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<div class="doc_title">How To Release LLVM To The Public</div>
<p class="doc_warning">NOTE: THIS DOCUMENT IS A WORK IN PROGRESS!</p>
<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>,
<a href="mailto:criswell@cs.uiuc.edu">John Criswell</a></p>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section"><a name="introduction">Introduction</a></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, 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:
</p>
<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>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section"><a name="process">Release Process</a></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="#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 Subversion 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. 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 <tt>llvm</tt> and <tt>llvm-gcc</tt>
Subversion 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 Subversion 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">Subversion Tag And Branch</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>Tag and branch the Subversion HEAD using the following procedure:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Request all developers to refrain from committing. Offenders get commit
rights taken away (temporarily).</p></li>
<li>
<p>The Release Manager updates his/her <tt>llvm</tt>, <tt>llvm-test</tt>,
and <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> source trees with the latest sources from mainline
Subversion. The Release Manager may want to consider using a new working
directory for this to keep current uncommitted work separate from release
work.</p></li>
<li>
<p>The Release Manager tags his/her <tt>llvm</tt>, <tt>llvm-test</tt>, and
<tt>llvm-gcc</tt> working directories with "<tt>RELEASE_XX</tt>" where
<tt>XX</tt> is the major and minor release numbers. So, for Release 1.2,
<tt>XX=12</tt> and for Release 1.10, <tt>XX=110</tt>.</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
svn copy https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk \
https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/tags/RELEASE_<i>XX</i>
svn copy https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm-gcc-4.0/trunk \
https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm-gcc-4.0/tags/RELEASE_<i>XX</i>
svn copy https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/trunk \
https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/tags/RELEASE_<i>XX</i>
</pre>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<p>Immediately create Subversion branches based on the
<tt>RELEASE_<i>XX</i></tt> tag. The tag should be
"<tt>release_<i>XX</i></tt>" (where XX matches that used for the
<tt>RELEASE_<i>XX</i></tt> tag). This is where the release distribution
will be created.</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
svn copy https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/tags/RELEASE_<i>XX</i> \
https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/branches/release_<i>XX</i>
svn copy https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm-gcc-4.0/tags/RELEASE_<i>XX</i> \
https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm-gcc-4.0/branches/release_<i>XX</i>
svn copy https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/tags/RELEASE_<i>XX</i> \
https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/branches/release_<i>XX</i>
</pre>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<p>Advise developers they can work on Subversion HEAD again.</p></li>
<li>
<p>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>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
svn co https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/branches/release_<i>XX</i>
svn co https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm-gcc-4.0/branches/release_<i>XX</i>
svn co https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/branches/release_<i>XX</i>
</pre>
</div></li>
</ol>
</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 branchs'
autoconf/configure.ac version from X.Xsvn to just X.X. Update it on mainline
as well to be the next version (X.X+1svn).
</p>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="build">Build LLVM</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
<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, commit them back into the release branch, and
restart testing by <a href="#build">re-building LLVM</a>.
</p>
<p>
Ensure that '<tt>make check</tt>' passes on all platforms for all targets. If
certain failures cannot be resolved before release time, determine if marking
them <tt>XFAIL</tt> 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 <tt>llvm-test</tt> suite and ensure there are no unacceptable
failures. 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.
</p>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="dist">Build the LLVM Source Distributions</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>
Create source distributions for LLVM, LLVM GCC, and the LLVM Test Suite by
exporting the source from Subversion and archiving it. This can be done with
the following commands:
</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
svn export https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/branches/release_<i>XX</i> llvm
svn export https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm-gcc-4.0/branches/release_<i>XX</i> llvm-gcc
svn export https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/branches/release_<i>XX</i> llvm-test
mkdir cfrontend; mv llvm-gcc cfrontend/src
tar -cvf - llvm | gzip &gt; llvm-X.X.tar.gz
tar -cvf - llvm-test | gzip &gt; llvm-test-X.X.tar.gz
tar -cvf - cfrontend/src | gzip &gt; cfrontend-X.X.source.tar.gz
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="rpm">Building RPM packages (optional)</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
<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>
<div class="doc_code">
<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>
</div>
<p>
First, use <tt>make dist</tt> to simply build the distribution. Any failures
need to be corrected (on the branch). Once <tt>make dist</tt> can be
successful, do <tt>make dist-check</tt>. 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 <tt>make check</tt> 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 <tt>/usr/src/redhat/SOURCES</tt> directory which is a requirement of
the rpmbuild tool. The last two <tt>make</tt> 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="llvmgccbin">Build the LLVM GCC Binary Distribution</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
<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/&lt;platform&gt;/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 <tt>website</tt> module from Subversion. Create a new
subdirectory X.X in the releases directory. Place the <tt>llvm</tt>,
<tt>llvm-test</tt>, <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> source, and <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> binaries
in this new directory. Copy the <tt>llvm/docs</tt> and <tt>LICENSE.txt</tt>
files into this new directory. Update the <tt>releases/download.html</tt> file
with the new release. Update the <tt>releases/index.html</tt> with the new
release. Finally, update the main page (<tt>index.html</tt> and sidebar) to
point to the new release and release announcement. Make sure this all gets
commited back into Subversion.
</p>
</div>
<!--
<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="release">Release</a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
<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 '<tt>make check</tt>', and pass
'<tt>make clean</tt>'.</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>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">distdir</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<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:
</p>
<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, SVN 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.</li>
</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>
<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 it's 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>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">dist</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<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>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">dist-check</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<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>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">dist-clean</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<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>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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