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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="#rpm">Build RPM Packages (optional)</a></li>
65 <li><a href="#llvmgccbin">Build the LLVM GCC Binary Distribution</a></li>
66 <li><a href="#webupdates">Update the LLVM Website</a></li>
70 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
71 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="updocs">Update Documentation</a></div>
72 <div class="doc_text">
74 Review the documentation and ensure that it is up to date. The Release Notes
75 must be updated to reflect bug fixes, new known issues, and changes in the
76 list of supported platforms. The Getting Started Guide should be updated to
77 reflect the new release version number tag avaiable from CVS and changes in
78 basic system requirements.
82 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
83 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="merge">Merge Branches</a></div>
84 <div class="doc_text">
86 Merge any work done on branches intended for release into mainline. Finish and
87 commit all new features or bug fixes that are scheduled to go into the release.
88 Work that is not to be incorporated into the release should not be merged from
89 branchs or commited from developer's working directories.
93 From this point until the release branch is created, developers should
95 commit changes to the llvm and llvm-gcc CVS repositories unless it is a bug
96 fix <em>for the release</em>.
100 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
101 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="deps">Make LibDeps.txt</a></div>
102 <div class="doc_text">
103 <p>Rebuild the <tt>LibDeps.txt</tt> target in <tt>utils/llvm-config</tt>. This
104 makes sure that the <tt>llvm-config</tt> utility remains relevant for the
105 release, reflecting any changes in the library dependencies.</p>
109 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
110 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="settle">Settle CVS HEAD</a></div>
111 <div class="doc_text">
113 Use the nightly test reports and 'make check' (deja-gnu based tests) to
114 ensure that recent changes and merged branches have not destabilized LLVM.
115 Platforms which are used less often should be given special attention as they
116 are the most likely to break from commits from the previous step.
120 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
121 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="tag">CVS Tag And Branch</a></div>
122 <div class="doc_text">
123 <p>Tag and branch the CVS HEAD using the following procedure:</p>
126 Request all developers to refrain from committing. Offenders get commit
127 rights taken away (temporarily).
131 The Release Manager updates his/her llvm, llvm-test, and llvm-gcc source
133 latest sources from mainline CVS. The Release Manage may want to consider
134 using a new working directory for this to keep current uncommitted work
135 separate from release work.
139 The Release Manager tags his/her llvm, llvm-test, and llvm-gcc working
141 "ROOT_RELEASE_XX" where XX is the major and minor
142 release numbers (you can't have . in a cvs tag name). So, for Release 1.2,
143 XX=12 and for Release 1.10, XX=110.
146 <tt>cvs tag ROOT_RELEASE_XX</tt><br>
151 Immediately create cvs branches based on the ROOT_RELEASE_XX tag. The tag
152 should be "release_XX" (where XX matches that used for the ROOT_RELEASE_XX
153 tag). This is where the release distribution will be created.
156 cvs tag -b -r ROOT_RELEASE_XX release_XX
161 Advise developers they can work on CVS HEAD again.
165 The Release Manager and any developers working on the release should switch
166 to the release branch (as all changes to the release will now be done in
167 the branch). The easiest way to do this is to grab another working copy
168 using the following commands:
171 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> co -r release_XX llvm</tt><br>
172 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> co -r release_XX llvm-test</tt><br>
173 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> co -r release_XX llvm-gcc</tt><br>
178 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
179 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="verchanges">Update LLVM Version</a></div>
180 <div class="doc_text">
182 After creating the llvm release branch, update the release branch's autoconf/configure.ac
183 version from X.Xcvs to just X.X. Update it on mainline as well to be the next version
189 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
190 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="build">Build LLVM</a></div>
191 <div class="doc_text">
193 Build both debug and release (optimized) versions of LLVM on all
194 platforms. Ensure the build is warning and error free on each platform.
198 Build a new version of the LLVM GCC front-end after building the LLVM tools.
199 Once that is complete, go back to the LLVM source tree and build and install
200 the <tt>llvm/runtime</tt> libraries.
204 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
205 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="check">Run 'make check'</a></div>
206 <div class="doc_text">
207 <p>Run <tt>make check</tt> and ensure there are no unexpected failures. If
208 there are, resolve the failures, commit them back into the release branch,
209 and restart testing by <a href="#build">re-building LLVM</a>.
213 Ensure that 'make check' passes on all platforms for all targets. If certain
214 failures cannot be resolved before release time, determine if marking them
215 XFAIL is appropriate. If not, fix the bug and go back. The test suite must
216 complete with "0 unexpected failures" for release.
