= MacPorts Release Process =

This file documents the evolving MacPorts release process.
$Id$


== Goals of a Release ==

There are several goals in the release process:

 * Make a specific version of MacPorts available to users.
 * Archive the materials (code, documentation, etc) that compose the release.
 * Replicatability: enable the release to be regenerated.
 * Consistency: codify naming, network locations, etc, for released components.
 * Ensure that the user base and public is notified of the release.


== Steps to a Release ==

The following steps to a release are documented in more detail below:

 * Create an svn branch to carry the release.
 * Prepare the code for release.
 * Tag the release.
 * Create release products: tarballs and dmgs.
 * Post release products.
 * Make release version available through selfupdate.
 * Notify public of the release.


=== Create a Release Branch ===

For each major release (i.e. 1.5.x, 1.6.x, etc.) an appropriate branch is created with a
consistent name. To do this, two things are required:

 * Choose the svn revision from which to create the branch, most likely based off trunk.
 * Create the branch (e.g. release_1_6) through the svn "copy" command for history preservation,
   first creating the needed branch directory to preserve the required directory structure
   (the 'base' directory level *needs* to exist in each release branch, otherwise selfupdate breaks):

 svn mkdir -m "commit-message" http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/branches/release_1_6
 svn cp [-r<rev>] -m "commit-message" http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/base \
     http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/branches/release_1_6

The actual release, alpha or beta releases, release candidates, and any point releases will all
live on this branch, and tagged appropriately and if necessary (a must for the actual releases,
optional for beta snapshots) into the /tags svn directory.

Only the base subdirectory, not the ports subdirectory, is branched for a given release.

It is strongly recommended to use the latest version of the subversion port so that merge
tracking information can be maintained between release branches and trunk/base if you intend
to merge revisions back and forth between them, which is a very likely scenario.


=== Prepare the code for Release ===

In preparation for a release, several things should be completed within the code:

 * Update the file base/ChangeLog in both trunk and the release branch to reflect the appropriate changes.
 * Update the file base/config/macports_version with the target release number. The content of this file
   is recorded as the MacPorts version at MacPorts build time, as displayed by the port command, and it's
   also used by the selfupdate procedure to determine whether a newer version of code is available.
   It should be different between trunk and the release branch, the former greater to differentiate it from
   the latter.
 * Preserve the file base/config/mp_version at the 1.800 fixed value if selfupdate backwards compatibility
   with pre 1.8.0 MacPorts installations is still desired (cf. svn's r43571).
 * Update the autoconf 'configure' script through the provided base/regen.sh script once the version number
   in mp_version has been changed, since the former reads the latter.
 * Make sure that these and any other changes or bug fixes are made on and/or merged between the release branch
   and trunk as needed. For instance, if you've made changes to ChangeLog only on the release branch,
   those changes should be merged back into trunk as well.


=== Tag the Release ===

Once the release is ready, it must be tagged so that the release components may be fetched in the future,
to ensure replicability. Generally, a release candidate is first tagged and built. When and if it is
approved as the actual release, an additional tag is created that names the same sources.

Tagging conventions:

 * release_1_6_0-rc1 (release candidate 1 for release 1.6.0)
 * release_1_6_0 (tagged release 1.6.0)
 * release_1_6_0-archive (tagged release 1.6.0 -- complete archive)
 * release_1_6_1 (1.6.1 release)

We first tag the branched base directory to make up the final release:

 svn cp -m "commit-message" http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/branches/release_1_6 \
     http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/tags/release_1_6_0

Although only the base subdirectory is branched and tagged for a given major release, we also create a
separate tag for the entire tree (base sources and full ports tree) at the time the final release tag is
created (only for major releases, 1.x.0), in order to provide a stake in the ground that specifies a set
of ports intended to work with that release. Note that this tag incorporates the entire svn trunk directory
at the revision number at which the final release was tagged.

The necessary working copy to create such a tag is created by checking out all of trunk at the specific
revision of the final tagging of base and then switching the base directory to the appropriate release
tag URL. For instance:

 svn co [-r<rev>] http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk release_1.6.0-archive
 cd release_1.6.0-archive/base
 svn switch http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/tags/release_1_6_0/base

And finally we tag the entire directory as release_1_6_0-archive:

 cd ../../
 svn cp -m "commit-message" release_1.6.0-archive http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/tags/release_1_6_0-archive


=== Create & Post Release Tarballs ===

The release tarballs are tar.bz2 and tar.gz archives of the base directory only and of the entire svn tree
for a particular release. They are named with the following naming convention:

 MacPorts-1.6.0.tar.{bz2,gz} (base directory only, corresponding to tag release_1_6_0)
 MacPorts-1.6.0-archive.tar.{bz2,gz} (complete archives corresponding to tag release_1_6_0-archive)

The following commands issued to the top level Makefile will generate all the tarballs and checksums:

 make ARC=yes DISTVER=1.6.0 distfromsvn

Note that if you omit the "ARC=yes" flag at the start of the make call then the full archive tarballs will not be produced.

All these tarballs are uploaded to the http://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/ directory. At present, this must
be done with the help of the MacOSForge sysadmin.

