README for MAKING BINUTILS RELEASES This is a collection of notes on how to perform a binutils release. A lot of this information can also be found in the maintain.texi file in the gnulib project: https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/ It is useful to have a cloned copy of the sources of this project as it also contains an upload script used to install tarballs on the GNU FTP server. Make sure that you have upload authority on sourceware and fencepost. Beware - this is an involved process and can take weeks to complete. See the maintain.texi file for details on how to obtain these permissions. Note - when performing a release it is helpful to edit this document as you go, updating the example commands so that they are ready for the release that follows. ------------------------------------------------- How to perform a release. ------------------------------------------------- 1. Choose dates for the branch and release. Weekends are better because they are less busy. It is typical to leave two weeks between creating the branch and creating the release. Send an email out warning contributors about the forthcoming branch and release. 2. When the branch date is near: Update the libiberty and config directories and the top level Makefile and configure files. Also consider updating the toplevel libtool files. ------------------------------------------------- How to create the release branch. ------------------------------------------------- Approx time to complete from here: 2 hours .... 2.5 If you have not built from the sources recently then now is the time to check that they still work... 3. When branch day arrives add markers for the upcoming release to the NEWS files in gas, ld, and binutils. No need to update NEWS in the gold directory - it has its own release numbering. Likewise for the ChangeLog files in: bfd, binutils, config, cpu, elfcpp, gas, gold, gprof, include, ld, libctf, opcodes and toplevel. Add a note of the name of the new branch to binutils/BRANCHES. Commit these changes. 4. Create the release branch using: git branch binutils-2_42-branch git push origin binutils-2_42-branch If you get a message like: remote: fatal: Invalid revision range 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f974f26cb16cc6fe3946f163c787a05e713fb77b It appears that this can be ignored... 5. Make sure that the branch is there. IE check out the branch sources: git clone ssh://sourceware.org/git/binutils-gdb.git -b binutils-2_41-branch 2.41 If you get a message about being in a "detached head" state, something has gone wrong... Keep the checked out sources - they are going to be needed in future steps. 6. Update "BINUTILS_BRANCH" in gdbadmin's crontab: Log in as gdbadmin on sourceware.org, and then: $ cd crontab $ vi crontab [change BINUTILS_BRANCH] $ cvs ci crontab $ crontab crontab If you do not have access to this account, please feel free to ask Joel Brobecker . 7. Rename the current HEAD version entry in Bugzilla, and create a new one. E.g. rename "2.42 (HEAD)" to 2.42, and create "2.43 (HEAD)": https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/editversions.cgi?product=binutils 8. Update bfd/version.m4 on HEAD to indicate that is now a snapshot of the next release and the BRANCH to indicate that it is almost ready for the release. So if the release is going to be 2.41 then the version number on the BRANCH should be set to 2.40.90 - ie almost, but not quite 2.41, and the version number on the MAINLINE should be set to 2.41.50 - ie half way to 2.42 release. So the BRANCH bfd/version.m4 has: m4_define([BFD_VERSION], [2.41.90]) and the MAINLINE has: m4_define([BFD_VERSION], [2.42.50]) Regenerate various files on both branch and HEAD by configuring with "--enable-maintainer-mode --enable-gold --enable-shared" and then building with "make all-binutils all-gas all-gold all-gprof all-gprofng all-ld" Add ChangeLog entries for the updated files. Commit the changes. Make sure that this includes the .pot files as well as the configure and makefiles. 9. Create an initial pre-release: a. Remove any auto-generated files, in order to force the src-release script to rebuild them. cd git clean -fdx b. Create a source tarball of the BRANCH sources: ./src-release.sh -x binutils FIXME: Not sure if the following steps are needed... Add a .dirstamp file to the gas/doc subdirectory: touch -d binutils-2./gas/doc/.dirstamp tar rvf binutils-.tar binutils-/gas/doc/.ditstamp rm binutils-.tar.xz xz -9 binutils-.tar eg: touch -d 2024-01-01 binutils-2.41.90/gas/doc/.dirstamp tar rvf binutils-2.41.90.tar binutils-2.41.90/gas/doc/.dirstamp rm binutils-2.41.90.tar.xz xz -9 binutils-2.41.90.tar ...END OF FIXME c. Build a test target using this tarball. cp binutils-2.41.90.tar.xz /dev/shm pushd /dev/shm tar xvf binutils-2.41.90.tar.xz mkdir build cd build ../binutils-2.41.90/configure --quiet --enable-gold make popd If there are problems, fix them. d. Upload the pre-release snapshot to the sourceware FTP site: scp binutils-2.40.90.tar.xz sourceware.org:/var/ftp/pub/binutils/snapshots ssh sourceware.org sha256sum ~ftp/pub/binutils/snapshots/binutils-2.40.90.tar.xz e. Clean up the source directory again. git clean -fdx 10. Tell the Translation Project where to find the new tarball. qv: https://translationproject.org/html/maintainers.