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5 <title>How To Release LLVM To The Public</title>
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10 <div class="doc_title">How To Release LLVM To The Public</div>
11 <p class="doc_warning">NOTE: THIS DOCUMENT IS A WORK IN PROGRESS!</p>
13 <li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li>
14 <li><a href="#process">Release Process</a></li>
15 <li><a href="#dist_targets">Distribution Targets</a></li>
17 <div class="doc_author">
18 <p>Written by <a href="mailto:rspencer@x10sys.com">Reid Spencer</a>,
19 <a href="mailto:criswell@cs.uiuc.edu">John Criswell</a></p>
22 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
23 <div class="doc_section"><a name="introduction">Introduction</a></div>
24 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
26 <div class="doc_text">
27 <p>This document collects information about successfully releasing LLVM to the
28 public. It is the release manager's guide to ensuring that a high quality build
29 of LLVM is released. Mostly, it's just a bunch of reminders of things to do at
30 release time so we don't inadvertently ship something that is utility
34 There are three main tasks for building a release of LLVM:
36 <li>Create the LLVM source distribution.</li>
37 <li>Create the LLVM GCC source distribtuion.</li>
38 <li>Create a set of LLVM GCC binary distribtuions for each supported
39 platform. These binary distributions must include compiled versions
40 of the libraries found in <tt>llvm/runtime</tt> from the LLVM
41 source distribution created in Step 1.</li>
46 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
47 <div class="doc_section"><a name="process">Release Process</a></div>
48 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
50 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
51 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="overview">Process Overview</a></div>
52 <div class="doc_text">
54 <li><a href="#updocs">Update Documentation</a></li>
55 <li><a href="#merge">Merge Branches</a></li>
56 <li><a href="#deps">Make LibDeps.txt</a></li>
57 <li><a href="#settle">Settle LLVM HEAD</a></li>
58 <li><a href="#tag">Tag LLVM and Create the Release Branch</a></li>
59 <li><a href="#verchanges">Update LLVM Version </a></li>
60 <li><a href="#build">Build LLVM</a></li>
61 <li><a href="#check">Run 'make check'</a></li>
62 <li><a href="#test">Run LLVM Test Suite</a></li>
63 <li><a href="#dist">Build the LLVM Source Distributions</a></li>
64 <li><a href="#llvmgccbin">Build the LLVM GCC Binary Distribution</a></li>
65 <li><a href="#webupdates">Update the LLVM Website</a></li>
69 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
70 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="updocs">Update Documentation</a></div>
71 <div class="doc_text">
73 Review the documentation and ensure that it is up to date. The Release Notes
74 must be updated to reflect bug fixes, new known issues, and changes in the
75 list of supported platforms. The Getting Started Guide should be updated to
76 reflect the new release version number tag avaiable from CVS and changes in
77 basic system requirements.
81 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
82 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="merge">Merge Branches</a></div>
83 <div class="doc_text">
85 Merge any work done on branches intended for release into mainline. Finish and
86 commit all new features or bug fixes that are scheduled to go into the release.
87 Work that is not to be incorporated into the release should not be merged from
88 branchs or commited from developer's working directories.
92 From this point until the release branch is created, developers should
94 commit changes to the llvm and llvm-gcc CVS repositories unless it is a bug
95 fix <em>for the release</em>.
99 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
100 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="deps">Make LibDeps.txt</a></div>
101 <div class="doc_text">
102 <p>Rebuild the <tt>LibDeps.txt</tt> target in <tt>utils/llvm-config</tt>. This
103 makes sure that the <tt>llvm-config</tt> utility remains relevant for the
104 release, reflecting any changes in the library dependencies.</p>
108 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
109 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="settle">Settle CVS HEAD</a></div>
110 <div class="doc_text">
112 Use the nightly test reports and 'make check' (deja-gnu based tests) to
113 ensure that recent changes and merged branches have not destabilized LLVM.
114 Platforms which are used less often should be given special attention as they
115 are the most likely to break from commits from the previous step.
119 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
120 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="tag">CVS Tag And Branch</a></div>
121 <div class="doc_text">
122 <p>Tag and branch the CVS HEAD using the following procedure:</p>
125 Request all developers to refrain from committing. Offenders get commit
126 rights taken away (temporarily).
130 The Release Manager updates his/her llvm, llvm-test, and llvm-gcc source
132 latest sources from mainline CVS. The Release Manage may want to consider
133 using a new working directory for this to keep current uncommitted work
134 separate from release work.
138 The Release Manager tags his/her llvm, llvm-test, and llvm-gcc working
140 "ROOT_RELEASE_XX" where XX is the major and minor
141 release numbers (you can't have . in a cvs tag name). So, for Release 1.2,
142 XX=12 and for Release 1.10, XX=110.
145 <tt>cvs tag ROOT_RELEASE_XX</tt><br>
150 Immediately create cvs branches based on the ROOT_RELEASE_XX tag. The tag
151 should be "release_XX" (where XX matches that used for the ROOT_RELEASE_XX
152 tag). This is where the release distribution will be created.
