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 === Eventually:
  11
  12 * Deprecate `read-only-string?'.
  13
  14 After signal handling and threading have been fixed:
  15 - remove the code corresponding to GUILE_OLD_ASYNC_CLICK and the corresponding
  16   GUILE_OLD_ASYNC_CLICK macro.
  17
  18 === In release 1.6.0:
  19
  20 - Make sure that the deprecation mechanism explained in INSTALL and
  21   README is completed and works.
  22
  23 === In release 1.8.0:
  24
  25 - remove re-exporting behaviour of `export'.
  26     in boot-9.scm, remove begin-deprecated part of `module-export!'
  27     in format.scm, remove kluge at top
  28     in srfi13.scm, likewise
  29
  30 - remove deprecated subr and gsubr functions
  31     in procs.h, procs.c: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
  32       scm_make_subr_with_generic,
  33     in gsubr.h, gsubr.c: scm_make_gsubr, scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
  34
  35 - remove deprecated C interface to modules
  36     in modules.h, modules.c:
  37       root_module_lookup_closure, scm_sym_app, scm_sym_modules,
  38       module_prefix, make_modules_in_var, beautify_user_module_x_var,
  39       scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module, scm_ensure_user_module,
  40       scm_load_scheme_module
  41
  42 - remove vcell and obarray support.
  43   Remove all code bracketed by `#if SCM_ENABLE_VCELLS'.
  44   Remove SCM_ENABLE_VCELLS itself.
  45   Also remove `variable-set-name-hint' completely.
  46
  47 - remove compatability module (ice-9 and-let*).  It
  48   has been replaced by (ice-9 and-let-star) and/or (srfi srfi-2).
  49
  50 - remove support for autoloading compiled-code modules:
  51     try-module-linked
  52     try-module-dynamic-link
  53     init-dynamic-module, etc.
  54     scm_register_module_xxx
  55     scm_registered_modules
  56     scm_clear_registered_modules
  57
  58 - remove deprecated variables:
  59     scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var
  60     scm_scm_system_transformer
  61     Remove all code that still sets them:
  62      `use-syntax', scm_set_current_module, ...
  63
  64 - remove deprecated functions:
  65     eval.c: scm_eval2, scm_eval_3
  66     load.c: scm_read_and_eval_x
  67     smob.c: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe
  68     gc.c: scm_remember
  69     string.c: scm_makstr
  70 - remove deprecated procedures:
  71     boot-9.scm: eval-in-module, id, -1+, return-it, string-character-length,
  72       flags
  73 - remove deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
  74   SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
  75   SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
  76   SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR,
  77   SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
  78   SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH,
  79   SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
  80   SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING,
  81   SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX,
  82   SCM_GC8MARKP, SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR,
  83   SCM_SUBR_DOC, SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA,
  84   SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
  85   SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
  86   SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR,
  87   SCM_ARRAY_CONTIGUOUS
  88 - remove scm_vector_set_length_x
  89 - remove function scm_call_catching_errors
  90   (replaced by catch functions from throw.[ch])
  91 - remove support for "#&" reader syntax in (ice-9 optargs).
  92 - remove scm_make_shared_substring
  93 - remove scm_read_only_string_p
  94 - remove scm_strhash
  95 - remove scm_tc7_ssymbol
  96 - remove scm_tc7_msymbol
  97 - remove scm_tcs_symbols
  98 - remove scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
  99 - consider removing the automatic loading of (ice-9 rdelim) when guile
 100   starts up.  This would be a brave move, since a lot of code will
 101   assume that read-line is available by default.  However it would make
 102   it easier to use alternative implementations of this module, e.g., a
 103   strictly scsh-compatible version which uses multiple values.  For
 104   interactive use it would be easy to load the module in ~/.guile.
 105 - remove scm_close_all_ports_except
 106 - remove scm_strprint_obj
 107 - remove SCM_CONST_LONG
 108 - remove scm_wta
 109 - remove deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long, scm_sizet
 110 - remove deprecated macros: scm_contregs, scm_port_rw_active,
 111   scm_port, scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame,
 112   scm_fport, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT, scm_option, scm_subr_entry, scm_rstate,
 113   scm_rng, scm_i_rstate, scm_srcprops, scm_srcprops_chunk,
 114   scm_info_frame, scm_stack, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
 115 - remove deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
 116   scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl.
 117 - remove deprecated functions: scm_protect_object,
 118   scm_unprotect_object, scm_create_hook.
 119
 120 Modules sort.c and random.c should be factored out into separate
 121 modules (but still be distributed with guile-core) when we get a new
 122 module system.
 123
 124 Platforms for test builds:
 125 SunOS (gcc and pcc) --- galapas.ai.mit.edu
 126 Solaris (gcc and SUN cc) --- saturn.ai.mit.edu
 127 NetBSD (gcc) --- repo-man.ai.mit.edu (use /home/repo/jimb)
 128 HP/UX (gcc, HP cc) --- nutrimat.gnu.ai.mit.edu
 129
 130 These gentlemen have kindly offered to do pre-release testing:
 131
 132 Tom Tromey <tromey@cygnus.com>:
 133
 134   alphaev5-unknown-linux-gnu
 135   hppa1.1-hp-hpux10.20
 136   hppa1.1-hp-hpux11.00
 137   mips-sgi-irix5.3
 138   powerpc-ibm-aix4.2.0.0
 139   powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu
 140   sparc-sun-solaris2.6
 141   i686-pc-linux-gnu
 142   mips-sgi-irix6.3
 143   sparc-sun-sunos4.1.4
 144
 145 Ian Grant <I.A.N.Grant@damtp.cam.ac.uk>:
 146
 147   alpha-dec-osf4.0e
 148
 149 Julian Satchell <satchell@merry.dra.hmg.gb>:
 150
 151   dec-mips-ultrix
 152
 153 Perry Metzger <perry@piermont.com>
 154
 155   NetBSD
 156
 157
 158 Release Checklists ===================================================
 159
 160 There are basically two phases to doing a release:
 161
 162 * "SPIFFING": Updating NEWS, README, INSTALL.  Running tests.  Getting
 163   people to try builds on various machines.  Getting everything
 164   straightened up.
