<ol>
<li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="#process">Release Process</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#dist_targets">Distribution Targets</a></li>
</ol>
<div class="doc_author">
- <p>Written by <a href="mailto:rspencer@x10sys.com">Reid Spencer</a></p>
+ <p>Written by <a href="mailto:rspencer@x10sys.com">Reid Spencer</a>,
+ <a href="mailto:criswell@cs.uiuc.edu">John Criswell</a></p>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_text">
<p>This document collects information about successfully releasing LLVM to the
public. It is the release manager's guide to ensuring that a high quality build
-of LLVM is released. Mostly, its just a bunch of reminders of things to do at
+of LLVM is released. Mostly, it's just a bunch of reminders of things to do at
release time so we don't inadvertently ship something that is utility
deficient.</p>
+
+<p>
+There are three main tasks for building a release of LLVM:
+<ol>
+ <li>Create the LLVM source distribution.</li>
+ <li>Create the LLVM GCC source distribtuion.</li>
+ <li>Create a set of LLVM GCC binary distribtuions for each supported
+ platform. These binary distributions must include compiled versions
+ of the libraries found in <tt>llvm/runtime</tt> from the LLVM
+ source distribution created in Step 1.</li>
+</ol>
+</p>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="overview">Process Overview</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
<ol>
+ <li><a href="#updocs">Update Documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="#merge">Merge Branches</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#deps">Make LibDeps.txt</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#settle">Settle LLVM HEAD</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#tag">Tag LLVM and Create the Release Branch</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#verchanges">Update LLVM Version </a></li>
<li><a href="#build">Build LLVM</a></li>
<li><a href="#check">Run 'make check'</a></li>
<li><a href="#test">Run LLVM Test Suite</a></li>
- <li><a href="#deps">make LibDeps.txt</a></li>
- <li><a href="#tag">cvs tag</a></li>
- <li><a href="#dist">make dist</a></li>
- <li><a href="#release">release</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#dist">Build the LLVM Source Distributions</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#rpm">Build RPM Packages (optional)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#llvmgccbin">Build the LLVM GCC Binary Distribution</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#webupdates">Update the LLVM Website</a></li>
</ol>
</div>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="updocs">Update Documentation</a></div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+ <p>
+ Review the documentation and ensure that it is up to date. The Release Notes
+ must be updated to reflect bug fixes, new known issues, and changes in the
+ list of supported platforms. The Getting Started Guide should be updated to
+ reflect the new release version number tag avaiable from CVS and changes in
+ basic system requirements.
+ </p>
+</div>
+
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="merge">Merge Branches</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>Merge any work done on branches intended for release into mainline.</p>
+<p>
+Merge any work done on branches intended for release into mainline. Finish and
+commit all new features or bug fixes that are scheduled to go into the release.
+Work that is not to be incorporated into the release should not be merged from
+branchs or commited from developer's working directories.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this point until the release branch is created, developers should
+<em>not</em>
+commit changes to the llvm and llvm-gcc CVS repositories unless it is a bug
+fix <em>for the release</em>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="deps">Make LibDeps.txt</a></div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+ <p>Rebuild the <tt>LibDeps.txt</tt> target in <tt>utils/llvm-config</tt>. This
+ makes sure that the <tt>llvm-config</tt> utility remains relevant for the
+ release, reflecting any changes in the library dependencies.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="settle">Settle CVS HEAD</a></div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+ <p>
+ Use the nightly test reports and 'make check' (deja-gnu based tests) to
+ ensure that recent changes and merged branches have not destabilized LLVM.
+ Platforms which are used less often should be given special attention as they
+ are the most likely to break from commits from the previous step.
+ </p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="tag">CVS Tag And Branch</a></div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+ <p>Tag and branch the CVS HEAD using the following procedure:</p>
+ <ol>
+ <li>
+ Request all developers to refrain from committing. Offenders get commit
+ rights taken away (temporarily).
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ The Release Manager updates his/her llvm, llvm-test, and llvm-gcc source
+ trees with the
+ latest sources from mainline CVS. The Release Manage may want to consider
+ using a new working directory for this to keep current uncommitted work
+ separate from release work.