155 cvs tag -b -r ROOT_RELEASE_XX release_XX
160 Advise developers they can work on CVS HEAD again.
164 The Release Manager and any developers working on the release should switch
165 to the release branch (as all changes to the release will now be done in
166 the branch). The easiest way to do this is to grab another working copy
167 using the following commands:
170 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> co -r release_XX llvm</tt><br>
171 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> co -r release_XX llvm-test</tt><br>
172 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> co -r release_XX llvm-gcc</tt><br>
177 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
178 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="verchanges">Update LLVM Version</a></div>
179 <div class="doc_text">
181 After creating the llvm release branch, update the release branch's autoconf/configure.ac
182 version from X.Xcvs to just X.X. Update it on mainline as well to be the next version
188 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
189 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="build">Build LLVM</a></div>
190 <div class="doc_text">
192 Build both debug and release (optimized) versions of LLVM on all
193 platforms. Ensure the build is warning and error free on each platform.
197 Build a new version of the LLVM GCC front-end after building the LLVM tools.
198 Once that is complete, go back to the LLVM source tree and build and install
199 the <tt>llvm/runtime</tt> libraries.
203 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
204 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="check">Run 'make check'</a></div>
205 <div class="doc_text">
206 <p>Run <tt>make check</tt> and ensure there are no unexpected failures. If
207 there are, resolve the failures, commit them back into the release branch,
208 and restart testing by <a href="#build">re-building LLVM</a>.
212 Ensure that 'make check' passes on all platforms for all targets. If certain
213 failures cannot be resolved before release time, determine if marking them
214 XFAIL is appropriate. If not, fix the bug and go back. The test suite must
215 complete with "0 unexpected failures" for release.
219 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
220 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="test">LLVM Test Suite</a></div>
221 <div class="doc_text">
222 <p>Run the llvm-test suite and ensure there are no unacceptable failures.
223 If there are, resolve the failures and go back to
224 <a href="#build">re-building LLVM</a>. The test suite
225 should be run in Nightly Test mode. All tests must pass.
228 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
229 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="dist">Build the LLVM Source Distributions</a></div>
230 <div class="doc_text">
232 Create source distributions for LLVM, LLVM GCC, and the LLVM Test Suite by
234 from CVS and archiving it. This can be done with the following commands:
238 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> export -r release_XX llvm</tt><br>
239 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> export -r release_XX llvm-test</tt><br>
240 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> export -r release_XX llvm-gcc</tt><br>
241 <tt>mkdir cfrontend; mv llvm-gcc cfrontend/src</tt><br>
242 <tt>tar -cvf - llvm | gzip > llvm-X.X.tar.gz</tt><br>
243 <tt>tar -cvf - llvm-test | gzip > llvm-test-X.X.tar.gz</tt><br>
244 <tt>tar -cvf - cfrontend/src | gzip > cfrontend-X.X.source.tar.gz</tt><br>
248 two step process. First, use "make dist" to simply build the distribution. Any
249 failures need to be corrected (on the branch). Once "make dist" can be
250 successful, do "make dist-check". This target will do the same thing as the
251 'dist' target but also test that distribution to make sure it works. This
252 ensures that needed files are not missing and that the src tarball can be
253 successfully unbacked, built, installed, and cleaned. This two-level testing
254 needs to be done on each target platform.
258 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
259 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="llvmgccbin">Build the LLVM GCC Binary Distribution</a></div>
260 <div class="doc_text">
262 Creating the LLVM GCC binary distribution requires performing the following
263 steps for each supported platform:
268 Build the LLVM GCC front-end. The LLVM GCC front-end must be installed in
269 a directory named <tt>cfrontend/<platform>/llvm-gcc</tt>. For
270 example, the Sparc/Solaris directory is named
271 <tt>cfrontend/sparc/llvm-gcc</tt>.
275 Build the libraries in <tt>llvm/runtime</tt> and install them into the
276 created LLVM GCC installation directory.
280 For systems with non-distributable header files (e.g. Solaris), manually
281 remove header files that the GCC build process has "fixed." This process
282 is admittedly painful, but not as bad as it looks; these header files are
283 almost always easily identifiable with simple grep expressions and are
284 installed in only a few directories in the GCC installation directory.
288 Add the copyright files and header file fix script.
292 Archive and compress the installation directory. These can be found in
293 previous releases of the LLVM-GCC front-end.
299 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
300 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="webupdates">Update the LLVM Website</a></div>
301 <div class="doc_text">
303 Check out the llvm-www module from cvs. Create a new subdirectory X.X in the
304 releases directory. Place the llvm, llvm-test, llvm-gcc source, and llvm-gcc
305 binaries in this new directory. Copy the llvm/docs and LICENSE.txt files
306 into this new directory. Update the releases/download.html file with the new release.