220 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
221 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="test">LLVM Test Suite</a></div>
222 <div class="doc_text">
223 <p>Run the llvm-test suite and ensure there are no unacceptable failures.
224 If there are, resolve the failures and go back to
225 <a href="#build">re-building LLVM</a>. The test suite
226 should be run in Nightly Test mode. All tests must pass.
229 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
230 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="dist">Build the LLVM Source Distributions</a></div>
231 <div class="doc_text">
233 Create source distributions for LLVM, LLVM GCC, and the LLVM Test Suite by
235 from CVS and archiving it. This can be done with the following commands:
239 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> export -r release_XX llvm</tt><br>
240 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> export -r release_XX llvm-test</tt><br>
241 <tt>cvs -d <CVS Repository> export -r release_XX llvm-gcc</tt><br>
242 <tt>mkdir cfrontend; mv llvm-gcc cfrontend/src</tt><br>
243 <tt>tar -cvf - llvm | gzip > llvm-X.X.tar.gz</tt><br>
244 <tt>tar -cvf - llvm-test | gzip > llvm-test-X.X.tar.gz</tt><br>
245 <tt>tar -cvf - cfrontend/src | gzip > cfrontend-X.X.source.tar.gz</tt><br>
249 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
250 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="rpm">Building RPM packages (optional)</a></div>
251 <div class="doc_text">
252 <p>You can, optionally, create source and binary RPM packages for LLVM. These
253 may make it easier to get LLVM into a distribution. This can be done with
254 the following commands:</p>
256 make dist # Build the distribution source tarball
257 make dist-check # Check that the source tarball can build itself.
258 cp llvm-M.m.tar.gz /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES # Required by rpmbuild
259 make srpm # for source rpm
260 make rpm # for binary rpm
262 <p>First, use "make dist" to simply build the distribution. Any
263 failures need to be corrected (on the branch). Once "make dist" can be
264 successful, do "make dist-check". This target will do the same thing as the
265 'dist' target but also test that distribution to make sure it can build itself
266 and runs "make check" as well. This ensures that needed files are not
267 missing and that the src tarball can be successfully unpacked, built,
268 installed, and cleaned. Once you have a reliable tarball, you need to copy
269 it to the /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES directory which is a requirement of the
270 rpmbuild tool. The last two "make" invocations just run rpmbuild to build
271 either a source (<tt>srpm</tt>) or binary (<tt>rpm</tt>) RPM package.</p>
274 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
275 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="llvmgccbin">Build the LLVM GCC Binary Distribution</a></div>
276 <div class="doc_text">
278 Creating the LLVM GCC binary distribution requires performing the following
279 steps for each supported platform:
284 Build the LLVM GCC front-end. The LLVM GCC front-end must be installed in
285 a directory named <tt>cfrontend/<platform>/llvm-gcc</tt>. For
286 example, the Sparc/Solaris directory is named
287 <tt>cfrontend/sparc/llvm-gcc</tt>.
291 Build the libraries in <tt>llvm/runtime</tt> and install them into the
292 created LLVM GCC installation directory.
296 For systems with non-distributable header files (e.g. Solaris), manually
297 remove header files that the GCC build process has "fixed." This process
298 is admittedly painful, but not as bad as it looks; these header files are
299 almost always easily identifiable with simple grep expressions and are
300 installed in only a few directories in the GCC installation directory.
304 Add the copyright files and header file fix script.
308 Archive and compress the installation directory. These can be found in
309 previous releases of the LLVM-GCC front-end.
315 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
316 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="webupdates">Update the LLVM Website</a></div>
317 <div class="doc_text">
319 Check out the llvm-www module from cvs. Create a new subdirectory X.X in the
320 releases directory. Place the llvm, llvm-test, llvm-gcc source, and llvm-gcc
321 binaries in this new directory. Copy the llvm/docs and LICENSE.txt files
322 into this new directory. Update the releases/download.html file with the new release.
323 Update the releases/index.html with the new release. Finally, update the main page (
324 index.html and sidebar) to point to the new release and release announcement. Make
325 sure this all gets commited back into cvs.