 165
 166 * "PUNTING": Updating the version numbers.  Tagging the sources.  Asking
 167   the FSF to put the disty on ftp.gnu.org.  Posting announcements.
 168
 169 The "Spiffing" phase you might go through several times as you
 170 discover problems.  The "Punting" phase you do only once.
 171
 172
 173 Spiffing checklist:
 174
 175 * Do a `cvs update -A', to get rid of any sticky tags in your working
 176   directory.
 177 * Check for files that have changed a lot, but do not have up-to-date
 178   copyright notices.  This can be as simple as doing:
 179         grep 'Copyright' * | grep -v 1999
 180   and looking for files you know you've worked on a lot.
 181 * Make sure NEWS, INSTALL, AUTHORS and THANKS and the docs are up to date:
 182   + Scan the ChangeLogs for user-visible changes, marked with an asterisk
 183     at the left margin.
 184   + Update NEWS and the Texinfo documentation as appropriate.
 185   + Remove the user-visible markers from the log entries once they're
 186     documented.
 187   + Check for any [[incomplete]] sections of NEWS.
 188   + Fact-check INSTALL.
 189   + Make sure AUTHORS and THANKS are up-to-date.
 190 * Make sure the downloading addresses and filenames in README are
 191   current.  (But don't bump the version number yet.  We do that below.)
 192 * Check that the versions of aclocal, automake, autoconf, and autoheader
 193   in your PATH match those given in HACKING.  Note that the `make
 194   dist' process always invokes these tools, even when all the
 195   generated files are up to date.
 196 * Rebuild all generated files in the source tree:
 197   + Install the .m4 files where aclocal will find them.
 198   + Run aclocal.
 199   + Run autoconf.
 200   + Run autoheader.
 201   + Run automake.
 202 * Verify that Guile builds and runs in your working directory.
 203 * Run the test suite, in guile-core/test-suite.
 204 * Commit all changes to the CVS repository.
 205 * Build a test distribution.
 206   + BEFORE doing 'make dist', configure the source tree for build
 207     in the same tree with configuration options
 208     --enable-maintainer-mode --enable-debug-malloc --with-threads.
 209   + Make sure that readline was enabled correctly.
 210   + Build the tree.
 211     (If the above steps are not done, the dependencies won't be properly
 212     included in the generated Makefile.in files.)
 213   + Then do 'make dist'.
 214   + Check that the dependencies in guile-readline/Makefile look OK.
 215     (We currently use a kludge which edits the dependencies generated
 216     by automake so that Guile can be built in a directory separate
 217     from the source tree also with non-GNU make programs.)
 218 * Give the test disty to various people to try.  Here's what you should do:
 219   + Unset GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
 220   + Remove automake and autoconf from your path, or turn off their
 221     execute bits, or something.  (Users must be able to build the
 222     disty without installing those tools.)
 223   + Configure, make, and install.
 224   + Make sure LD_LIBRARY_PATH doesn't include anything unnecessary.
 225   + Run the test suite on the installed version.
 226   + You might try the example code in the doc directory.
 227
 228 Once you've got a disty that seems pretty solid:
 229
 230 * Choose new interface numbers for shared libraries.
 231 * Update the version numbers in GUILE-VERSION and README.  (There are
 232   many places in README that need updating!)  The Guile version
 233   number should have one of the following forms:
 234     N.M                      - a major release
 235     N.M.L, where L is even   - a minor release
 236     N.M.L, where L is odd    - sources from CVS or nightly snapshot
 237 * Reformat the names in THANKS.
 238 * Do a `cvs update -A' of the whole tree, to look for any stray
 239   uncommitted or accidental changes.
 240 * Commit your changes.
 241 * Make one last test distribution.
 242
 243 Punting checklist:
 244
 245 * Add "Guile N.M released." entry to the top-level ChangeLog, and commit it.
 246 * Tag the entire source tree with a tag of the form "release_N_M"
 247   or "release_N_M_L".
 248 * Do a 'make dist'.
 249 * Put the distribution up for FTP somewhere, and send mail to
 250   ftp-upload@gnu.org, asking them to put it on prep.
 251 * Send an announcement message to gnu-announce@gnu.org.  Put a brief
 252   summary of the changes in this release first, then "Obtaining
 253   Guile", "Thanks", "About This Distribution," and "Nightly
 254   Snapshots."  If I remember correctly, the moderator will delay it
 255   until the distribution appears on ftp.gnu.org.  The announcement
 256   text should be mostly taken from Guile's README file.
 257 * Notify freshmeat.net, although they're probably watching anyway.
 258   (They got the 1.3 release just fine.)  I have no idea if
 259   www.bowerbird.com.au will be something anyone refers to, but Guile
 260   does have an entry there.
 261 * Tweak the version numbers in GUILE-VERSION, and README to indicate
 262   that the sources are a snapshot again.  Snapshots should have
 263   version numbers of the form "N.M.L", where L is odd.
 264 * Start a new section of the NEWS file.
 265 * Start a new THANKS file.