emacs/admin/make-tarball.txt

Instructions to create pretest or release tarballs.
-- originally written by Gerd Moellmann, amended by Francesco Potortì
   with the initial help of Eli Zaretskii


Steps to take before starting on the first pretest in any release sequence:

1.  Decide on versions of automake and autoconf, and ensure you will
    have them available for the duration of the release process.

2.  Consider increasing the value of the variable
    `customize-changed-options-previous-release' in cus-edit.el to
    refer to a newer version of Emacs.  (This is probably needed only
    when preparing the first pretest for a major Emacs release.)
    Commit cus-edit.el if changed.


General steps (for each step, check for possible errors):

1.  `bzr update' (for a bound branch), or `bzr pull'.
     bzr status   # check for locally modified files

2.  Bootstrap to make 100% sure all elc files are up-to-date, and to
    make sure that the later tagged version will bootstrap, should it be
    necessary to check it out.

3.  Regenerate the etc/AUTHORS file:
      M-: (require 'authors) RET
      M-x authors RET

    There is almost guaranteed to be an "*Authors Errors*" buffer with
    problems caused by certain bad ChangeLog entries.  You can ignore
    the very old ones (eg lisp/erc has a lot).  If there are errors
    related to new entries (especially entries that are new since the
    last pretest), see if you can fix them.  If there was a ChangeLog
    typo, fix it.  If a file was deleted or renamed, consider adding
    an appropriate entry to authors-ignored-files, authors-valid-file-names,
    or authors-renamed-files-alist.

    If necessary, repeat M-x authors after making those changes.
    Save the "*Authors*" buffer as etc/AUTHORS.
    Check the diff looks reasonable.  Maybe add entries to
    authors-ambiguous-files or authors-aliases, and repeat.
    Commit any fixes to ChangeLogs or authors.el.

4.  Set the version number (M-x load-file RET admin/admin.el RET, then
    M-x set-version RET).  For a release, add released ChangeLog
    entries (M-x add-release-logs RET).

    For a pretest, start at version .90.  After .99, use .990 (so that
    it sorts).

5.   autoreconf -i -I m4 --force
     make bootstrap

6.  Copy lisp/loaddefs.el to lisp/ldefs-boot.el.

    Commit etc/AUTHORS, lisp/ldefs-boot.el, and the files changed
    by M-x set-version.
    For a release, also commit the ChangeLog files in all directories.

7.  ./make-dist --snapshot --no-compress

    Check the contents of the new tar with
    admin/diff-tar-files against an older tar file.  Some old pretest
    tarballs may be found at <ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest>;
    old release tarballs are at <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/>.

    If this is the first pretest of a major release, just comparing
    with the previous release may overlook many new files.  You can try
    something like `find . | sort' in a clean bzr tree, and compare the
    results against the new tar contents.

8.   tar -xf emacs-NEW.tar; cd emacs-NEW
     ./configure --prefix=/tmp/emacs && make && make install
    Use `script' or M-x compile to save the compilation log in
    compile-NEW.log and compare it against an old one.  The easiest way
    to do that is to visit the old log in Emacs, change the version
    number of the old Emacs to __, do the same with the new log and do
    M-x ediff.  Especially check that Info files aren't built.

9.  cd EMACS_ROOT_DIR && bzr tag TAG
    TAG is emacs-XX.Y.ZZ for a pretest, emacs-XX.Y for a release.

    Shortly before the release, cut the version branch also, and open
    a Savannah support request asking for commits to the new branch to
    be sent to the emacs-diffs mailing list (by default, the list
    normally only gets commits to the trunk).

10. Decide what compression schemes to offer.
    For a release, at least gz and xz:
      gzip --best -c emacs-NEW.tar > emacs-NEW.tar.gz
      xz -c emacs-NEW.tar > emacs-NEW.tar.xz

    Now you should upload the files to the GNU ftp server.  In order to
    do that, you must be registered as an Emacs maintainer and have your
    GPG key acknowledged by the ftp people.  For instructions, see
    http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Automated-Upload-Registration.html
    The simplest method is to use the gnulib <http://www.gnu.org/s/gnulib/>
    script "build-aux/gnupload" to upload each FILE, like this:

    For a pretest:
     gnupload [--user your@gpg.key.email] --to alpha.gnu.org:emacs/pretest \
       FILE.gz FILE.xz ...

    For a release:
     gnupload [--user your@gpg.key.email] --to ftp.gnu.org:emacs \
       FILE.gz FILE.xz ...

    You only need the --user part if you have multiple GPG keys and do
    not want to use the default.
    Obviously, if you do not have a fast uplink, be prepared for the
    upload to take a while.


    If you prefer to do it yourself rather than use gnupload:

    For each FILE, create a detached GPG binary signature and a
    clearsigned directive file like this:

     gpg -b FILE
     echo directory: emacs/pretest > FILE.directive      (for a pretest)
     echo directory: emacs > FILE.directive              (for a release)
     gpg --clearsign FILE.directive
    Upload by anonymous ftp to ftp://ftp-upload.gnu.org/ the files FILE,
    FILE.sig, FILE.directive.asc.
    For a release, place the files in the /incoming/ftp directory.
    For a pretest, place the files in /incoming/alpha instead, so that
    they appear on ftp://alpha.gnu.org/.

11. After five minutes, verify that the files are visible at
    ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest/ for a pretest, or
    ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/ for a release.

    Download them and check the signatures.  Check they build.

12. For a pretest, announce it on emacs-devel and info-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
    For a release, also announce it on info-gnu@gnu.org.  (Probably
    bcc the info- addresses to make it less likely that people will
    followup on those lists.)

13. For a release, update the Emacs homepage in the web repository.
    Also add the new NEWS file as NEWS.xx.y.
    Maybe regenerate the html manuals, update the FAQ, etc, etc.