Checklists for PuTTY administrative procedures
==============================================
-Locations of the licence
-------------------------
+Going into pre-release stabilisation
+------------------------------------
-The PuTTY copyright notice and licence are stored in quite a few
-places. At the start of a new year, the copyright year needs
-updating in all of them; and when someone sends a massive patch,
-their name needs adding in all of them too.
+When we begin to work towards a release and want to enabling
+pre-releases on the website:
-The LICENCE file in the main source distribution:
+ - 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.
- - putty/LICENCE
+ - Edit ~/adm/puttysnap.sh on my build machine to set $prerelver correctly.
-The resource files:
+ - Edit ~/adm/puttysnap.sh on the master machine to enable pre-release
+ builds, by changing the 'if false' to 'if true'.
- - putty/pageant.rc
- + the copyright date appears twice, once in the About box and
- once in the Licence box. Don't forget to change both!
- - putty/puttygen.rc
- + the copyright date appears twice, once in the About box and
- once in the Licence box. Don't forget to change both!
- - putty/win_res.rc
- + the copyright date appears twice, once in the About box and
- once in the Licence box. Don't forget to change both!
- - putty/mac/mac_res.r
+ - 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'.)
-The documentation (both the preamble blurb and the licence appendix):
+Preparing to make a release
+---------------------------
- - putty/doc/blurb.but
- - putty/doc/licence.but
+Now that PuTTY is in git, a lot of the release preparation can be done
+in advance, in local checkouts, and not pushed until the actual
+process of _releasing_ it.
-The website:
+To begin with, before dropping the tag, make sure everything is ready
+for it:
- - putty-website/licence.html
-
-Before tagging a release
-------------------------
+ - First of all, go through the source (including the documentation),
+ and the website, and review anything tagged with a comment
+ containing the word XXX-REVIEW-BEFORE-RELEASE.
+ (Any such comments should state clearly what needs to be done.)
-For a long time we got away with never checking the current version
-number into CVS at all - all version numbers were passed into the
-build system on the compiler command line, and the _only_ place
-version numbers showed up in CVS was in the tag information.
+ - Also, do some testing of the Windows version with Minefield, and
+ of the Unix version with valgrind or efence or both. In
+ particular, any headline features for the release should get a
+ workout with memory checking enabled!
-Unfortunately, those halcyon days are gone, and we do need the
-version number in CVS in a couple of places. These must be updated
-_before_ tagging a new release.
+ - Double-check that we have removed anything tagged with a comment
+ containing the words XXX-REMOVE-BEFORE-RELEASE or
+ XXX-REVIEW-BEFORE-RELEASE. ('git grep XXX-RE' should only show up
+ hits in this file itself.)
-The file used to generate the Unix snapshot version numbers (which
-are <previousrelease>-<date> so that the Debian versioning system
-orders them correctly with respect to releases):
+ - Now update the version numbers and the transcripts in the docs, by
+ checking out the release branch and running
- - putty/LATEST.VER
+ make distclean
+ ./release.pl --version=X.YZ --setver
-The Windows installer script:
+ Then check that the resulting automated git commit has updated the
+ version number in the following places:
- - putty/putty.iss
+ * putty/LATEST.VER
+ * putty/doc/plink.but
+ * putty/doc/pscp.but
+ * putty/windows/putty.iss (four times, on consecutive lines)
-The Mac resource file (used to generate the binary bit of the 'vers'
-resources -- the strings are supplied by the usual means):
+ and also check that it has reset the definition of 'Epoch' in
+ Buildscr.
- - putty/mac/version.r
+ - Make the release tag, pointing at the version-update commit we just
+ generated.
-It might also be worth going through the documentation looking for
-version numbers - we have a couple of transcripts showing the help
-text from the command-line tools, and it would be nice to ensure the
-whole transcripts (certainly including the version numbers) are up
-to date.
+ - If the release is on a branch (which I expect it generally will
+ be), merge that branch to master.
- - putty/doc/pscp.but
- - putty/doc/plink.but
- - putty/doc/psftp.but (in case it ever acquires a similar thing)
+ - 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
+ 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.
+ * Disable the pre-release sections of the website (if previously
+ enabled), by editing prerel_version() in components/Base.mc to
+ return undef.
+
+ - Update the wishlist, in a local checkout:
+ * If there are any last-minute wishlist entries (e.g. security
+ vulnerabilities fixed in the new release), write entries for
+ them.
+ * If any other bug fixes have been cherry-picked to the release
+ branch (so that the wishlist mechanism can't automatically mark
+ them as fixed in the new release), add appropriate Fixed-in
+ 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
+ This should generate a basically valid release directory as
+ `build.out/putty', and provide link maps and sign.sh alongside that
+ in build.out.
+
+ - Double-check in build.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
+ * check they report the right version number
+ * if there's any easily observable behaviour difference between
+ the release branch and master, arrange to observe it
+ * test the Windows installer
+ * test the Unix source tarball.
+
+ - Sign the release: in the `build.out' directory, type
+ sh sign.sh -r putty
+ and enter the passphrases a lot of times.
The actual release procedure
----------------------------
-This is the procedure I (SGT) currently follow (or _should_ follow
-:-) when actually making a release, once I'm happy with the position
-of the tag.
+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.
- - Write a release announcement (basically a summary of the changes
- since the last release). Squirrel it away in
- ixion:src/putty/local/announce-<ver> in case it's needed again
- within days of the release going out.
+ - 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
+
+ - Check that downloads via version-numbered URLs all work:
+ ../release.pl --version=X.YZ --precheck
- - On my local machines, check out the release-tagged version of the
- sources.