330 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="release">Release</a></div>
331 <div class="doc_text">
332 <p>Release the distribution tarball to the public. This consists of generating
333 several tarballs. The first set, the source distributions, are automatically
334 generated by the "make dist" and "make dist-check". There are gzip, bzip2, and
335 zip versions of these bundles.</p>
336 <p>The second set of tarballs is the binary release. When "make dist-check"
337 succeeds, it will have created an _install directory into which it installed
338 the binary release. You need to rename that directory as "llvm" and then
339 create tarballs from the contents of that "llvm" directory.</p>
340 <p>Finally, use rpm to make an rpm package based on the llvm.spec file. Don't
341 forget to update the version number, documentation, etc. in the llvm.spec
346 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
347 <div class="doc_section"><a name="dist_targets">Distribution Targets</a></div>
348 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
349 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
350 <div class="doc_subsection">Overview</div>
351 <div class="doc_text">
352 <p>The first thing you need to understand is that there are multiple make
353 targets to support this feature. Here's an overview, we'll delve into the
356 <li><b>distdir</b> - builds the distribution directory from which the
357 distribution will be packaged</li>
358 <li><b>dist</b> - builds each of the distribution tarballs (tar.gz,
359 tar.bzip2, .zip). These can be built individually as well, with separate
361 <li><b>dist-check</b> - this is identical to <tt>dist</tt> but includes a
362 check on the distribution that ensures the tarball can: unpack successfully,
363 compile correctly, pass 'make check', and pass 'make clean'.</li>
364 <li><b>dist-clean</b>- this just does a normal clean but also cleans up the
365 stuff generated by the other three <tt>dist</tt> targets (above).</li>
367 <p>Okay, that's the basic functionality. When making a release, we want to
368 ensure that the tree you build the distribution from passes
369 <tt>dist-check</tt>. Beyond fixing the usual bugs, there is generally one
370 impediment to making the release in this fashion: missing files. The
371 <tt>dist-check</tt> process guards against that possibility. It will either
372 fail and that failure will indicate what's missing, or it will succeed
373 meaning that it has proved that the tarballs can actually succeed in
374 building LLVM correctly and that it passes <tt>make check</tt>.</p>
375 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
376 <div class="doc_subsection">distdir</div>
377 <p>This target builds the distribution directory which is the directory from
378 which the tarballs are generated. The distribution directory has the same
379 name as the release, e.g. LLVM-1.7). This target goes through the following
382 <li>First, if there was an old distribution directory (for the current
383 release), it is removed in its entirety and you see <tt>Removing old
385 <li>Second, it issues a <tt>make all ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=3D1</tt> to ensure
386 that the everything in your tree can be built in release mode. Often times
387 there are discrepancies in building between debug and release modes so it
388 enforces release mode first. If that fails, the <tt>distdir</tt> target
389 fails too. This is preceded by the message <tt>Making 'all' to verify
391 <li>Next, it traverses your source tree and copies it to a new directory
392 that has the name of the release (<tt>LLVM-M.m</tt> in our current case).
393 This is the directory that will get tar'd. It contains all the software
394 that needs to be in the distribution. During the copying process, it omits
395 generated files, CVS directories, and any other "cruft" that's in your
396 build tree. This is done to eliminate the possibility of huge distribution
397 tarballs that include useless or irrelevant stuff in them. This is the
398 trickiest part of making the distribution. Done manually you will either
399 include stuff that shouldn't be in the distribution or exclude stuff that
400 should. This step is preceded by the message <tt>Building Distribution
401 Directory LLVM-1.7</tt></li>
402 <li>The distribution directory is then traversed and all <tt>CVS</tt> or
403 <tt>.svn</tt> directories are removed. You see: <tt>Eliminating CVS/.svn
404 directories from distribution</tt></li>
405 <li>The recursive <tt>dist-hook</tt> target is executed. This gives each
406 directory a chance to modify the distribution in some way (more on this
408 <li>The distribution directory is traversed and the correct file
409 permissions and modes are set based on the type of file.</li>
411 <p>To control the process of making the distribution directory correctly,
412 each Makefile can utilize two features:</p>
414 <li><b><tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt></B> - this make variable specifies which files
415 it should distribute. By default, all source files are automatically
416 included for distribution as well as certain <tt>well known</tt> files
417 (see DistAlways variable in Makefile.rules for details). Each Makefile
418 specifies, via the <tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt> variable, which additional files
419 need to be distributed. Only those files that are needed to build LLVM
420 should be added to <tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt>. <tt>EXTRA_DIST</tt> contains a
421 list of file or directory names that should be distributed. For example,
422 the top level Makefile contains
423 <tt>EXTRA_DIST := test llvm.spec include</tt>.
