Table of Contents

[TOC]

Step-by-step instructions for preparing and releasing a new checkpoint release of SCons--that is, release numbered with X.Y.Z_d_YYYYMMDD or X.Y.Z_r_XXXX format, such as 0.97.0.d20070809, 0.97.1r2334, etc.

If you need to prepare a major release (X.Y, such as 0.97), see the Major_Release_HOWTO.

If you need to prepare a minor release (X.Y.Z, such as 0.97.1), see the Minor_Release_HOWTO.

Summarize the changes listed in the src/CHANGES.txt and reorganize them into something like the following template:

  A new SCons checkpoint release, 0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD, is now available at the
  SCons download page:

          http://www.scons.org/download.php

  A SCons "checkpoint release" is intended to provide early access to
  new features so they can be tested in the field before being released
  for adoption by other software distributions.

  Note that a checkpoint release is developed using the same test-driven
  development methdology as all SCons releases.  Existing SCons
  functionality should all work as it does in previous releases (except
  for any changes identified in the release notes) and early adopters
  should be able to use a checkpoint release safely for production work
  with existing SConscript files.  If not, it represents not only a bug
  in SCons but also a hole in the regression test suite, and we want to
  hear about it.

  New features may be more lightly tested than in past releases,
  especially as concerns their interaction with all of the other
  functionality in SCons.  We are especially interested in hearing bug
  reports about new functionality.

  We do not recommend that downstream distributions (Debian, Fedora,
  etc.) package a checkpoint release, mainly to avoid confusing the
  "public" release numbering with the long checkpoint release names.

  Here is a summary of the changes since 0.XX:

  NEW FUNCTIONALITY

  - List new features (presumably why a checkpoint is being released)

  DEPRECATED FUNCTIONALITY

  - List anything that's been deprecated since the last release

  CHANGED/ENHANCED EXISTING FUNCTIONALITY

  - List modifications to existing features, where the previous behavior
    wouldn't actually be considered a bug

  FIXES

  - List fixes of outright bugs

  IMPROVEMENTS

  - List improvements that wouldn't be visible to the user in the
    documentation:  performance improvements (describe the circumstances
    under which they would be observed), or major code cleanups

  PACKAGING

  - List changes in the way SCons is packaged and/or released

  DOCUMENTATION

  - List any significant changes to the documentation (not individual
    typo fixes, even if they're mentioned in src/CHANGES.txt to give
    the contributor credit)

  DEVELOPMENT

  - List visible changes in the way SCons is developed

  Thanks to LARRY, MOE and CURLY for their contributions to this release.

          --SK

Feel free to edit the opening paragraphs to draw attention to anything special or unusual about the release. For example, if we specifically want people to test a new feature, or there is a really horrendous problem that this checkpoint fixes, an extra paragraph or two highlighting that would be appropriate.

Since ths is an announcement, try to edit down the src/CHANGES.txt descriptions so that, ideally, each item fits on a single line. In general, get rid of examples and explanations. The idea is to pique the reader's interest, not provide full documentation. Still, use your judgment and feel free to leave in an explanation if it would be too confusing to shorten it.

Try to reorganize the items so that, within each section, all of the Visual Studio items are listed together, all of the Java items are together, etc. More "important" (or visible) items should appear towards the top of each section.

It's all right just to delete the description of something that's too difficult to explain and too minor to make much of a difference.

Whether or not a given item belongs in NEW FUNCTIONALITY vs. CHANGED/ENHANCED vs. FIXED vs. an IMPROVEMENT is a judgment call.

In the final "Thanks to" paragraph, at a minimum list everyone in the src/CHANGES.txt file who contributed to the release, plus anyone else who (in your judgment) merits a mention even if they didn't contribute an actual patch.

The src/CHANGES.txt and src/RELEASE.txt files have lines in them that identify the release name and the date. The date stamp should be the same in the two files, and in the format printed by the POSIX date -R command.