Additionally, a file is created, and posted to the same location, that contains md5, sha1, and rmd160 checksums
for each of the files:

 MacPorts-1.6.0.chk.txt
 (We should have a way to sign these checksums, and have the signer's keys posted somewhere.
 Security experts in the project, would you be interested in leading this effort? Eric? Mark? Anyone else?)


=== Create Release Disk Image(s) ===

The dmg is a Mac OS X disk image that contains a standalone installer, configured in the usual way, for major
MacPorts releases (1.x.0), named in a consistent fashion and incorporating the OS version for which it
was built.

 MacPorts-1.6.0-10.4-Tiger.dmg
 MacPorts-1.6.0-10.5-Leopard.dmg

To create a disk image, use the MacPorts port. The Portfile will need to be updated to incorporate the
proper release version and checksums, and the release tarballs will need to be already uploaded to the
downloads section of the site (wherefrom the sources are fetched by the MacPorts port to build the dmg
for the release). Make sure the ports tree you're using to build the dmg's is fully up to date.

 sudo port -d dmg MacPorts

Name the dmg appropriately, and generate checksums, which will need to be added to the existing checksums
file in the downloads directory:

 cd work
 mv MacPorts-1.6.0.dmg MacPorts-1.6.0-10.5-Leopard.dmg
 for dmg in MacPorts-1.6.0-*.dmg; do for type in -md5 -sha1 -ripemd160; do openssl dgst $type $dmg; done >> MacPorts-1.6.0.chk.txt; done

These new products, along with the new checksums, also have to be posted to the appropriate
directory of the MacPorts distfiles server. Developers are required to validate the generated installer as
thoroughly as possible through extensive testing, which is mainly why this step of the release process
is not automated through a Makefile target or similar. A good way of validating the installer is to first
create the destroot of the port and examine it for:

 * Linking: libraries and binaries should not be linked against anything that's not present by default
   on a vanilla Mac OS X installation + developer tools, excluding even the MacPorts installation prefix;
   this can be accomplished through the use of otool's -L flag. Currently the libraries and binaries in need
   of linking validation are:
             ${destroot}/opt/local/bin/daemondo
             ${destroot}/opt/local/share/macports/Tcl/darwintrace1.0/darwintrace.dylib
             ${destroot}/opt/local/share/macports/Tcl/macports1.0/MacPorts.dylib
             ${destroot}/opt/local/share/macports/Tcl/pextlib1.0/Pextlib.dylib
             ${destroot}/opt/local/share/macports/Tcl/registry2.0/registry.dylib
 * Universal building: All the files that need linking confirmation in the step above also need to be
   confirmed to be universal (i386/ppc on 10.5 and earlier, i386/x86_64 on 10.6 and later). A way to do this
   is with the file(1) command:
             file ${destroot}/opt/local/bin/daemondo:
                  ${destroot}/opt/local/bin/daemondo: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
                  ${destroot}/opt/local/bin/daemondo (for architecture ppc):  Mach-O executable ppc
                  ${destroot}/opt/local/bin/daemondo (for architecture i386): Mach-O executable i386
 * tclsh shell invoked by our scripts: all scripts installed in ${destroot}/opt/local/bin (that is port,
   portindex and portmirror) should invoke the tclsh shell through a call like:
             #!/bin/sh
             #\
             exec /usr/bin/tclsh "$0" "$@"
   thus ensuring that the default Mac OS X bundled Tcl is used in our scripts.
 * macports1.0 Tcl package: The macports1.0 Tcl package should be sourced off its location in /opt/local/share/macports/Tcl/macports1.0
   in every single one of our scripts in ${destroot}/opt/local/bin.
 * Miscellaneous: anything else that might seem out of the ordinary for a fully default-configured MacPorts
   installation.

Once the above requirements have been positively asserted, the one remaining test is to make sure that the
dmg mounts in the Finder when double-clicked, and that the pkg contained therein properly starts up Installer.app
when it's double-clicked.


=== Make the Release Available through Self-Update ===

In order to make the release version available through selfupdate, the base/config/RELEASE_URL file in svn
trunk needs to be updated with the tag of the release to distribute. This file is read by the cron job that
makes the code available via rsync. See base/portmgr/mprsyncup. Though not strictly necessary, it's also good
practice to update the same file accordingly in its branched guise.


=== Update trunk's version for next release ===
Once trunk is to be used for development of the next major version, increase its version information to
indicate it's moved past the release version by setting the patch-level version to 99, e.g., 1.8.99 (in
trunk/base/config/macports_version).


=== Notify the Public of the Release ===

Once the release has been posted, notification of the release should be sent/posted to the following places:

 * The macports-announce@, macports-users@ and macports-dev@ mailing lists.
 * The MacPorts website, by adapting the $macports_version_major and $macports_version_latest variables as appropriate in the trunk/www/includes/common.inc file.
 * [http://trac.macports.org/news/] The MacOSforge news section (submitter: portmgr@)
 * [http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/macports.html Apple's downloads page] (submitter: jmpp@)
 * [http://freshmeat.net/projects/macports/ Freshmeat] (submitter: mww@)
 * [http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26679 VersionTracker] (submitter: mij@)
 * [http://sourceforge.net/projects/macports/ sourceforge] (submitted: rhwood@)
 * [http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21309/macports MacUpdate] (submitter: ???)
 * [http://twitter.com/macports twitter] (submitter: raimue@)
 * (Where else?)