org-mode/README_maintainer

# -*- mode:org -*-

#+TITLE: Org maintainer tasks
#+STARTUP: noindent
#+OPTIONS: ^:nil

This document describes the tasks the Org-mode maintainer has to do
and how they are performed.

* Git workflow

The git repository has two branches:

- master :: for current development.

- maint :: for bug fixes against latest major or minor release.

Bug fixes always go on =maint= then are merged on =master=.

New features always go on =master=.

* Releasing

** Major release

The release number for main releases look like this: =7.13=

Main releases are made whenever Org is in a state where the feature
set is consistent and we feel that the features that are implemented
is something we want to support in the future.

A major release turns the current state of the master branch into a
release.

When doing a /major release/, make sure all changes from the maint
branch are merged into the the master branch, then merge the master
branch back into maint to synchronize the two.

** Minor release

The release number for minor releases look like this: =7.13.1=

Minor releases are small amends to main releases.  Usually they fix
critical bugs discovered in a main release.  Minor bugs are usually
not fixed -- they will be adressed in the next main release.

Only the fix to the bug is bundled into a release, without the main
development work going on in the master branch.  Since the bug fix
will also be needed in the master branch, usually the fix is made in
maint then merged in master.

** Tagging the release

When doing a major and a minor release, after all necessary merging is
done, tag the _maint_ branch for the release with:

  git tag -a release_7.9.1 -m "Adding release tag"

and push tags with

  git push --tags

We also encourage you to sign release tags like this:

  git tag -s release_7.9.1 -m "Adding release tag"

** Uploading the release files from the orgmode.org server

Log on the orgmode.org server as the emacs user and cd to
~/git/org-mode

From there do

  make release
  make upload

to create the .tar.gz and .zip files, the documentation, and to
upload everything at the right place.

* Available Org's builds on the server

There are two cron tasks on the server: one that builds the ELPA
packages and one that builds org-latest.tar.gz and org-latest.zip.

ELPA packages are built from the *maint* branch.  One ELPA package
contains Org's core, another one called "org-plus-contrib" contains
Org and contributed libraries.

org-latest* snapshots are built from the *master* branch.

* Synchronization with Emacs

** Updating etc/ORG-NEWS

Latest changes in Emacs are described in Emacs =etc/NEWS=, and latest
changes in major Emacs packages are described in =etc/ORG-NEWS=. 

If a major release is meant to be merged with the Emacs trunk (as it
always should), you need to update Org's =etc/ORG-NEWS= file so that
you can merge it with that of Emacs.  There is one top-level section
for each release that is merged with Emacs.

** Merging with Emacs trunk branch

This is still a significant headache.  Some hand work is needed here.

Emacs uses bzr.  A useful introduction to bzr for Emacs developers can
be found [[http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/BzrForEmacsDevs][here]].  While I see all the advantages this would have, I
cannot bring myself to switch away from git for my day-to-day work,
because I know git so well, and because git seems to me as being much
more powerful, conceptionally simple (once you have [[http://newartisans.com/2008/04/git-from-the-bottom-up/][bent your head
around it]]), and so much faster.

So the way I have been doing things with Emacs is this:

1. I do not update the version in Emacs too often.  Just once every
   few months - this is frequently enough for the Emacs release cycle.
   Care must be taken to get in a *new and stable* version shortly
   before Emacs goes into feature freeze and pretest, because that
   version is going to be in the wild for a long time.

2. I watch the Emacs diffs for changes made by the maintainers of
   Emacs in the org-mode files in Emacs.  Any changes that come up
   there, I merge into the development version of Org-mode.
   Occasionally I do not do this, if I do not agree with a change.
   The changes go into Org /without/ a ChangeLog-like entry in the
   commit message.  The reason for this is that we will later generate
   a ChangeLog file from our commit messages, and I do not want double
   ChangeLog entries in the Emacs ChangeLog file.

3. When I have made a release (usually I wait for the minor releases
   to stabilize), I *copy* org files into the Emacs repository.  Yes,
   I do not merge, I copy.  This has been the source of some problems
   in the past - Emacs developers are not happy when I accidentally
   overwrite changes they made.  But I have not had the patience to
   work out a better mechanism, and I really dislike the idea that the
   version in Emacs starts diverging from my own.

   Careful: Copy /org.texi/ and /orgcard.tex/ into the right places,
   and also copy the lisp files with *one exception*: Do *not* copy /org-loaddefs.el/, Emacs generates its own autoloads.

4. Generate the ChangeLog entries

   For this, I do in the org-mode git repository

   : mk/make_emacs_changelog release_7.02.05..release_7.03.02

   This will spit out ChangeLog entries (for the given commit range)
   that need to go into the ChangeLog files in Emacs.  Org-mode
   contributes to 3 different ChangeLog files in Emacs:

   : lisp/org/ChangeLog    (for lisp changes)
   : doc/misc/ChangeLog    (for org.texi changes)
   : etc/ChangeLog         (for refcard changes)

   When you run the =make_emacs_changelog= program, you will be
   prompted for a date in ISO format YYYY-MM-DD, this date will be
   used in the ChangeLog entries - Emacs developers want these dates
   to be the time when the change has been installed into Emacs, not
   the time when we made the change in our own repository.  So all the
   ChangeLog entries will get the same date.  You will also be
   prompted for the kind of ChangeLog you want to make, possible
   answers are =lisp=, =texi=, and =card=.  The program will then
   select the correct entries for the specified ChangeLog file.  If
   you don't like being prompted, you can give the date and type as
   second and third command line arguments to =make_emacs_changelog=,
   for example

   : mk/make_emacs_changelog release_7.02.05..release_7.03.02 2010-12-11 lisp

   These entries need to be added to the ChangeLog files in Emacs.
   You should, in the ChangeLog file, select the inserted region of
   new entries and do =M-x fill-region=, so that the entries are
   formatted correctly.  I then do look through the entries quickly to
   make sure they are formatted properly, that the email addresses
   look right etc.

5. Commit the changes into the bzr repository and you are done.  Emacs
   developers often look throught the commit and make minor changes -
   these need to be merged back into our own repo.

* Updating the list of hooks/commands/options on Worg

  Load the =mk/eldo.el= file then =M-x eldo-make-doc RET=.

  This will produce an org file with the documentation.

  Import this file into =worg/doc.org=, leaving the header untouched
  (except for the release number).

  Then commit and push the change on the =worg.git= repository.

* Copyright assignments

  The maintainer needs to keep track of copyright assignments.
  Even better, find a volunteer to do this.

  The assignment form is included in the repository as a file that
  you can send to contributors: =request-assign-future.txt=

  The list of all contributors from who we have the papers is kept on
  Worg at http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contribute.html, so that
  committers can check if a patch can go into the core.

  The assignment process does not allways go smoothly, and it has
  happened several times that it gets stuck or forgotten at the FSF.
  The contact at the FSF for this is: mailto:copyright-clerk@fsf.org

  Emails from the paper submitter have been ignored in the past, but
  an email from me (Carsten) as the maintainer of Org mode has usually
  fixed such cases within a few days.