You should update these two files by hand and then commit the change:

  $ svn diff
  Index: src/CHANGES.txt
  ===================================================================
  --- src/CHANGES.txt     (revision 2520)
  +++ src/CHANGES.txt     (working copy)
  @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
 
 
  -RELEASE 0.XX - XXX
  +RELEASE 0.97.0d20071212 - Wed, 12 Dec 2007 09:29:32 -0600
 
     From John Doe:
 
  Index: src/RELEASE.txt
  ===================================================================
  --- src/RELEASE.txt     (revision 2520)
  +++ src/RELEASE.txt     (working copy)
  @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@



  -RELEASE 0.97.0d200709XX - XXX
  +RELEASE 0.97.0d20071212 - Wed, 12 Dec 2007 09:29:32 -0600

     This is the eighth beta release of SCons.  Please consult the
     CHANGES.txt file for a list of specific changes since last release.
  $ svn commit
  Sending        src/CHANGES.txt
  Sending        src/RELEASE.txt
  Transmitting file data ..
  Committed revision 2523.
  $ 

Provided you have all of the necessary utilities installed, this should be a simple matter of:

  $ export SVN=http://scons.tigris.org/svn/scons
  $ svn co $SVN/branches/core
  $ cd core
  $ python bootstrap.py CHECKPOINT=d

The CHECKPOINT=d argument above will cause today's date to be used as the checkpoint identifier. If this checkpoint release should be identified by a revision number, then use CHECKPOINT=r instead.

If you need to re-generate a checkpoint release with a specific string, just supply it as the argument, including the d or r prefix: CHECKPOINT=d20070809.

This step will create the packages in the build/dist subdirectory. If everything built correctly, you should see the following:

  scons-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD-1.noarch.rpm
  scons-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD-1.src.rpm
  scons-0.97.0dYYYYMMDD.linux-x86_64.tar.gz
  scons-0.97.0dYYYYMMDD.linux-x86_64.zip
  scons-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.tar.gz
  scons-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.win32.exe
  scons-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.zip
  scons-doc-0.97.0dYYYYMMDD.tar.gz
  scons-local-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.tar.gz
  scons-local-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.zip
  scons-src-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.tar.gz
  scons-src-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.zip

Note that the linux-x86_64 strings in some of the above file names may be different, depending on your local system architecture. That doesn't matter; those files don't go public.

The previous build step not only builds the packages but also unpacks all of them into subdirectories so that you can run the test suite against the packaged goods. This is intended to catch packaging problems such as not adding a new module to the packaging MANIFEST list(s). The runtest.py script supports a -p option and arguments that run the SCons tests against the different unpacked directories:

  $ python runtest.py -a -p tar-gz
  $ python runtest.py -a -p zip
  $ python runtest.py -a -p local-tar-gz
  $ python runtest.py -a -p local-zip
  $ python runtest.py -a -p src-tar-gz
  $ python runtest.py -a -p src-zip
  $ python runtest.py -a -p rpm

If you want to be complete, test all of the packages.

To be quicker but still reasonably thorough, test tar-gz and zip, one each of local- and src- (probably do -tar-gz for one and -zip for the other), and rpm.

For a quick-and-dirty test, just test tar-gz or zip, and maybe rpm. Since all of the different packages use the same lists as input, it's pretty unlikely that the tests will pass on one package and fail for another.

(TBD -- this will probably be reworked to be part of the build step.)

  python bin/scons-doc.py --diff
  python bin/scons-doc.py --update

  svn commit

  $ ftp upload.sourceforge.net
      .
      .
      .
  Name (upload.sourceforge.net:<your login>): anonymous
  331 Please specify the password.
  Password: <your email>
  ftp> lcd build/dist
  ftp> cd incoming
  ftp> bin
  ftp> put scons-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD-1.noarch.rpm
  ftp> put scons-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD-1.src.rpm
  ftp> put scons-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.tar.gz
  ftp> put scons-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.win32.exe
  ftp> put scons-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.zip
  ftp> put scons-local-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.tar.gz
  ftp> put scons-local-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.zip
  ftp> put scons-src-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.tar.gz
  ftp> put scons-src-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.zip
  ftp> quit
  221 Goodbye.