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ The Release Manager tags his/her llvm, llvm-test, and llvm-gcc working
+ directories with
+ "ROOT_RELEASE_XX" where XX is the major and minor
+ release numbers (you can't have . in a cvs tag name). So, for Release 1.2,
+ XX=12 and for Release 1.10, XX=110.
+
+ <p>
+ <tt>cvs tag ROOT_RELEASE_XX</tt><br>
+ </p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ Immediately create cvs branches based on the ROOT_RELEASE_XX tag. The tag
+ should be "release_XX" (where XX matches that used for the ROOT_RELEASE_XX
+ tag). This is where the release distribution will be created.
+
+ <p>
+ cvs tag -b -r ROOT_RELEASE_XX release_XX
+ </p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ Advise developers they can work on CVS HEAD again.
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ The Release Manager and any developers working on the release should switch
+ to the release branch (as all changes to the release will now be done in
+ the branch). The easiest way to do this is to grab another working copy
+ using the following commands:
+
+ <p>
+ <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> co -r release_XX llvm</tt><br>
+ <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> co -r release_XX llvm-test</tt><br>
+ <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> co -r release_XX llvm-gcc</tt><br>
+ </p>
+ </li>
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="verchanges">Update LLVM Version</a></div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+ <p>
+ After creating the llvm release branch, update the release branch's autoconf/configure.ac
+ version from X.Xcvs to just X.X. Update it on mainline as well to be the next version
+ (X.X+1cvs).
+ </p>
+
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="build">Build LLVM</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
- <p>Build LLVM</p>
+ <p>
+ Build both debug and release (optimized) versions of LLVM on all
+ platforms. Ensure the build is warning and error free on each platform.
+ </p>
+
+ <p>
+ Build a new version of the LLVM GCC front-end after building the LLVM tools.
+ Once that is complete, go back to the LLVM source tree and build and install
+ the <tt>llvm/runtime</tt> libraries.
+ </p>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="check">Run 'make check'</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>Run <tt>make check</tt> and ensure there are no unexpected failures. If
- there are, resolve the failures and go back to step 2.</p>
+ there are, resolve the failures, commit them back into the release branch,
+ and restart testing by <a href="#build">re-building LLVM</a>.
+ </p>
+
+ <p>
+ Ensure that 'make check' passes on all platforms for all targets. If certain
+ failures cannot be resolved before release time, determine if marking them
+ XFAIL is appropriate. If not, fix the bug and go back. The test suite must
+ complete with "0 unexpected failures" for release.
+ </p>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="test">LLVM Test Suite</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>Run the llvm-test suite and ensure there are no unacceptable failures.
- If there are, resolve the failures and go back to step 2.</p>
+ If there are, resolve the failures and go back to
+ <a href="#build">re-building LLVM</a>. The test suite
+ should be run in Nightly Test mode. All tests must pass.
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
-<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="deps">Make LibDeps.txt</a></div>
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="dist">Build the LLVM Source Distributions</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
- <p>Rebuild the <tt>LibDeps.txt</tt> target in <tt>utils/llvm-config</tt>. This
- makes sure that the <tt>llvm-config</tt> utility remains relevant for the
- release, reflecting any changes in the library dependencies.</p>
+ <p>
+ Create source distributions for LLVM, LLVM GCC, and the LLVM Test Suite by
+ exporting the source
+ from CVS and archiving it. This can be done with the following commands:
+ </p>
+
+ <p>
+ <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> export -r release_XX llvm</tt><br>
+ <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> export -r release_XX llvm-test</tt><br>
+ <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> export -r release_XX llvm-gcc</tt><br>
+ <tt>mkdir cfrontend; mv llvm-gcc cfrontend/src</tt><br>
+ <tt>tar -cvf - llvm | gzip > llvm-X.X.tar.gz</tt><br>
+ <tt>tar -cvf - llvm-test | gzip > llvm-test-X.X.tar.gz</tt><br>
+ <tt>tar -cvf - cfrontend/src | gzip > cfrontend-X.X.source.tar.gz</tt><br>
+ </p>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
-<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="tag">CVS Tag</a></div>
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="rpm">Building RPM packages (optional)</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
- <p>Tag the release.</p>
+ <p>You can, optionally, create source and binary RPM packages for LLVM. These
+ may make it easier to get LLVM into a distribution. This can be done with
+ the following commands:</p>
+ <pre>
+ make dist # Build the distribution source tarball
+ make dist-check # Check that the source tarball can build itself.
