This document describes the procedures and provides a checklist of tasks that should be performed when creating production releases of EPICS Base.
The version released on the Feature Freeze date is designated the first pre-release, -pre1. The first release candidate -rc1 is the first version that has undergone testing by the developers and has shown no problems that must be fixed before release. New versions should be made at about 2-weekly intervals after the -pre1 release, and designated as either pre-release or release candidate versions by the Release Manager. Release candidates are announced to the whole community via the tech-talk mailing list, pre-releases are announced to to the developers via the core-talk list. After a release candidate has been available for 2 weeks without any new problems being reported or major changes having to be committed, the final release can be made.
The following roles are used below:
Check | Who | Description |
---|---|---|
Preparing for a release | ||
Release Manager | Email all developers about the upcoming release and ask for a list of remaining tasks that must be finished. | |
All developers | Check the bug tracker for any outstanding items and handle appropriately. All bugs that have been fixed should have been marked as Fix Committed. | |
Release Manager | Set the Feature Freeze date, by which time all Git commits for enhancements and new functionality should have been completed. After this date, commits should only be made to fix problems that show up during testing. | |
Release Manager & all developers |
Ensure that documentation will be updated before the release date:
|
|
Release Manager | Review and update this checklist for the upcoming release. | |
Website Manager | Create a release milestone on Launchpad if necessary and set the expected release date. Note that pre-release and release-candidate versions do not appear on Launchpad, only the final release. | |
Creating pre-release and release-candidate versions | ||
Release Manager | Edit and commit changes to the EPICS version number file configure/CONFIG_BASE_VERSION. | |
Release Manager | Tag the module in Git, using these tag conventions:
cd base-7.0Note that submodules must not be tagged with the version used for the top-level, they each have their own separate version numbers that are only tagged at the final release. |
|
Release Manager | Export the tagged version into a tarfile. The make-tar.sh
script generates a gzipped tarfile directly from the tag, excluding the
files and directories that are only used for continuous integration:
cd base-7.0Create a GPG signature file of the tarfile as follows: gpg --armor --sign --detach-sig base-7.0.2-rc1.tar.gz |
|
Release Manager | Test the tarfile by extracting its contents and building it on at least one supported platform. | |
Website Manager | Copy the tarfile and its signature to the Base download area of the website and add the new files to the website Base download index page. | |
Website Manager | Create or update a website subdirectory to hold the release documentation, and copy in selected files from the base/documentation and base/html directories of the tarfile. | |
Website Manager | Create or modify the webpage for the new release with links to the release documents and tar file. Pre-release and release-candidate versions should use the page and URL for the final release version number. | |
Testing | ||
Platform Developers | Run the built-in test programs on all available host platforms using
make -s runtests |
|
Platform Developers | Run the CA client side regression tests on all available host platforms. | |
Platform Developers | Check that all makeBaseApp templates build and run properly, all xxxApp and xxxBoot types and any internal options, e.g. setting STATIC_BUILD=YES or using a different INSTALL_LOCATION in configure/CONFIG_SITE. | |
Platform Developers | Build the SNL Sequencer against this version of Base, and check that the makeBaseApp example builds and runs correctly with it. | |
Application Developers | Build external applications against this version of Base on all available platforms and test as appropriate. Application code changes may be necessary where the EPICS Base APIs have been modified. | |
Release Manager | Check that documentation has been updated:
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|
Release Approval | ||
Release Manager | Obtain a positive Ok to releasefrom all platform developers once a release candidate version has gone for 2 weeks without any major new issues being reported. |
|
Creating the final release version | ||
Release Manager |
For each external submodule, check if the module's release version number (and SHRLIB_VERSION setting) has been updated if appropriate, and that its Release Notes have been updated to cover any changes. Commit any fixes and tag the module if that hasn't already been done. Update all external submodules on the Base-7.0 branch and commit. |
|
Release Manager | Edit and commit changes to the EPICS Base version number file and
the embedded module version files:
|
|
Release Manager | Tag the epics-base module in Git:
cd base-7.0Don't push the new tag to the Launchpad repository yet. |
|
Release Manager | Export the tagged version into a tarfile. The make-tar.sh
script generates a gzipped tarfile directly from the tag, excluding the
files and directories that are only used for continuous integration:
cd base-7.0Create a GPG signature file of the tarfile as follows: gpg --armor --sign --detach-sig base-7.0.2.tar.gz |
|
Release Manager | Test the tar file by extracting its contents and building it on at
least one supported platform. When this succeeds the new git tag can be
pushed to the Launchpad repository:
git push --follow-tags upstream 7.0 |
|
Release Manager | Copy the tarfile and its signature to the Base download area of the website. | |
Release Manager | Find all Launchpad bug reports with the status Fix Committed which have been fixed in this release and mark them Fix Released. | |
Publish and Announce it | ||
Website Manager | Upload the tar file and its .asc signature file to the Launchpad milestone for this release version. | |
Website Manager | Update the website subdirectory that holds the release documentation, and copy in the files from the base/documentation directory of the tarfile. | |
Website Manager | Update the webpage for the new release with links to the release documents and tar file. | |
Website Manager | Add the new release tar file to the website Base download index page. | |
Website Manager | Link to the release webpage from other relevent areas of the website - update front page and sidebars. | |
Website Manager | Add an entry to the website News page, linking to the new version webpage. | |
Release Manager | Announce the release on the tech-talk mailing list. |