Instructions for making an Antlib Release: Authors: Conor MacNeill Stefan Bodewig Magesh Umasankar Antoine Levy-Lambert Note: this document is based on Ant core's ReleaseInstructions file and adapted while Stefan was preparing the 1.0 release of the .NET Antlib 1. Propose a release plan for vote. This should set out the timetable for the release under ideal circumstances. The level of bugs reported can delay things. Generally, give a few weeks to "close" the source tree to further changes so people can finalise contributions, etc. At this time, the first beta will be cut and there will be then a period of beta testing, usually 1 month but this should be flexible. 2. Note that any mention of a deadline causes a flood of bug fixes, new tasks, etc. This needs to be managed as best it can. Some fixes will be applied, others held over. Make this clear in the release plan. The committers and particularly the release manager will need to make judgement calls here. Anything too "big" is likely to be held over. 3. The Ant release instructions say you should create a branch at the freeze date. In the case of the Antlibs (and maybe in general) it may be simpler and more convenient to delay the creation of a branch until you want to start new development in trunk. 4. Create a file version.properties in the projects root dir or edit it if it already exists. Change the value of property artefact.version to 1.0Beta1. [[ TODO: Check if the documentation files also need to be updated to point to the right areas of Ant's website. ]] 5. Before a build : the first beta should be called 1.0Beta1, ... the artefact.version property in libraries.properties governs the naming of the distribution files. Update the following files for version number: * docs/index.html * version.properties (artefact.version property) Commit your changes. 6. Ensure you have all the external libraries that the Antlib uses available to your build. 7. Tag the version > svn cp https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/ant/antlibs/dotent/trunk \ https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/ant/antlibs/dotnet/tags/1_0B1 \ -m "Tagging version 1.0beta1 of .NET Antlib" 8. Choose the correct tagged version of common as your svn:externals property, if necessary tag common first. 9. Next build and run the tests. Then build the distribution. It is important that this be a clean build. 10. Sign the distribution files using the following simple script #!/bin/sh for i in `/usr/bin/find distribution \( -name "*.bz2" -o -name "*.zip" -o -name "*.gz" \)` do echo "Signing " $i gpg -a -b --force-v3-sigs $i done The --force-v3-sigs will improve the interoperability with PGP 5.x, see . Before you do that, ensure that the key you use is inside the KEYS file in Ant's svn repository - and that you perform an svn update on the KEYS file in /www/www.apache.org/dist/ant/ Also make sure you have sent the key that you use to a public keyserver. 11. The beta distribution is now ready to go. Bundle it up into a tar.gz file and scp to your apache account. 12. This step may become meaningful once you do a second release ;-) Meanwhile, convert the part of the WHATSNEW file covering the changes since the last release into HTML for the README file on the website. See the previous release directories for examples of these files. Add instructions and warnings (GNU tar format issues, etc). You may choose to use the text2html convertor present at http://txt2html.sourceforge.net/#test Name the generated file RELEASE-NOTES-x.y.z.html. [[ TODO: This must perhaps be an Ant task. ]] 13. Once this is uploaded, unpack things in your home directory and call for a release vote on dev@ant. The vote will only pass if at least three PMC members have voted +1 and more +1s than -1s have been cast. The vote will run for a week. 14. Once the vote has passed, push the release and RELEASE-NOTES files into the release directory. Create a symbolic link named README.html that points to the RELEASE-NOTES. The files should go to /www/www.apache.org/dist/ant/antlibs/ANTLIB-NAME/ on people.apache.org. 15. Address the available release tags in BugZilla. Create a new tag 1.0Beta1 and a 1.1Alpha. Assign all existing 1.0 alpha bugs to one of these release labels. Note that such massive changes can be done at once by choosing the link "Change several bugs at once" at the bottom of the bug list displaying the 1.0alpha bugs. 16. Once that is done, do a test download to make sure everything is OK. A common problem may be: * the file's mime type is not recognized and is interpreted as text/plain. Fix it by using some .htaccess magic (AddEncoding stuff) * Your gz.asc files are not being displayed properly (RemoveEncoing stuff) If it looks OK, announce it on dev@ant and user@ant. After a few days pass and there are no major problems, a wider announcement is made (ant website, main jakarta website, announcements@jakarta.apache.org, etc). and also perform a svn update on files in minotaur's /www/ant.apache.org/ Announce beta releases at freshmeat.net. 17. As problems in the beta are discovered, there may be a need for one or more subsequent betas. The release manager makes this call. Each time, the versions are updated and the above process is repeated. Try not to have too many betas. 18. Try to advertise the need for testing of the betas as much as possible. This would eliminate the need to release minor patch versions like we had to do when releasing Ant 1.4. To monitor the number of downloads, look at the access_log file under /usr/local/apache2/logs 19. When the final beta is considered OK, propose a vote on dev@ant to officially adopt the latest beta as the new release. If it is passed, (it usually does,) this would be labelled 1_0 and built in a similar fashion to the above process. Remember to edit the file changes.xml to contain the proper release version and date. 20. BUT This time you'll have to do some house-keeping for the old release: * upload the new release files to from distribution to /www/www.apache.org/dist/ant/antlibs/dotnet/[source|binaries]. and [TODO need to decide on repository structure] from java-repository/ant/jars to /www/www.apache.org/dist/java-repository/ant/jars this can be done using the target upload of the build.xml * remove the symbolic links from /www/www.apache.org/dist/ant/antlibs/dotnet. * Create proper -current symlinks in /www/www.apache.org/dist/ant/antlibs/dotnet. * remove the beta release files * Make sure that the symbolic link README.html points to the new RELEASE-NOTES. (**) 21. Update the ant.apache.org site : running svn update *.html under /www/ant.apache.org should update the files regenerated and committed in point 5 above (index.html, faq.html, antnews.html, srcdownload.html, bindownload.html). Update the online manual too. 22. Clean up. * remove the remaining files of the previous release from /www/www.apache.org/dist/ant/antlibs/dotnet/[source|binaries]. This includes the old release notes. 23. If you've created a branch, now and perhaps during previous betas any changes on the branch must be merged back into the tree. 24. At this point in time, the release is done and announcements are made. PGP-sign your announcement posts. [[TODO: Identify the mailing lists where announcements are to be made. Also identify the webpages to which the announcements must go. ]] Apache mailing lists that should get the announcements: announcements@jakarta.apache.org, announcements@xml.apache.org, announce@apache.org, dev@ant and user@ant. Announce release at freshmeat.net Announce release in the usenet groups comp.lang.java.softwaretools and comp.lang.java.announce. 25. Add a new release tag to doap_*.rdf in the AntLib's trunk. 26. You can now reacquaint yourself with your family and friends. (*) the xdocs need to be updated on both the branch and the HEAD revision because traditionally the ant.apache.org web site reflects the HEAD revision of the xdocs, but the users downloading a distribution will get the xdocs and the generated html from the branch and will complain if there are discrepancies in version numbers. (**) Mirrors : the srcdownload.html and bindownload.html each list a number of mirrors. For ant 1.6.0 the mirrors picked up the new version in 8 hours or less, the release having been done at midnight on Dec 18th, the mirrors had it on Dec 19th at 8 am. The srcdownload/bindownload pages both contain a note advising users to be patient immediately after the release. Related Information http://www.apache.org/dev/release-publishing.html http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/releases/ http://wiki.apache.org/jakarta-commons/SigningReleases