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Translation Project The 2.42 release branch has been created for the GNU Binutils project. A snapshot of the branch sources can be found here: https://sourceware.org/pub/binutils/snapshots/binutils-2.41.90.tar.xz We hope to make the official release of the sources on the although that could change if there are important bugs that need to be fixed before the release. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11. Announce the availability of the snapshot and the branch on the binutils mailing list. Set a date for when the release will actually happen. Something like: Hi Everyone, The branch has now been created: git clone git://sourceware.org/git/binutils-gdb.git -b binutils--branch A snapshot of the sources is also available here: https://sourceware.org/pub/binutils/snapshots/binutils-.90.tar.xz Please could all patches for the branch be run by me. The rules for the branch are: * No new features. * Target specific bug fixes are OK. * Generic bug fixes are OK if they are important and widely tested. * Documentation updates/fixes are OK. * Translation updates are OK. * Fixes for testsuite failures are OK. Ideally I would like to make the release happen in two weeks time, i.e. . Which I hope will be enough time for everyone to get their final fixes in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. Build various different toolchains, test them and nag maintainers to fix any testsuite failures for their architectures... ============================================================================== ============================================================================== For the next few weeks, monitor the mailing list for new translations and respond to any requests to have patches applied to the branch. ============================================================================== ============================================================================== Then, a couple of weeks later ... ------------------------------------------------- How to create the release. ------------------------------------------------- 20. Make sure that the branch sources still build, test and install correctly. Make sure that the sources are clean, without any patch files (.reg .orig *~) left over. cd git pull git clean -fdx cd make 21. a. Update the release number in bfd/version.m4 on the release branch to a whole new minor version number, without a point value. Eg "2.41.90" becomes "2.42". NB/ Not: "2.42.00" b. Change bfd/development.sh to set all values to "false". c. Regenerate the configure and makefiles. And *info* files. cd make all-gas all-ld all-binutils all-gprof all-gold all-gprofng all-libctf make info d. Create a ChangeLog from the git refs for all of the commits from when changelog entries were no longer required: gitlog-to-changelog --since=2021-07-03 > ChangeLog.git git add ChangeLog.git The gitlog-to-changelog script is part of the sources of the "config" project. Add an entry for ChangeLog.git to the src-release.sh script's DEVO_SUPPORT list, so that it is included in the release. FIXME: it would be better if the ChangeLog.git file was permanently added to the src-release.sh script, but this mean that it would have to exist in the master repository, and that the GDB project would need to agree to have it there. e. Add ChangeLog entries for all of the updates and add a "this-is-the-2.42-release" comment and commit. git add . git commit git push 22. Check that your file creation mask will create the correct file permissions. Eg: % umask 22 Remove any spurious autom4te.cache files left over from the reconfiguring: git clean -fdx 23. Note - check to see if any new files have been added to the top level of the source directory, but which are not in the DEVO_SUPPORT variable in the src-release.sh script. If they are needed then add them. PARANOIA: Check that there are no pending commits: git status Then create the release tarballs: ./src-release.sh -b -g -l -x binutils OR ... for a more reproducible tarball: ./src-release.sh -b -g -l -x -r `git log -1 --format=%cd --date=format:%F bfd/version.m4` binutils 24. Check that the files in the tarballs have the correct permissions. tar tvf binutils-*.tar.xz | grep -e "---" Also check that the man files are not empty. (cf PR 28144). tar tvf binutils-*.tar.xz | grep -e "\.1" 25. Sanity check the release on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu by building and running the testsuites (gas, gold, binutils and ld). Make the source directory read-only before building. Also test 'make install'. Also build the html and pdf documentation files. If necessary fix any problems. pushd /dev/shm mkdir delme cd delme tar xvf /binutils-2.*.tar.lz chmod -R -w binutils-2.