307 Update the releases/index.html with the new release. Finally, update the main page (
308 index.html and sidebar) to point to the new release and release announcement. Make
309 sure this all gets commited back into cvs.
314 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="release">Release</a></div>
315 <div class="doc_text">
316 <p>Release the distribution tarball to the public. This consists of generating
317 several tarballs. The first set, the source distributions, are automatically
318 generated by the "make dist" and "make dist-check". There are gzip, bzip2, and
319 zip versions of these bundles.</p>
320 <p>The second set of tarballs is the binary release. When "make dist-check"
321 succeeds, it will have created an _install directory into which it installed
322 the binary release. You need to rename that directory as "llvm" and then
323 create tarballs from the contents of that "llvm" directory.</p>
324 <p>Finally, use rpm to make an rpm package based on the llvm.spec file. Don't
325 forget to update the version number, documentation, etc. in the llvm.spec
330 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
331 <div class="doc_section"><a name="dist_targets">Distribution Targets</a></div>
332 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
333 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
334 <div class="doc_subsection">Overview</div>
335 <div class="doc_text">
336 <p>The first thing you need to understand is that there are multiple make
337 targets to support this feature. Here's an overview, we'll delve into the
340 <li><b>distdir</b> - builds the distribution directory from which the
341 distribution will be packaged</li>
342 <li><b>dist</b> - builds each of the distribution tarballs (tar.gz,
343 tar.bzip2, .zip). These can be built individually as well, with separate
345 <li><b>dist-check</b> - this is identical to <tt>dist</tt> but includes a
346 check on the distribution that ensures the tarball can: unpack successfully,
347 compile correctly, pass 'make check', and pass 'make clean'.</li>
348 <li><b>dist-clean</b>- this just does a normal clean but also cleans up the
349 stuff generated by the other three <tt>dist</tt> targets (above).</li>
351 <p>Okay, that's the basic functionality. When making a release, we want to
352 ensure that the tree you build the distribution from passes
353 <tt>dist-check</tt>. Beyond fixing the usual bugs, there is generally one
354 impediment to making the release in this fashion: missing files. The
355 <tt>dist-check</tt> process guards against that possibility. It will either
356 fail and that failure will indicate what's missing, or it will succeed
357 meaning that it has proved that the tarballs can actually succeed in
358 building LLVM correctly and that it passes <tt>make check</tt>.</p>
359 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
360 <div class="doc_subsection">distdir</div>
361 <p>This target builds the distribution directory which is the directory from
362 which the tarballs are generated. The distribution directory has the same
363 name as the release, e.g. LLVM-1.7). This target goes through the following
366 <li>First, if there was an old distribution directory (for the current
367 release), it is removed in its entirety and you see <tt>Removing old
369 <li>Second, it issues a <tt>make all ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=3D1</tt> to ensure
370 that the everything in your tree can be built in release mode. Often times
371 there are discrepancies in building between debug and release modes so it
372 enforces release mode first. If that fails, the <tt>distdir</tt> target
373 fails too. This is preceded by the message <tt>Making 'all' to verify
375 <li>Next, it traverses your source tree and copies it to a new directory
376 that has the name of the release (<tt>LLVM-M.m</tt> in our current case).
377 This is the directory that will get tar'd. It contains all the software
378 that needs to be in the distribution. During the copying process, it omits
379 generated files, CVS directories, and any other "cruft" that's in your
380 build tree. This is done to eliminate the possibility of huge distribution
381 tarballs that include useless or irrelevant stuff in them. This is the
382 trickiest part of making the distribution. Done manually you will either
383 include stuff that shouldn't be in the distribution or exclude stuff that
384 should. This step is preceded by the message <tt>Building Distribution
385 Directory LLVM-1.7</tt></li>
386 <li>The distribution directory is then traversed and all <tt>CVS</tt> or
387 <tt>.svn</tt> directories are removed. You see: <tt>Eliminating CVS/.svn
388 directories from distribution</tt></li>
389 <li>The recursive <tt>dist-hook</tt> target is executed. This gives each
390 directory a chance to modify the distribution in some way (more on this
392 <li>The distribution directory is traversed and the correct file
393 permissions and modes are set based on the type of file.</li>
395 <p>To control the process of making the distribution directory correctly,
396 each Makefile can utilize two features:</p>
398 <li><b><tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt></B> - this make variable specifies which files
399 it should distribute. By default, all source files are automatically
400 included for distribution as well as certain <tt>well known</tt> files
401 (see DistAlways variable in Makefile.rules for details). Each Makefile
402 specifies, via the <tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt> variable, which additional files
403 need to be distributed. Only those files that are needed to build LLVM
404 should be added to <tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt>. <tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt> contains a
405 list of file or directory names that should be distributed. For example,
406 the top level Makefile contains
407 <tt>EXTRA_DIST := test llvm.spec include</tt>.
