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  20 - remove gc-thunk (It has been replaced by after-gc-hook.)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