* mkdir build cd build ../binutils-2.*/configure --quiet --enable-gold --prefix=`pwd`/install --enable-plugins --enable-shared make all-gas all-gold all-ld all-binutils all-gprof all-gprofng make check-gas check-binutils check-ld check-gold make install-gas install-gold install-ld install-binutils install-gprofng # Needed for step 29... make html pdf html-libctf pdf-libctf html-libsframe pdf-libsframe popd 26. Tag the branch with the new release number: [optional: add "-u XXXXX" to sign with a gpg key] enter a tag message such as: "Official GNU Binutils 2.4x release" git tag -a -u git tag -a binutils-2_42 -u DD9E3C4F <=== Be careful to get the tag right NB/ If you do sign the binaries make sure to use a key that has been published with the FSF. Then push the release: git push origin binutils-2_42 If you get an error message along the lines of: "Invalid revision range ..." you can ignore it. 27. Upload the tarballs to ftp.gnu.org. gnupload --to ftp.gnu.org:binutils binutils-2.42.tar.* Be prepared to provide the password for the key, if you signed the binaries. The gnupload script is in the gnulib/build-aux directory. It uses the ncftp package for transmitting the files. Check for an email response from the upload. If necessary fix any problems. (The response might take a while, so proceed with the next steps if you are confident that everything is OK). 28. Upload the tarballs (and signatures) to sourceware.org: sftp sourceware.org cd /sourceware/ftp/pub/binutils/releases put binutils-2.4*.tar.* chmod 644 binutils-2.4*.tar.* quit FIXME: Are the signatures (created by the gnupload script in step 27) needed ? [The above commands upload them and nobody has complained, so suggest that they are retained]. 29. Update web pages. For sourceware.org: Create a new documentation folder on the sourceware.org web pages as /sourceware/www/sourceware/htdocs/binutils/docs-2.4x. sftp sourceware.org cd /sourceware/www/sourceware/htdocs/binutils mkdir docs-2.4x cd docs-2.4x mkdir as mkdir bfd mkdir binutils mkdir gprof [NB/ gprofng is not needed] mkdir ld cd ../docs-2.4(x-1) get index.html Update the (local copy of the) index.html file to point to the new documentation and mention the new version and then upload it. cd ../docs-2.4x put index.html Make the html documentation locally with the "make html" command. (This should have been done by step 25 above). Then upload and rename the directories as needed. (Sftp does not support recursive uploads however, so the directories have to be made and populated by hand). cd as lcd /gas/doc/as put * {be patient - this takes a long time...} lcd .. cd .. put as.html put as.pdf cd bfd lcd ../../bfd/doc/bfd put * cd .. lcd .. put bfd.html put bfd.pdf cd binutils lcd ../../binutils/binutils_html <=== NB/ Path not like others put * cd .. lcd ../doc <=== Also not like the others put binutils.html put binutils.pdf cd gprof lcd ../../gprof/doc/gprof put * cd .. lcd ../.. <==== Different again put gprof.html put gprof.pdf cd ld lcd ../ld/doc/ld put * cd .. lcd ../.. put ld.html put ld.pdf lcd ../gprofng/doc put gprofng.html put gprofng.pdf lcd ../../libctf/doc put ctf-spec.html put ctf-spec.pdf lcd ../../libsframe/doc put sframe-spec.html put sframe-spec.pdf Edit the top level binutils index.html file to change the links to point to the new documentation. cd ../.. get index.html [edit] [check that it works] put index.html rm docs ln -s docs-2.4x docs quit Check that the new web page is correct: https://sourceware.org/binutils/ For the www.gnu.org site you have to email webmasters@gnu.org and ask them to copy the change(s): --------------------------------------- Hi FSF Webmasters, Please could the GNU Binutils webpage at: https://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/binutils.html be updated to indicate that there is now a newer version available (2.4x). I have already updated the related page on the sourceware website so this might be useful as a template: https://sourceware.org/binutils/ Thanks very much. Cheers -------------------------------------- 30. Send emails to binutils@sourceware.org, info-gnu@gnu.org and David Edelsohn announcing the new release. Sign the email and include the checksum: sha256sum binutils-2.4*.tar.* (The email to Davis is so that he can update the GNU Toolchain social media). Something like this: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Everyone, We are pleased to announce that version 2.4x of the GNU Binutils project sources have been released and are now available for download at: https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils https://sourceware.org/pub/binutils/releases/ checksums: xxxx As an experiment these tarballs were made with the new "-r " option supported by the src-release.sh script. This attempts to make reproducible tarballs by sorting the files and passing the "--mtime=" option to tar. The date used for these tarballs was obtained by running: git log -1 --format=%cd --date=format:%F bfd/version.m4 This release contains numerous bug fixes, and also the following new features: For more information see: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;a=blob_plain;f=gas/NEWS;;hb=refs/tags/binutils-2_4x https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;a=blob_plain;f=ld/NEWS;hb=refs/tags/binutils-2_4x https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;a=blob_plain;f=binutils/NEWS;hb=refs/tags/binutils-2_4x Our thanks go out to all of the binutils contributors, past and present, for helping to make this release possible. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 31. Clean up the source tree: git clean -fdx . 32. Edit bfd/development.sh on the branch and set the development flag to "true". (Leave the experimental flag set to "false"). Also bump the version in bfd/version.m4 by adding a trailing .0, so that the date suffix keeps the version lower than the trunk version. Regenerate files. Commit these changes. 33. Email the binutils list telling everyone that the 2.4x branch is now open for business as usual and that patches no longer need special approval. 34. Examine the bfd/config.bfd file in the mainline sources and move any pending obsolete targets into the definitely obsolete section. Create a changelog entry and commit. Sit back and relax, you are all done. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to perform a POINT release. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A point release is easier than a normal release since a lot of the work has already been done. The branch has been created, the translations updated and the documentation uploaded. So the procedure looks like this: 0. Decide that a point release is necessary. Usually this only happens when a sufficient number of serious bugs have been found and fixed since the previous release, and a new official release is not imminent. 1. Tell the community that a point release is happening. Ask maintainers to ensure that their ports are up to date on the release branch. Ask the community if there are any bug fixes which are missing from the branch. Allow some time for the responses to this step. 2. Make sure that the branch sources build, test and install correctly. 2.5 Prepare a list of the bugs which have been fixed. This will be needed for step 8. 3. In the branch sources: a. Update the minor release number in bfd/version.m4. b. Edit bfd/development.sh, set "development=false". c. Regenerate the configure files. d. Remove spurious autom4te.cache files: git clean -fdx e. Commit the updates along with a "this-is-the-2.3x.y-release" note in all of the changelogs. f. Tag the branch with the new release number: git tag -a binutils-2_3x_y [optional: add "-u XXXXX" to sign with a gpg key] git push origin binutils-2_3x_y g. Check that your file creation mask will create the correct file permissions. Ie: umask 022 h. Create the release tarballs: ./src-release -b -g -l -x binutils i. Check that the files in the tarballs have the correct permissions. j. Clean the source tree again git clean -fdx k. Edit bfd/development.sh and set "development=true". l. Commit this change. 4. [If paranoid - upload the tarballs to one of the FTP servers and ask people to test it before going on to step 5]. 5. Upload the tarballs to ftp.gnu.org. gnupload --to ftp.gnu.org:binutils binutils-*.tar.* The gnupload script is in the gnulib/build-aux directory. 6. Upload the tarballs to sourceware.org: sftp sourceware.org cd /sourceware/ftp/pub/binutils/releases put binutils-*.tar.* chmod 644 binutils-*.tar.* quit It is OK to upload the signatures as well. 7. Update web pages. For sourceware.org: * Log on to sourceware.org * Go to /sourceware/www/sourceware/htdocs/binutils * Edit index.html and update the latest release number (if this is a latest release) For the www.gnu.org site you have to email webmasters@gnu.org and ask them to make the change(s). 8. Send an emails to the binutils list, info-gnu@gnu.org and David Edelsohn announcing the new release. (The email to Davis is so that he can update the GNU Toolchain social media). Something like this: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi Everyone, We are pleased to announce that version 2.3x.y of the GNU Binutils project sources have been released and are now available for download at: https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils https://sourceware.org/pub/binutils/releases/ This is a point release over the previous 2.3x version, containing bug fixes but no new features. Our thanks go out to all of the binutils contributors, past and present, for helping to make this release possible. Here is a list of the bugs that have been fixed: xx xx xx xx -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Create a new Bugzilla entry for the point release. https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/editversions.cgi?product=binutils And a new milestone too: https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/editmilestones.cgi?product=binutils Copyright (C) 2017-2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved.