RELEASE

   1 This is a checklist for making Guile releases.
   2 It's specific to the FSF's development environment; please don't put
   3 it in the distribution.
   4
   5 Maybe we should name Guile releases after entertaining poisons:
   6 absinthe, etc.  However, the first release containing the module
   7 system should be called Godot: "This is the one you've been waiting
   8 for."
   9
  10 * Remove compatability module (ice-9 and-let*) eventually (when a
  11   major release with the real module (ice-9 and-let-star) has been out
  12   long enough, probably release 1.6).
  13
  14 * Deprecate `read-only-string?'.
  15
  16 After signal handling and threading have been fixed:
  17 - remove the code corresponding to GUILE_OLD_ASYNC_CLICK and the corresponding
  18   GUILE_OLD_ASYNC_CLICK macro.
  19
  20 In release 1.5:
  21 - remove deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
  22   SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
  23   SCM_NVECTORP
  24 - remove gc-thunk (It has been replaced by after-gc-hook.)
  25 - remove scm_sysmissing
  26 - remove gh_int2scmb (replaced by gh_bool2scm)
  27 - remove scm_fseek (replaced by scm_seek)
  28 - remove scm_tag
  29 - remove code related to the name property of hooks.  Also, check init.c,
  30   since the dependency between hooks and objprop will then be eliminated.
  31 - remove deprecated function scm_list_star/list*  (use SRFI-1 compliant
  32   scm_cons_star/cons* instead.)
  33 - remove scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo (guile always uses doubles to represent
  34   inexact real numbers)
  35 - remove scm_tc_dblr (replaced by scm_tc16_real)
  36 - remove scm_tc_dblc (replaced by scm_tc16_complex)
  37 - remove deprecated types, functions and macros from numbers.h:  scm_dblproc,
  38   SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL, SCM_IMAG,
  39   SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
  40 - remove deprecated macro from tags.h: SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
  41
  42 In release 1.6:
  43 - remove deprecated variables:
  44     scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var
  45 - remove deprecated functions:
  46     eval.c: scm_eval2, scm_eval_3
  47     load.c: scm_read_and_eval_x
  48     smob.c: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe
  49     gc.c: scm_remember
  50 - remove deprecated procedures:
  51     boot-9.scm:eval-in-module
  52 - remove deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
  53   SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
  54   SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
  55   SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR,
  56   SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
  57   SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH,
  58   SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
  59   SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING,
  60   SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX,
  61   SCM_GC8MARKP, SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR,
  62   SCM_SUBR_DOC, SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR
  63 - remove scm_vector_set_length_x
  64 - remove function scm_call_catching_errors
  65   (replaced by catch functions from throw.[ch])
  66 - remove support for "#&" reader syntax in (ice-9 optargs).
  67 - remove scm_make_shared_substring
  68 - remove scm_read_only_string_p
  69 - remove scm_strhash
  70 - remove scm_tc7_ssymbol
  71 - remove scm_tc7_msymbol
  72 - remove scm_tcs_symbols
  73 - remove scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
  74 - consider removing the automatic loading of (ice-9 rdelim) when guile
  75   starts up.  This would be a brave move, since a lot of code will
  76   assume that read-line is available by default.  However it would make
  77   it easier to use alternative implementations of this module, e.g., a
  78   strictly scsh-compatible version which uses multiple values.  For
  79   interactive use it would be easy to load the module in ~/.guile.
  80 - remove scm_close_all_ports_except
  81
  82 Modules sort.c and random.c should be factored out into separate
  83 modules (but still be distributed with guile-core) when we get a new
  84 module system.
  85
  86 Platforms for test builds:
  87 SunOS (gcc and pcc) --- galapas.ai.mit.edu
  88 Solaris (gcc and SUN cc) --- saturn.ai.mit.edu
  89 NetBSD (gcc) --- repo-man.ai.mit.edu (use /home/repo/jimb)
  90 HP/UX (gcc, HP cc) --- nutrimat.gnu.ai.mit.edu
  91
  92 These gentlemen have kindly offered to do pre-release testing:
  93
  94 Tom Tromey <tromey@cygnus.com>:
  95
  96   alphaev5-unknown-linux-gnu
  97   hppa1.1-hp-hpux10.20
  98   hppa1.1-hp-hpux11.00
  99   mips-sgi-irix5.3
 100   powerpc-ibm-aix4.2.0.0
 101   powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu
 102   sparc-sun-solaris2.6
 103   i686-pc-linux-gnu
 104   mips-sgi-irix6.3
 105   sparc-sun-sunos4.1.4
 106
 107 Ian Grant <I.A.N.Grant@damtp.cam.ac.uk>:
 108
 109   alpha-dec-osf4.0e
 110
 111 Julian Satchell <satchell@merry.dra.hmg.gb>:
 112
 113   dec-mips-ultrix
 114
 115 Perry Metzger <perry@piermont.com>
 116
 117   NetBSD
 118
 119
 120 Release Checklists ===================================================
 121
 122 There are basically two phases to doing a release:
 123
 124 * "SPIFFING": Updating NEWS, README, INSTALL.  Running tests.  Getting
 125   people to try builds on various machines.  Getting everything
 126   straightened up.
 127
 128 * "PUNTING": Updating the version numbers.  Tagging the sources.  Asking
 129   the FSF to put the disty on ftp.gnu.org.  Posting announcements.
 130
 131 The "Spiffing" phase you might go through several times as you
 132 discover problems.  The "Punting" phase you do only once.
 133
 134
 135 Spiffing checklist:
 136
 137 * Do a `cvs update -A', to get rid of any sticky tags in your working
 138   directory.
 139 * Check for files that have changed a lot, but do not have up-to-date
 140   copyright notices.  This can be as simple as doing:
 141         grep 'Copyright' * | grep -v 1999
 142   and looking for files you know you've worked on a lot.
 143 * Make sure NEWS, INSTALL and the docs are up to date:
 144   + Scan the ChangeLogs for user-visible changes, marked with an asterisk
 145     at the left margin.
 146   + Update NEWS and the Texinfo documentation as appropriate.
 147   + Remove the user-visible markers from the log entries once they're
 148     documented.
 149   + Check for any [[incomplete]] sections of NEWS.
 150   + Fact-check INSTALL.
 151 * Make sure the downloading addresses and filenames in README are
 152   current.  (But don't bump the version number yet.  We do that below.)
 153 * Check that the versions of aclocal, automake, autoconf, and autoheader
 154   in your PATH match those given in HACKING.  Note that the `make
 155   dist' process always invokes these tools, even when all the
 156   generated files are up to date.
 157 * Rebuild all generated files in the source tree:
 158   + Install the .m4 files where aclocal will find them.
 159   + Run aclocal.
 160   + Run autoconf.
 161   + Run autoheader.
 162   + Run automake.
 163 * Verify that Guile builds and runs in your working directory.
 164 * Run the test suite, in guile-core/test-suite.
 165 * Commit all changes to the CVS repository.
 166 * Build a test distribution.
 167   + BEFORE doing 'make dist', configure the source tree for build
 168     in the same tree with configuration options
 169     --enable-maintainer-mode --enable-debug-malloc --with-threads.
 170   + Make sure that readline was enabled correctly.
 171   + Build the tree.
 172     (If the above steps are not done, the dependencies won't be properly
 173     included in the generated Makefile.in files.)
 174   + Then do 'make dist'.
 175   + Check that the dependencies in guile-readline/Makefile look OK.
 176     (We currently use a kludge which edits the dependencies generated
 177     by automake so that Guile can be built in a directory separate
 178     from the source tree also with non-GNU make programs.)
 179 * Give the test disty to various people to try.  Here's what you should do:
 180   + Unset GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
 181   + Remove automake and autoconf from your path, or turn off their
 182     execute bits, or something.  (Users must be able to build the
 183     disty without installing those tools.)
 184   + Configure, make, and install.
 185   + Make sure LD_LIBRARY_PATH doesn't include anything unnecessary.
 186   + Run the test suite on the installed version.
 187   + You might try the example code in the doc directory.
 188
 189 Once you've got a disty that seems pretty solid:
 190
 191 * Choose new interface numbers for shared libraries.
 192 * Update the version numbers in GUILE-VERSION and README.  (There are
 193   many places in README that need updating!)  The Guile version
 194   number should have one of the following forms:
 195     N.M                      - a major release
 196     N.M.L, where L is even   - a minor release
 197     N.M.L, where L is odd    - sources from CVS or nightly snapshot
 198 * Reformat the names in THANKS.
 199 * Do a `cvs update -A' of the whole tree, to look for any stray
 200   uncommitted or accidental changes.
 201 * Commit your changes.
 202 * Make one last test distribution.
 203
 204 Punting checklist:
 205
 206 * Add "Guile N.M released." entry to the top-level ChangeLog, and commit it.
 207 * Tag the entire source tree with a tag of the form "release_N_M"
 208   or "release_N_M_L".
 209 * Do a 'make dist'.
 210 * Put the distribution up for FTP somewhere, and send mail to
 211   ftp-upload@gnu.org, asking them to put it on prep.
 212 * Send an announcement message to gnu-announce@gnu.org.  Put a brief
 213   summary of the changes in this release first, then "Obtaining
 214   Guile", "Thanks", "About This Distribution," and "Nightly
 215   Snapshots."  If I remember correctly, the moderator will delay it
 216   until the distribution appears on ftp.gnu.org.  The announcement
 217   text should be mostly taken from Guile's README file.
 218 * Notify freshmeat.net, although they're probably watching anyway.
 219   (They got the 1.3 release just fine.)  I have no idea if
 220   www.bowerbird.com.au will be something anyone refers to, but Guile
 221   does have an entry there.
 222 * Tweak the version numbers in GUILE-VERSION, and README to indicate
 223   that the sources are a snapshot again.  Snapshots should have
 224   version numbers of the form "N.M.L", where L is odd.
 225 * Start a new section of the NEWS file.
 226 * Start a new THANKS file.