+ cp llvm-M.m.tar.gz /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES # Required by rpmbuild
+ make srpm # for source rpm
+ make rpm # for binary rpm
+ </pre>
+ <p>First, use "make dist" to simply build the distribution. Any
+ failures need to be corrected (on the branch). Once "make dist" can be
+ successful, do "make dist-check". This target will do the same thing as the
+ 'dist' target but also test that distribution to make sure it can build itself
+ and runs "make check" as well. This ensures that needed files are not
+ missing and that the src tarball can be successfully unpacked, built,
+ installed, and cleaned. Once you have a reliable tarball, you need to copy
+ it to the /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES directory which is a requirement of the
+ rpmbuild tool. The last two "make" invocations just run rpmbuild to build
+ either a source (<tt>srpm</tt>) or binary (<tt>rpm</tt>) RPM package.</p>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
-<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="dist">Run 'make dist'</a></div>
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="llvmgccbin">Build the LLVM GCC Binary Distribution</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
- <p>Build the distribution, ensuring it is installable and working</p>
+ <p>
+ Creating the LLVM GCC binary distribution requires performing the following
+ steps for each supported platform:
+ </p>
+
+ <ol>
+ <li>
+ Build the LLVM GCC front-end. The LLVM GCC front-end must be installed in
+ a directory named <tt>cfrontend/<platform>/llvm-gcc</tt>. For
+ example, the Sparc/Solaris directory is named
+ <tt>cfrontend/sparc/llvm-gcc</tt>.
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ Build the libraries in <tt>llvm/runtime</tt> and install them into the
+ created LLVM GCC installation directory.
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ For systems with non-distributable header files (e.g. Solaris), manually
+ remove header files that the GCC build process has "fixed." This process
+ is admittedly painful, but not as bad as it looks; these header files are
+ almost always easily identifiable with simple grep expressions and are
+ installed in only a few directories in the GCC installation directory.
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ Add the copyright files and header file fix script.
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ Archive and compress the installation directory. These can be found in
+ previous releases of the LLVM-GCC front-end.
+ </li>
+ </ol>
</div>
+
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="webupdates">Update the LLVM Website</a></div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+ <p>
+ Check out the llvm-www module from cvs. Create a new subdirectory X.X in the
+ releases directory. Place the llvm, llvm-test, llvm-gcc source, and llvm-gcc
+ binaries in this new directory. Copy the llvm/docs and LICENSE.txt files
+ into this new directory. Update the releases/download.html file with the new release.
+ Update the releases/index.html with the new release. Finally, update the main page (
+ index.html and sidebar) to point to the new release and release announcement. Make
+ sure this all gets commited back into cvs.
