README.developers.md

Developer notes on creating releases

Since the move to git, the old process we followed to push development snapshots and stable releases to SourceForge is no longer possible, nor especially helpful. With git and github, we are doing away with the concept of development snapshots, because one can always just download a tarball of the current repo state from github. We are also simplifying the stable release process, doing away with the difference between building a tarball release and building from a git clone.

Development snapshots

Xastir migrated to git and github instead of cvs and sourceforge, and therefore creating "development snapshots" isn't necessary, because every commit is essentially a development snapshot that can be checked out by referencing its SHA-1 hash. Furthermore, github allows users to download code as a tarball directly without needing to clone, so we need not make a duplicate process for it.

Stable Releases

Stable releases are the enduring, numbered releases that tend to make it into official package repositories (eventually). It is necessary to do more for these releases than just tag a repository state, because most package management systems require that a stable version of the code be downloadable, and don't support pulling versions-of-the-day out of source code management systems.

Beginning with release 2.1.8 we stopped providing "configure" scripts and all the droppings from "bootstrap.sh" in release tarballs, and all users must now use "bootstrap.sh" as a first step in building Xastir.

Stable release process in a nutshell

• Get master ready for a release.
• Update version number.
• Test everything.
• Tag the repo.
• Push the repo and the tag to Github.
• Define a release on github and associate it with the tag.
• Email interested parties that there has been a release.
• Go back and update the version number on master and move on.

Stable release in gory detail

• Make sure the current state of the master branch is what you want to release. This should include all documentation updates and help file updates. Only when the master branch is really ready to release do you perform the following steps. Let's assume we're creating release X.Y.Z, and that our Xastir clone and working directory is in ~/XASTIR/Xastir.

• By our long-standing convention, stable releases are always even numbers in the last field of the release number, and odd numbers mean "this is a development version." So whatever version number appears in configure.ac on the master branch is going to be odd at the moment, and you're going to pick X.Y.Z so that the new Z is even.

• Change the version number in configure.ac to X.Y.Z. Grep around the code and remember to fix any other places where the old version string appears (there should, at this point, not be any). Commit this change:

  git add configure.ac
  git commit
  

  Mention why you're doing this in the commit message (e.g., "Update release version number"). Follow our commit log message guidance in CONTRIBUTING.md

• Run bootstrap.sh or "autoreconf -i"

• Make sure the program builds, and do so in a fresh build directory, just as a first-time user would have to do:

  mkdir build-release-check
  cd build-release-check
  ../configure [options]
  make
  cd ..
  

  If the code builds you should be in good shape, and you should also try querying the binary it produced to have it print its version:

  build-release-check/src/xastir -V
  

  Confirm that it is reporting the version you expect it to. It will have additional decorations indicating stuff about git, ignore those.

  For safety's sake, you should remove the build directory now, too.

  rm -rf build-release-check
  

• You now have a working directory that should look like what we want to distribute to users. Check that there are no uncommitted changes:

  git status
  

  should tell you you're on master, and that you're one commit ahead of "origin/master", with nothing to commit and a clean working tree. If it says anything else, figure out why and get the current working tree to the right state, with all important changes committed properly.

• Create an annotated tag marking the current state of the repo as your new release:

  git tag -a -m "Xastir Release X.Y.Z" Release-X.Y.Z
  

• At this point, you are almost done, but all of your changes are only in your local repository clone. Double check that it really works by creating a tar file of your code from the tagged state, then try to build it somewhere other than in your git checkout directory:

  git archive --format=tar.gz --prefix=Xastir-Release-X.Y.Z/ Release-X.Y.Z > ~/src/Xastir-Release-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
  

  This process will exactly reproduce what Github will be doing when we're finished and actually create the release. Now make sure it builds:

  cd ~/src
  tar xzf Xastir-Release-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
  cd Xastir-Release-X.Y.Z
  ./bootstrap.sh          # You could also use "autoreconf -i"
  mkdir build
  cd build
  ../configure [options]
  make
  

• If the sanity check above worked, you can throw away the testing tarball and unpacked code:

  cd ~/src
  rm -rf Xastir-Release-X.Y.Z Xastir-Release-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
  

  • If the sanity check did NOT work, then you need to go back to your original working directory and fix any problems you found. Commit your changes, and then MOVE THE TAG so it points to your NEW proposed release:

    git tag -d Release-X.Y.Z git tag -a -m "Xastir Release X.Y.Z" Release-X.Y.Z

    Now go back and redo the sanity check. Repeat until the tarball you created actually produces a working Xastir.

• Now go back to your working directory and finish up by pushing the code and tag to Github:

  cd ~/XASTIR/Xastir
  git push origin master
  git push origin Release-X.Y.Z
  

• Log in to github and go to the Xastir project releases page at http://github.com/Xastir/Xastir/releases. Click the "Draft a new release" button. Put your tag name (Release-X.Y.Z) into the dialog box that says "Tag version" and Github will display a note that it found a matching, existing tag. Fill in the rest of the form:

  • Give the release a name ("Xastir Release X.Y.Z") that will appear prominently above it in the releases list.

  • Enter some release notes in the large text box below the title where it says "Describe this release." Ideally, you should list release highlights (new features, bug fixes, etc.). Use Markdown to pretty up the text, using the Preview tab to render the markdown until it looks the way you want it to.

  • Click "Publish Release."

• You have finished releasing the code as far as Github is concerned. This new release will now appear on the "Releases" page, along with links to tar and zip files for the source code and the release notes you just created. The fixed URL https://github.com/Xastir/Xastir/releases/latest will always point to the most recent release. The source code download link will be

  https://github.com/Xastir/Xastir/archive/Release-X.Y.Z/Xastir-Release-X.Y.Z.tar.gz

  with the obvious change for the zip version.

• The last step here is to announce the new release in all the usual places. These days it is probably enough to announce it on the xastir mailing list, and possibly the aprssig and linux-hams groups. No need to spam every ham radio mailing list. On the other hand, the Xastir wiki does recommend sending notification of all releases (both development and stable) to:

  - xastir at xastir.org
  - nwaprssig at nwaprs.info
  - aprssig at  tapr.org
  - aprsnews at tapr.org
  - macaprs at yahoogroups.com
  - aprs at yahoogroups.com
  

  and stable releases to:

  - SAR_APRS at yahoogroups.com
  - CSAR at yahoogroups.com
  - aprs at mailman.qth.net
  - linux-hams at vger.kernel.org
  - linux at tapr.org
  - linux-hams-using-ax25 at yahoogroups.com
  

  This list is probably excessive nowadays, and probably contains a lot of groups that are long gone.

Getting master ready to move on

All of this work got the X.Y.Z release done, which has now been finished and pushed to github. Now we need to change the version number on the master branch so that development versions show a different version than releases.

• Make sure you're still in your master branch in your main clone:

  cd ~/src/Xastir
  git checkout master
  

• Edit configure.ac and change the version number to be one higher than the release you just did. So if you just pushed release 2.1.8, set the version to 2.1.9.

• Commit this change and push it to github.

  git add configure.ac
  git commit
  git push
  

  The release is done, and now the repo is ready for further development.