Checklists for PuTTY administrative procedures
==============================================
+Going into pre-release stabilisation
+------------------------------------
+
+When we begin to work towards a release and want to enabling
+pre-releases on the website:
+
+ - Make a branch whose tip will be the current state of the
+ pre-release. Regardless of whether the branch is from master or
+ from a prior release branch, the name of the branch must now be in
+ the form 'pre-X.YZ', or else the website will fail to link to it
+ properly in gitweb and the build script will check out the wrong
+ thing.
+
+ - Edit ~/adm/puttysnap.sh on my build machine to set $prerelver correctly.
+
+ - Edit ~/adm/puttysnap.sh on the master machine to enable pre-release
+ builds, by changing the 'if false' to 'if true'.
+
+ - Put the website into pre-release mode, by defining prerel_version()
+ in components/Base.mc to return the upcoming version number. Also
+ add a news announcement in components/news. (Previous naming
+ convention has been to name it in the form 'X.YZ-pre.mi'.)
+
Preparing to make a release
---------------------------
- Write a release announcement (basically a summary of the changes
since the last release). Squirrel it away in
- atreus:src/putty-local/announce-<ver> in case it's needed again
+ thyestes:src/putty-local/announce-<ver> in case it's needed again
within days of the release going out.
- Update the website, in a local checkout:
* Write a release file in components/releases which identifies the
- new version, its release date, a section for the Changes page,
- and a news announcement for the front page.
+ new version, a section for the Changes page, and a news
+ announcement for the front page.
+ + The one thing this can't yet contain is the release date;
+ that has to be put in at the last minute, when the release
+ goes live. Fill in 'FIXME', for the moment.
* Disable the pre-release sections of the website (if previously
enabled), by editing prerel_version() in components/Base.mc to
return undef.
headers for those.
* Add an entry to the @releases array in control/bugs2html.
- - Build the release, by checking out the release tag:
- git checkout 0.XX
- bob . RELEASE=0.XX
+ - Make a release-candidate build from the release tag, and put the
+ build.out and build.log dfiles somewhere safe. Normally I store
+ these in an adjacent directory, so I'll run a command like
+ bob -o ../X.YZ/build-X.YZ-rcN.out -l ../X.YZ/build-X.YZ-rcN.log -c X.YZ . RELEASE=X.YZ
This should generate a basically valid release directory as
- `build.out/putty', and provide link maps and sign.sh alongside that
- in build.out.
+ `build-X.YZ-rcN.out/putty', and provide link maps and sign.sh
+ alongside that.
- - Double-check in build.log that the release was built from the right
- git commit.
+ - Double-check in build-X.YZ-rcN.log that the release was built from
+ the right git commit.
- Do a bit of checking of the release binaries:
* make sure they basically work
* test the Windows installer
* test the Unix source tarball.
- - Sign the release: in the `build.out' directory, type
+ - Sign the release: in the `build-X.YZ-rcN.out' directory, type
sh sign.sh -r putty
and enter the passphrases a lot of times.
+ - For my own safety, make the release candidate build read-only.
+ chmod -R a-w build-X.YZ-rcN.out build-X.YZ-rcN.log
+
The actual release procedure
----------------------------
Once all the above preparation is done and the release has been built
locally, this is the procedure for putting it up on the web.
+ - Make a final adjustment to your local website changes, filling in
+ the release date in components/releases/X.YZ.mi.
+
- Upload the release itself and its link maps to everywhere it needs
to be, by running this in the build.out directory:
../release.pl --version=X.YZ --upload
commands along these lines:
git push origin master # update the master branch
git push origin --tags # should push the new release tag
- git push origin :pre-0.XX # delete the pre-release branch
+ git push origin :pre-X.YZ # delete the pre-release branch
- - Run ~/adm/puttyweb.sh on atreus to update the website after all
+ - Run ~/adm/puttyweb.sh on thyestes to update the website after all
those git pushes.
- - Check that the unpublished website on atreus looks sensible.
+ - Check that the unpublished website on thyestes looks sensible.
- - Run webupdate, so that all the changes on atreus propagate to
+ - Run webupdate, so that all the changes on thyestes propagate to
chiark. Important to do this _before_ announcing that the release
is available.
- After running webupdate, run update-rsync on chiark and verify that
the rsync mirror package (~/ftp/putty-website-mirror) contains a
- subdirectory for the new version and mentions it in its .htaccess.
+ subdirectory for the new version and that the links from its
+ latest.html point into that subdirectory.
- Announce the release!
+ Construct a release announcement email whose message body is the
+ Post it to comp.security.ssh.
+ Mention it in <TDHTT> on mono.
- - Edit ~/adm/puttysnap.sh to disable pre-release builds, if they were
- previously enabled.
+ - Edit the master ~/adm/puttysnap.sh to disable pre-release builds,
+ if they were previously enabled.
- Relax (slightly).