408 This means that in addition to regular things that are distributed at the
409 top level (<tt>CREDITS.txt, LICENSE.txt</tt>, etc.) the distribution should
410 contain the entire <tt>test</tt> and <tt>include</tt> directories as well
411 as the <tt>llvm.spec</tt> file.</li>
412 <li><b><tt>dist-hook</tt></B> - this make target can be used to alter the
413 content of the distribution directory. For example, in the top level
414 Makefile there is some logic to eliminate files in the <tt>include</tt>
415 subtree that are generated by the configure script. These should not be
416 distributed. Similarly, any <tt>dist-hook</tt> target found in any
417 directory can add or remove or modify things just before it gets packaged.
418 Any transformation is permitted. Generally, not much is needed.
420 <p>You will see various messages if things go wrong:</p>
422 <li>During the copying process, any files that are missing will be flagged
423 with: <tt>===== WARNING: Distribution Source 'dir/file' Not Found!</tt>
424 These must be corrected by either adding the file or removing it from
426 <li>If you build the distribution with <tt>VERBOSE=1</tt>, then you might
427 also see: <tt>Skipping non-existent 'dir/file'</tt> in certain cases where
428 its okay to skip the file.</li>
429 <li>The target can fail if any of the things it does fail. Error messages
430 should indicate what went wrong.</li>
432 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
433 <div class="doc_subsection">dist</div>
434 <p>This target does exactly what <tt>distdir</tt> target does, but also
435 includes assembling the tarballs. There are actually four related targets
438 <li><b><tt>dist-gzip</tt></b>: package the gzipped distribution tar
439 file. The distribution directory is packaged into a single file ending in
440 <tt>.tar.gz</tt> which is gzip compressed.</li>
441 <li><b><tt>dist-bzip2</tt></b>: package the bzip2 distribution tar file.
442 The distribution directory is packaged into a single file ending in
443 <tt>.tar.bzip2</tt> which is bzip2 compressed.</li>
444 <li><b><tt>dist-zip</tt></b>: package the zip distribution file. The
445 distribution directory is packaged into a single file ending in
446 <tt>.zip</tt> which is zip compressed.</li>
447 <li><b><tt>dist</tt></b>: does all three, dist-gzip, dist-bzip2,
450 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
451 <div class="doc_subsection">dist-check</div>
452 <p>This target checks the distribution. The basic idea is that it unpacks the
453 distribution tarball and ensures that it can build. It takes the following
456 <li>It depends on the <tt>dist-gzip</tt> target which, if it hasn't already
457 been built, builds the gzip tar bundle (see dist and distdir above).</li>
458 <li>removes any pre-existing <tt>_distcheckdir</tt> at the top level.</li>
459 <li>creates a new <tt>_distcheckdir</tt> directory at the top level.</li>
460 <li>creates a <tt>build</tt> subdirectory and an <tt>install</tt>
461 subdirectory under <tt>_distcheckdir</tt>.</li>
462 <li>unzips and untars the release tarball into <tt>_distcheckdir</tt>,
463 creating <tt>LLVM-1.7</tt> directory (from the tarball).</li>
464 <li>in the build subdirectory, it configures with appropriate options to build
465 from the unpacked source tarball into the <tt>build</tt> directory with
466 installation in the <tt>install</tt> directory.</li>
467 <li>runs <tt>make all</tt></li>
468 <li>runs <tt>make </tt><tt>check</tt></li>
469 <li>runs <tt>make install</tt></li>
470 <li>runs <tt>make uninstall</tt></li>
471 <li>runs <tt>make dist</tt></li>
472 <li>runs <tt>make clean</tt></li>
473 <li>runs <tt>make dist-clean</tt></li>
475 <p>If it can pass all that, the distribution will be deemed distribution
476 worth y and you will see:<p>
477 <pre>===== LLVM-1.7.tar.gz Ready For Distribution =====</pre>
478 <p>This means the tarball should then be tested on other platforms and have the
479 nightly test run against it. If those all pass, THEN it is ready for
482 A note about disk space: using <tt>dist-check</tt> will easily triple the
483 amount of disk space your build tree is using. You might want to check
484 available space before you begin.</p>
485 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
486 <div class="doc_subsection">dist-clean</div>
488 <p>In addition to doing a normal <tt>clean</tt>, this target will clean up the
489 files and directories created by the distribution targets. In particular the
490 distribution directory <tt>(LLVM-X.X</tt>), check directory
491 (<tt>_distcheckdir</tt>), and the various tarballs will be removed. You do
492 this after the release has shipped and you no longer need this stuff in your
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