424 This means that in addition to regular things that are distributed at the
425 top level (<tt>CREDITS.txt, LICENSE.txt</tt>, etc.) the distribution should
426 contain the entire <tt>test</tt> and <tt>include</tt> directories as well
427 as the <tt>llvm.spec</tt> file.</li>
428 <li><b><tt>dist-hook</tt></B> - this make target can be used to alter the
429 content of the distribution directory. For example, in the top level
430 Makefile there is some logic to eliminate files in the <tt>include</tt>
431 subtree that are generated by the configure script. These should not be
432 distributed. Similarly, any <tt>dist-hook</tt> target found in any
433 directory can add or remove or modify things just before it gets packaged.
434 Any transformation is permitted. Generally, not much is needed.
436 <p>You will see various messages if things go wrong:</p>
438 <li>During the copying process, any files that are missing will be flagged
439 with: <tt>===== WARNING: Distribution Source 'dir/file' Not Found!</tt>
440 These must be corrected by either adding the file or removing it from
442 <li>If you build the distribution with <tt>VERBOSE=1</tt>, then you might
443 also see: <tt>Skipping non-existent 'dir/file'</tt> in certain cases where
444 its okay to skip the file.</li>
445 <li>The target can fail if any of the things it does fail. Error messages
446 should indicate what went wrong.</li>
448 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
449 <div class="doc_subsection">dist</div>
450 <p>This target does exactly what <tt>distdir</tt> target does, but also
451 includes assembling the tarballs. There are actually four related targets
454 <li><b><tt>dist-gzip</tt></b>: package the gzipped distribution tar
455 file. The distribution directory is packaged into a single file ending in
456 <tt>.tar.gz</tt> which is gzip compressed.</li>
457 <li><b><tt>dist-bzip2</tt></b>: package the bzip2 distribution tar file.
458 The distribution directory is packaged into a single file ending in
459 <tt>.tar.bzip2</tt> which is bzip2 compressed.</li>
460 <li><b><tt>dist-zip</tt></b>: package the zip distribution file. The
461 distribution directory is packaged into a single file ending in
462 <tt>.zip</tt> which is zip compressed.</li>
463 <li><b><tt>dist</tt></b>: does all three, dist-gzip, dist-bzip2,
466 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
467 <div class="doc_subsection">dist-check</div>
468 <p>This target checks the distribution. The basic idea is that it unpacks the
469 distribution tarball and ensures that it can build. It takes the following
472 <li>It depends on the <tt>dist-gzip</tt> target which, if it hasn't already
473 been built, builds the gzip tar bundle (see dist and distdir above).</li>
474 <li>removes any pre-existing <tt>_distcheckdir</tt> at the top level.</li>
475 <li>creates a new <tt>_distcheckdir</tt> directory at the top level.</li>
476 <li>creates a <tt>build</tt> subdirectory and an <tt>install</tt>
477 subdirectory under <tt>_distcheckdir</tt>.</li>
478 <li>unzips and untars the release tarball into <tt>_distcheckdir</tt>,
479 creating <tt>LLVM-1.7</tt> directory (from the tarball).</li>
480 <li>in the build subdirectory, it configures with appropriate options to build
481 from the unpacked source tarball into the <tt>build</tt> directory with
482 installation in the <tt>install</tt> directory.</li>
483 <li>runs <tt>make all</tt></li>
484 <li>runs <tt>make </tt><tt>check</tt></li>
485 <li>runs <tt>make install</tt></li>
486 <li>runs <tt>make uninstall</tt></li>
487 <li>runs <tt>make dist</tt></li>
488 <li>runs <tt>make clean</tt></li>
489 <li>runs <tt>make dist-clean</tt></li>
491 <p>If it can pass all that, the distribution will be deemed distribution
492 worth y and you will see:<p>
493 <pre>===== LLVM-1.7.tar.gz Ready For Distribution =====</pre>
494 <p>This means the tarball should then be tested on other platforms and have the
495 nightly test run against it. If those all pass, THEN it is ready for
498 A note about disk space: using <tt>dist-check</tt> will easily triple the
499 amount of disk space your build tree is using. You might want to check
500 available space before you begin.</p>
501 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
502 <div class="doc_subsection">dist-clean</div>
504 <p>In addition to doing a normal <tt>clean</tt>, this target will clean up the
505 files and directories created by the distribution targets. In particular the
506 distribution directory <tt>(LLVM-X.X</tt>), check directory
507 (<tt>_distcheckdir</tt>), and the various tarballs will be removed. You do
508 this after the release has shipped and you no longer need this stuff in your
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