necessary to check it out.
  26
  27 3.  Regenerate the etc/AUTHORS file:
  28       M-: (require 'authors) RET
  29       M-x authors RET
  30
  31     There is almost guaranteed to be an "*Authors Errors*" buffer with
  32     problems caused by certain bad ChangeLog entries.  You can ignore
  33     the very old ones (eg lisp/erc has a lot).  If there are errors
  34     related to new entries (especially entries that are new since the
  35     last pretest), see if you can fix them.  If there was a ChangeLog
  36     typo, fix it.  If a file was deleted or renamed, consider adding
  37     an appropriate entry to authors-ignored-files, authors-valid-file-names,
  38     or authors-renamed-files-alist.
  39
  40     If necessary, repeat M-x authors after making those changes.
  41     Save the "*Authors*" buffer as etc/AUTHORS.
  42     Check the diff looks reasonable.  Maybe add entries to
  43     authors-ambiguous-files or authors-aliases, and repeat.
  44     Commit any fixes to ChangeLogs or authors.el.
  45
  46 4.  Set the version number (M-x load-file RET admin/admin.el RET, then
  47     M-x set-version RET).  For a release, add released ChangeLog
  48     entries (M-x add-release-logs RET).
  49
  50     For a pretest, start at version .90.  After .99, use .990 (so that
  51     it sorts).
  52
  53 5.   autoreconf -i -I m4 --force
  54      make bootstrap
  55
  56 6.  Copy lisp/loaddefs.el to lisp/ldefs-boot.el.
  57
  58     Commit etc/AUTHORS, lisp/ldefs-boot.el, and the files changed
  59     by M-x set-version.
  60     For a release, also commit the ChangeLog files in all directories.
  61
  62 7.  ./make-dist --snapshot --no-compress
  63
  64     Check the contents of the new tar with
  65     admin/diff-tar-files against an older tar file.  Some old pretest
  66     tarballs may be found at <ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest>;
  67     old release tarballs are at <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/>.
  68
  69     If this is the first pretest of a major release, just comparing
  70     with the previous release may overlook many new files.  You can try
  71     something like `find . | sort' in a clean bzr tree, and compare the
  72     results against the new tar contents.
  73
  74 8.   tar -xf emacs-NEW.tar; cd emacs-NEW
  75      ./configure --prefix=/tmp/emacs && make && make install
  76     Use `script' or M-x compile to save the compilation log in
  77     compile-NEW.log and compare it against an old one.  The easiest way
  78     to do that is to visit the old log in Emacs, change the version
  79     number of the old Emacs to __, do the same with the new log and do
  80     M-x ediff.  Especially check that Info files aren't built, and that
  81     no autotools (autoconf etc) run.
  82
  83 9.  cd EMACS_ROOT_DIR && bzr tag TAG
  84     TAG is emacs-XX.Y.ZZ for a pretest, emacs-XX.Y for a release.
  85
  86     Shortly before the release, cut the version branch also, and open
  87     a Savannah support request asking for commits to the new branch to
  88     be sent to the emacs-diffs mailing list (by default, the list
  89     normally only gets commits to the trunk).
  90
  91 10. Decide what compression schemes to offer.
  92     For a release, at least gz and xz:
  93       gzip --best -c emacs-NEW.tar > emacs-NEW.tar.gz
  94       xz -c emacs-NEW.tar > emacs-NEW.tar.xz
  95
  96     Now you should upload the files to the GNU ftp server.  In order to
  97     do that, you must be registered as an Emacs maintainer and have your
  98     GPG key acknowledged by the ftp people.  For instructions, see
  99     http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Automated-Upload-Registration.html
 100     The simplest method is to use the gnulib <http://www.gnu.org/s/gnulib/>
 101     script "build-aux/gnupload" to upload each FILE, like this:
 102
 103     For a pretest:
 104      gnupload [--user your@gpg.key.email] --to alpha.gnu.org:emacs/pretest \
 105        FILE.gz FILE.xz ...
 106
 107     For a release:
 108      gnupload [--user your@gpg.key.email] --to ftp.gnu.org:emacs \
 109        FILE.gz FILE.xz ...
 110
 111     You only need the --user part if you have multiple GPG keys and do
 112     not want to use the default.
 113     Obviously, if you do not have a fast uplink, be prepared for the
 114     upload to take a while.
 115
 116
 117     If you prefer to do it yourself rather than use gnupload:
 118
 119     For each FILE, create a detached GPG binary signature and a
 120     clearsigned directive file like this:
 121
 122      gpg -b FILE
 123      echo directory: emacs/pretest > FILE.directive      (for a pretest)
 124      echo directory: emacs > FILE.directive              (for a release)
 125      gpg --clearsign FILE.directive
 126     Upload by anonymous ftp to ftp://ftp-upload.gnu.org/ the files FILE,
 127     FILE.sig, FILE.directive.asc.
 128     For a release, place the files in the /incoming/ftp directory.
 129     For a pretest, place the files in /incoming/alpha instead, so that
 130     they appear on ftp://alpha.gnu.org/.
 131
 132 11. After five minutes, verify that the files are visible at
 133     ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest/ for a pretest, or
 134     ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/ for a release.
 135
 136     Download them and check the signatures.  Check they build.
 137
 138 12. For a pretest, announce it on emacs-devel and info-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
 139     For a release, also announce it on info-gnu@gnu.org.  (Probably
 140     bcc the info- addresses to make it less likely that people will
 141     followup on those lists.)
 142
 143 13. For a release, update the Emacs homepage in the web repository.
 144     Also add the new NEWS file as NEWS.xx.y.
 145     Maybe regenerate the html manuals, update the FAQ, etc, etc.