You can also put all of the files with less typing by doing:

 ftp> mput *

And answering the interactive prompts. If you do this, note that you should not upload the scons-0.97.0dYYYYMMDD.linux-x86_64.tar.gz, scons-0.97.0dYYYYMMDD.linux-x86_64.zip and scons-doc-0.97.0dYYYYMMDD.tar.gz files, so answer n when prompted for those file names. (If you make a mistake and they get uploaded, though, it's not a big deal--Sourceforge will delete them from the directory after an extended timeout period.)

• Pull down the Admin menu and select File Releases
• Package Name: scons
• => Add Release
• New release name: 0.XX.0d_YYYYMMDD_
• Upload the RELEASE.txt file from build/scons/RELEASE.txt
• Upload the CHANGES.txt file from build/scons/CHANGES.txt
• IMPORTANT! Check the Preserve my pre-formatted text. box
• Click Submit/Refresh
• Scroll down and check the scons-* packages you uploaded
• Click Add Files and/or Refresh View
• Edit the file info (NOTE: you must click Update/Refresh for each file; this must be done one at a time):

• Check I'm sure and click Send Notice in the Email Release Notice section at the bottom.

• Pull down the Admin menu and select File Releases
• Package Name: scons-local
• => Add Release
• New release name: 0.XX.0d_YYYYMMDD_
• Upload the RELEASE.txt file
• Upload the CHANGES.txt file
• IMPORTANT! Check the Preserve my pre-formatted text. box
• Click Submit/Refresh
• Scroll down and check the scons-local-* packages you uploaded
• Click Add Files and/or Refresh View
• Edit the file info (NOTE: you must click Update/Refresh for each file; this must be done one at a time):

• Check I'm sure and click Send Notice in the Email Release Notice section at the bottom.

• Pull down the Admin menu and select File Releases
• Package Name: scons-src
• => Add Release
• New release name: 0.XX.0d_YYYYMMDD_
• Upload the RELEASE.txt file
• Upload the CHANGES.txt file
• IMPORTANT! Check the Preserve my pre-formatted text. box
• Click Submit/Refresh
• Scroll down and check the scons-local-* packages you uploaded
• Click Add Files and/or Refresh View
• Edit the file info (NOTE: you must click Update/Refresh for each file; this must be done one at a time):

• Check I'm sure and click Send Notice in the Email Release Notice section at the bottom.

• Click Issue Tracker on the left-hand nav bar
• Click Configuration options
• Click Add/edit components
• Under scons, to the far right of Add ..., click Version
• At the bottom of the list, to the right of "Add a new version", click Add
• Fill in the Version: box with 0._XX.0d_YYYYMMDD**'
• Check Add this version to '''all''' components.
• Click the Add button

  $ svn co $SVN/scons.org
  $ cd scons.org

Make the following changes to the following files:

  $ mkdir doc/0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD
  $ (cd doc/0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD && tar zxf build/dist/scons-doc-0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD.tar.gz)
  $ svn add doc/0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD
  $ (cd doc && rm -f latest && ln -s 0.XX.0dYYYYMMDD latest)
  $ svn commit

Now you have to go update the site:

  $ ssh -l scons manam.pair.com
  $ cd public_html
  $ svn co http://scons.tigris.org/svn/scons/scons.org new
  $ rm -rf previous
  $ mv production previous && mv new production)
  $ exit

Now point your browser to http://www.scons.org/. If anything is amiss, fix it and commit the necessary changes.

  $ svn co http://scons.tigris.org/svn/scons/trunk
  $ cd trunk

  $ svn commit

Note that in the typical case of releasing a checkpoint from a branch, you can not update and commit these files from the directory in which you built the packages. These files must be checked in to the trunk for them to show up on our tigris.org project pages.

• Log in to your SourceForge account!
• Pull down Project => News
• Click Submit
• Fill in the Subject: box
• Cut-and-paste the announcement text into the Details: box
• Click Submit

• Log in to your tigris.org account!
• Click Announcements
• Click Add new announcement
• Double-check the date (it's probably already set)
• Fill in the Headline box
• Fill in the Body box (keep it short)
• Click Add new announcement

We don't do this for checkpoint releases.

We don't do this for checkpoint releases.