Source Release for BES

Note that the old pages with the tables of version numbers are gone. Use the web pages themselves as documentation of what has or has not been built. For the current release, include grayed-out links to binaries we do plan to make but keep the grayed-out links in place for the current version only!

Here's how to make a source release:

1. First, make sure that the source code you're using is on a branch, up-to-date (svn up) and that the software passes its tests and no outstanding tickets remain for the release milestone.
2. Update the text documentation files and version numbers in the configuration files:
   • Update the ChangeLog file using the script update_cl.sh which can be found in the svn-tools project. (e.g., ~/svn-tools/update_cl.sh ChangeLog). If you're making the first ChangeLog entries, then you'll need to create the ChangeLog file first. Here's a key tip: When you're making the commit log entries, always include the file name(s) of the affected files in your entry. Then to write the NEWS file, just read over the new ChangeLog entries and summarize. In the old days of CVS, the logs automatically included the names of the changed files, but subversion doesn't do that. A little discipline with those log entries will go a long way toward streamlining the release process!
   • Make sure that the version number is set in the configure.ac and *.spec files! When the version number changes, reset the RPM release number to '1' in the *.spec files ("Release: 1"). For several releases of the same version, increment the release number (the number after the dash in the RPM file name; we don't have release numbers for the tar files). I generally update the ChangeLog before updating the version numbers or NEWS, et c., files because the ChangeLog gives me a bird's eye view of what happened since the last release.
   • libtool versioning rules: What the CURRENT[:REVISION[:AGE]] string passed to libtool means: (Note these are set using variables in the configure.ac script.)
     • No interfaces changed, only implementations (good): ==> Increment REVISION.
     • Interfaces added, none removed (good): ==> Increment CURRENT, increment AGE, set REVISION to 0.
     • Interfaces removed or changed (BAD, breaks upward compatibility): ==> Increment CURRENT, set AGE and REVISION to 0.
     • So how do you know? For C++, build a file of the methods and their arguments using nm .libs/libdap.a | c++filt | grep ' T .*::' | sed 's@.* T \(.*\)@\1@' > libdap_funcs and compare that using diff on the previous release's library.
   • Make sure that README, INSTALL and NEWS are updated (setting check-news in Makefile.am AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS will enforce this).
3. Run the tests, including the distcheck target.
4. Check that the RPM targets are working. This is a lower priority item then the distcheck target because these targets seem pretty stable unless the packaging and distribution files are changed. If that is the case, these targets should be checked.
5. Commit these changes.
6. Merge 'down' to the release branch.
7. Tag the release:
   • I use svn="https://scm.opendap.org/svn" in the following and in my shell.
   • Use svn copy $svn/branch/<<package>> $svn/tags/<<package-name>>/<<release-number>>
   • If this is the first release of <<package-name>>, you have to create the directory under tags using svn mkdir.
8. Make the tar file
   • Sign the tar file. See the help item on the main trac wiki page if you need instructions.
   • Move the file to the web site for distribution.
9. Make the RPM
   • Sign the RPM
   • Move to a directory on the web site and use script to move the RPM around (later, once all the RPMs are uploaded).
10. Update the web pages:
11. Build binaries and upload to the web site as time permits. See Distributions.