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. ------------------------------------------------- How to perform a release. ------------------------------------------------- xxx -- fill in stuff here -- xxx ------------------------------------------------- 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. 3. In the branch sources: a. Update the minor release number in bfd/version.m4. b. Edit bfd/development.sh and set "development=false". c. Regenerate the configure files. d. Commit the updates along with a "this-is-the-2.XX.X-release" note in all of the changelogs. e. Tag the branch with the new release number: git tag -a binutils-2_XX_X [optional: add "-u XXXXX" to sign with a gpg key] git push origin binutils-2_XX_X f. Create the release tarballs: ./src-release -b -g -l -x binutils g. Edit bfd/development.sh and set "development=true". h. Commit this change into the git repository. i. Clean up the source tree. (Use "git status" to find new files, and remove them). FIXME: The tarballs will contain spurious autom4te.cache directories which could be removed to reduce their size. 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-X.XX.X.tar.* The gnupload script is in the gnulib/build-aux directory. 6. Upload the tarballs to sourceware.org: sftp sourceware.org cd /ftp/pub/binutils/releases put binutils-X.XX.X.tar.* chmod 644 binutils-X.XX.X.tar.* quit FIXME: Should the signatures (created by the gnupload script in step 5) be uploaded as well ? 7. Update web pages. For sourceware.org: * Log on to sourceware.org * Go /www/htdocs/binutils * Edit index.html 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.XX.X of the 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.XX 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (C) 2017 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.