+ </p>
+</div>
+
+<!--
<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="release">Release</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
- <p>Release the distribution tarball to the public.</p>
+ <p>Release the distribution tarball to the public. This consists of generating
+ several tarballs. The first set, the source distributions, are automatically
+ generated by the "make dist" and "make dist-check". There are gzip, bzip2, and
+ zip versions of these bundles.</p>
+ <p>The second set of tarballs is the binary release. When "make dist-check"
+ succeeds, it will have created an _install directory into which it installed
+ the binary release. You need to rename that directory as "llvm" and then
+ create tarballs from the contents of that "llvm" directory.</p>
+ <p>Finally, use rpm to make an rpm package based on the llvm.spec file. Don't
+ forget to update the version number, documentation, etc. in the llvm.spec
+ file.</p>
+</div>
+-->
+
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section"><a name="dist_targets">Distribution Targets</a></div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">Overview</div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The first thing you need to understand is that there are multiple make
+targets to support this feature. Here's an overview, we'll delve into the
+details later.</p>
+<ul>
+ <li><b>distdir</b> - builds the distribution directory from which the
+ distribution will be packaged</li>
+ <li><b>dist</b> - builds each of the distribution tarballs (tar.gz,
+ tar.bzip2, .zip). These can be built individually as well, with separate
+ targets.</li>
+ <li><b>dist-check</b> - this is identical to <tt>dist</tt> but includes a
+ check on the distribution that ensures the tarball can: unpack successfully,
+ compile correctly, pass 'make check', and pass 'make clean'.</li>
+ <li><b>dist-clean</b>- this just does a normal clean but also cleans up the
+ stuff generated by the other three <tt>dist</tt> targets (above).</li>
+</ul>
+<p>Okay, that's the basic functionality. When making a release, we want to
+ensure that the tree you build the distribution from passes
+<tt>dist-check</tt>. Beyond fixing the usual bugs, there is generally one
+impediment to making the release in this fashion: missing files. The
+<tt>dist-check</tt> process guards against that possibility. It will either
+fail and that failure will indicate what's missing, or it will succeed
+meaning that it has proved that the tarballs can actually succeed in
+building LLVM correctly and that it passes <tt>make check</tt>.</p>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">distdir</div>
+<p>This target builds the distribution directory which is the directory from
+which the tarballs are generated. The distribution directory has the same
+name as the release, e.g. LLVM-1.7). This target goes through the following
+process:
+<ol>
+ <li>First, if there was an old distribution directory (for the current
+ release), it is removed in its entirety and you see <tt>Removing old
+ LLVM-1.7</tt></li>
+ <li>Second, it issues a <tt>make all ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=3D1</tt> to ensure
+ that the everything in your tree can be built in release mode. Often times
+ there are discrepancies in building between debug and release modes so it
+ enforces release mode first. If that fails, the <tt>distdir</tt> target
+ fails too. This is preceded by the message <tt>Making 'all' to verify
+ build</tt>.</li>
+ <li>Next, it traverses your source tree and copies it to a new directory
+ that has the name of the release (<tt>LLVM-M.m</tt> in our current case).
+ This is the directory that will get tar'd. It contains all the software
+ that needs to be in the distribution. During the copying process, it omits
+ generated files, CVS directories, and any other "cruft" that's in your
+ build tree. This is done to eliminate the possibility of huge distribution
+ tarballs that include useless or irrelevant stuff in them. This is the
+ trickiest part of making the distribution. Done manually you will either
+ include stuff that shouldn't be in the distribution or exclude stuff that
+ should. This step is preceded by the message <tt>Building Distribution
+ Directory LLVM-1.7</tt></li>
+ <li>The distribution directory is then traversed and all <tt>CVS</tt> or
+ <tt>.svn</tt> directories are removed. You see: <tt>Eliminating CVS/.svn
+ directories from distribution</tt></li>
+ <li>The recursive <tt>dist-hook</tt> target is executed. This gives each
+ directory a chance to modify the distribution in some way (more on this
+ below).</li>
+ <li>The distribution directory is traversed and the correct file
+ permissions and modes are set based on the type of file.</li>
+</ol>
+<p>To control the process of making the distribution directory correctly,
+each Makefile can utilize two features:</p>
+<ol>
+ <li><b><tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt></B> - this make variable specifies which files
+ it should distribute. By default, all source files are automatically
+ included for distribution as well as certain <tt>well known</tt> files
+ (see DistAlways variable in Makefile.rules for details). Each Makefile
+ specifies, via the <tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt> variable, which additional files
+ need to be distributed. Only those files that are needed to build LLVM
+ should be added to <tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt>. <tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt> contains a
+ list of file or directory names that should be distributed. For example,
+ the top level Makefile contains
+ <tt>EXTRA_DIST := test llvm.spec include</tt>.
+ This means that in addition to regular things that are distributed at the
+ top level (<tt>CREDITS.txt, LICENSE.txt</tt>, etc.) the distribution should
+ contain the entire <tt>test</tt> and <tt>include</tt> directories as well
+ as the <tt>llvm.spec</tt> file.</li>
+ <li><b><tt>dist-hook</tt></B> - this make target can be used to alter the
+ content of the distribution directory. For example, in the top level
+ Makefile there is some logic to eliminate files in the <tt>include</tt>
+ subtree that are generated by the configure script. These should not be
+ distributed. Similarly, any <tt>dist-hook</tt> target found in any
+ directory can add or remove or modify things just before it gets packaged.