- + Make sure to run mkfiles.pl _after_ this checkout, just in
- case.
-
- - Build the Windows/x86 release binaries. Don't forget to supply
- VER=/DRELEASE=<ver>. Run them, or at least one or two of them, to
- ensure that they really do report their version number correctly.
-
- - Acquire the Windows/alpha release binaries from Owen.
- + Verify the snapshot-key signatures on these, to ensure they're
- really the ones he built. If I'm going to snapshot-sign a zip
- file I make out of these, I'm damn well going to make sure the
- binaries that go _into_ it were snapshot-signed themselves.
-
- - Run Halibut to build the docs.
-
- - Build the .zip files.
- + The binary archive putty.zip just contains all the .exe files
- except PuTTYtel, and the .hlp and .cnt files.
- + The source archive putty-src.zip is built by puttysnap.sh (my
- cron script that also builds the nightly snapshot source
- archive).
- + The docs archive puttydoc.zip contains all the HTML files
- output from Halibut.
-
- - Build the installer.
-
- - Sign the release (gpg --detach-sign).
- + Sign the locally built x86 binaries, the locally built x86
- binary zipfile, and the locally built x86 installer, with the
- release keys.
- + The Alpha binaries should already have been signed with the
- snapshot keys. Having checked that, sign the Alpha binary
- zipfile with the snapshot keys too.
- + The source archive should be signed with the release keys.
- This was the most fiddly bit of the last release I did: the
- script that built the source archive was on ixion, so I had to
- bring the archive back to my local machine, check everything
- in it was untampered-with, and _then_ sign it. Perhaps next
- time I should arrange that puttysnap.sh can run on my local
- box; it'd be a lot easier.
- + Don't forget to sign with both DSA and RSA keys for absolutely
- everything.
-
- - Begin to pull together the release directory structure.
- + subdir `x86' containing the x86 binaries, x86 binary zip, x86
- installer, and all signatures on the above.
- + subdir `alpha' containing the Alpha binaries, Alpha binary
- zip, and all signatures on the above.
- + top-level dir contains the source zip (plus signatures),
- puttydoc.txt, the .hlp and .cnt files, and puttydoc.zip.
-
- - Create and sign md5sums files: one in the x86 subdir, one in the
- alpha subdir, and one in the parent dir of both of those.
- + The md5sums files need not list the .DSA and .RSA signatures,
- and the top-level md5sums need not list the other two.
- + Sign the md5sums files (gpg --clearsign). The Alpha md5sums
- should be signed with the snapshot keys, but the other two
- with the release keys (yes, the top-level one includes some
- Alpha files, but I think people will understand).
-
- - Now double-check by verifying all the signatures on all the
- files.
-
- - Create subdir `htmldoc' in the release directory, which should
- contain exactly the same set of HTML files that went into
- puttydoc.zip.
-
- - Now the whole release directory should be present and correct.
- Upload to ixion:www/putty/<ver>, upload to
- chiark:ftp/putty-<ver>, and upload to the:www/putty/<ver>.
-
- - Update the HTTP redirects.
- + Update the one at the:www/putty/htaccess which points the
- virtual subdir `latest' at the actual latest release dir. TEST
- THIS ONE - it's quite important.
- + ixion:www/putty/.htaccess has an individual redirect for each
- version number. Add a new one.
-
- - Update the FTP symlink (chiark:ftp/putty-latest -> putty-<ver>).
-
- - Update web site.
- + Adjust front page (`the latest version is <ver>').
- + Adjust filename of installer on links in Download page.
- + Adjust header text on Changelog page. (That includes changing
- `are new' in previous version to `were new'!)
-
- - Check the Docs page links correctly to the release docs. (It
- should do this automatically, owing to the `latest' HTTP
- redirect.)
-
- - Check that the web server attaches the right content type to .HLP
- and .CNT files.
-
- - Run webupdate, so that all the changes on ixion propagate to
+ - Switch the 'latest' links over to the new release:
+ * Update the HTTP redirect at the:www/putty/htaccess .
+ * Update the FTP symlink at chiark:ftp/putty-latest .
+
+ - Now verify that downloads via the 'latest' URLs are all redirected
+ correctly and work:
+ ../release.pl --version=X.YZ --postcheck
+
+ - Push all the git repositories:
+ * run 'git push' in the website checkout
+ * run 'git push' in the wishlist checkout
+ * push from the main PuTTY checkout. Typically this one will be
+ pushing both the release tag and an update to the master branch,
+ plus removing the pre-release branch, so you'll want some
+ 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
+
+ - Run ~/adm/puttyweb.sh on atreus to update the website after all
+ those git pushes.
+
+ - Check that the unpublished website on atreus looks sensible.
+
+ - Run webupdate, so that all the changes on atreus 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.
+
- Announce the release!
- + Mail the announcement to putty-announce.
+ + Construct a release announcement email whose message body is the
+ announcement written above, and which includes the following
+ headers:
+ * Reply-To: <putty@projects.tartarus.org>
+ * Subject: PuTTY X.YZ is released
+ + Mail that release announcement to
+ <putty-announce@lists.tartarus.org>.
+ Post it to comp.security.ssh.
- + Mention it in <TDHIS> on mono.
+ + Mention it in <TDHTT> on mono.
+
+ - Edit the master ~/adm/puttysnap.sh to disable pre-release builds,
+ if they were previously enabled.
- - All done. Probably best to run `cvs up -A' now, or I'll only
- forget in a few days' time and get confused...
+ - Relax (slightly).