+ Any transformation is permitted. Generally, not much is needed.
+</ol>
+<p>You will see various messages if things go wrong:</p>
+<ol>
+ <li>During the copying process, any files that are missing will be flagged
+ with: <tt>===== WARNING: Distribution Source 'dir/file' Not Found!</tt>
+ These must be corrected by either adding the file or removing it from
+ <tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt>.
+ <li>If you build the distribution with <tt>VERBOSE=1</tt>, then you might
+ also see: <tt>Skipping non-existent 'dir/file'</tt> in certain cases where
+ its okay to skip the file.</li>
+ <li>The target can fail if any of the things it does fail. Error messages
+ should indicate what went wrong.</li>
+</ol>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">dist</div>
+<p>This target does exactly what <tt>distdir</tt> target does, but also
+includes assembling the tarballs. There are actually four related targets
+here:<p>
+ <ul>
+ <li><b><tt>dist-gzip</tt></b>: package the gzipped distribution tar
+ file. The distribution directory is packaged into a single file ending in
+ <tt>.tar.gz</tt> which is gzip compressed.</li>
+ <li><b><tt>dist-bzip2</tt></b>: package the bzip2 distribution tar file.
+ The distribution directory is packaged into a single file ending in
+ <tt>.tar.bzip2</tt> which is bzip2 compressed.</li>
+ <li><b><tt>dist-zip</tt></b>: package the zip distribution file. The
+ distribution directory is packaged into a single file ending in
+ <tt>.zip</tt> which is zip compressed.</li>
+ <li><b><tt>dist</tt></b>: does all three, dist-gzip, dist-bzip2,
+ dist-zip</li>
+ </ul>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">dist-check</div>
+<p>This target checks the distribution. The basic idea is that it unpacks the
+distribution tarball and ensures that it can build. It takes the following
+actions:</p>
+<ol>
+ <li>It depends on the <tt>dist-gzip</tt> target which, if it hasn't already
+ been built, builds the gzip tar bundle (see dist and distdir above).</li>
+ <li>removes any pre-existing <tt>_distcheckdir</tt> at the top level.</li>
+ <li>creates a new <tt>_distcheckdir</tt> directory at the top level.</li>
+ <li>creates a <tt>build</tt> subdirectory and an <tt>install</tt>
+ subdirectory under <tt>_distcheckdir</tt>.</li>
+ <li>unzips and untars the release tarball into <tt>_distcheckdir</tt>,
+ creating <tt>LLVM-1.7</tt> directory (from the tarball).</li>
+ <li>in the build subdirectory, it configures with appropriate options to build
+ from the unpacked source tarball into the <tt>build</tt> directory with
+ installation in the <tt>install</tt> directory.</li>
+ <li>runs <tt>make all</tt></li>
+ <li>runs <tt>make </tt><tt>check</tt></li>
+ <li>runs <tt>make install</tt></li>
+ <li>runs <tt>make uninstall</tt></li>
+ <li>runs <tt>make dist</tt></li>
+ <li>runs <tt>make clean</tt></li>
+ <li>runs <tt>make dist-clean</tt></li>
+</ol>
+<p>If it can pass all that, the distribution will be deemed distribution
+worth y and you will see:<p>
+<pre>===== LLVM-1.7.tar.gz Ready For Distribution =====</pre>
+<p>This means the tarball should then be tested on other platforms and have the
+nightly test run against it. If those all pass, THEN it is ready for
+distribution.</p>
+<p>
+A note about disk space: using <tt>dist-check</tt> will easily triple the
+amount of disk space your build tree is using. You might want to check
+available space before you begin.</p>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">dist-clean</div>
+<h2>dist-clean</h2>
+<p>In addition to doing a normal <tt>clean</tt>, this target will clean up the
+files and directories created by the distribution targets. In particular the
+distribution directory <tt>(LLVM-X.X</tt>), check directory
+(<tt>_distcheckdir</tt>), and the various tarballs will be removed. You do
+this after the release has shipped and you no longer need this stuff in your
+build tree.</p>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->