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2 How To Release LLVM To The Public
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12 This document contains information about successfully releasing LLVM ---
13 including subprojects: e.g., ``clang`` and ``dragonegg`` --- to the public. It
14 is the Release Manager's responsibility to ensure that a high quality build of
17 If you're looking for the document on how to test the release candidates and
18 create the binary packages, please refer to the :doc:`ReleaseProcess` instead.
25 LLVM is released on a time based schedule --- with major releases roughly
26 every 6 months. In between major releases there may be dot releases.
27 The release manager will determine if and when to make a dot release based
28 on feedback from the community. Typically, dot releases should be made if
29 there are large number of bug-fixes in the stable branch or a critical bug
30 has been discovered that affects a large number of users.
32 Unless otherwise stated, dot releases will follow the same procedure as
35 The release process is roughly as follows:
37 * Set code freeze and branch creation date for 6 months after last code freeze
38 date. Announce release schedule to the LLVM community and update the website.
40 * Create release branch and begin release process.
42 * Send out release candidate sources for first round of testing. Testing lasts
43 7-10 days. During the first round of testing, any regressions found should be
44 fixed. Patches are merged from mainline into the release branch. Also, all
45 features need to be completed during this time. Any features not completed at
46 the end of the first round of testing will be removed or disabled for the
49 * Generate and send out the second release candidate sources. Only *critial*
50 bugs found during this testing phase will be fixed. Any bugs introduced by
51 merged patches will be fixed. If so a third round of testing is needed.
53 * The release notes are updated.
57 The release process will be accelerated for dot releases. If the first round
58 of testing finds no critical bugs and no regressions since the last major release,
59 then additional rounds of testing will not be required.
67 Release Administrative Tasks
68 ----------------------------
70 This section describes a few administrative tasks that need to be done for the
71 release process to begin. Specifically, it involves:
73 * Creating the release branch,
75 * Setting version numbers, and
77 * Tagging release candidates for the release team to begin testing.
82 Branch the Subversion trunk using the following procedure:
84 #. Remind developers that the release branching is imminent and to refrain from
85 committing patches that might break the build. E.g., new features, large
86 patches for works in progress, an overhaul of the type system, an exciting
87 new TableGen feature, etc.
89 #. Verify that the current Subversion trunk is in decent shape by
90 examining nightly tester and buildbot results.
92 #. Create the release branch for ``llvm``, ``clang``, the ``test-suite``, and
93 ``dragonegg`` from the last known good revision. The branch's name is
94 ``release_XY``, where ``X`` is the major and ``Y`` the minor release
95 numbers. The branches should be created using the following commands:
99 $ svn copy https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk \
100 https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/branches/release_XY
102 $ svn copy https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/cfe/trunk \
103 https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/cfe/branches/release_XY
105 $ svn copy https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/dragonegg/trunk \
106 https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/dragonegg/branches/release_XY
108 $ svn copy https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/trunk \
109 https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/branches/release_XY
111 #. Advise developers that they may now check their patches into the Subversion
114 #. The Release Manager should switch to the release branch, because all changes
115 to the release will now be done in the branch. The easiest way to do this is
116 to grab a working copy using the following commands:
120 $ svn co https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/branches/release_XY llvm-X.Y
122 $ svn co https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/cfe/branches/release_XY clang-X.Y
124 $ svn co https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/dragonegg/branches/release_XY dragonegg-X.Y
126 $ svn co https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/branches/release_XY test-suite-X.Y
131 After creating the LLVM release branch, update the release branches'
132 ``autoconf`` and ``configure.ac`` versions from '``X.Ysvn``' to '``X.Y``'.
133 Update it on mainline as well to be the next version ('``X.Y+1svn``').
134 Regenerate the configure scripts for both ``llvm`` and the ``test-suite``.
136 In addition, the version numbers of all the Bugzilla components must be updated
137 for the next release.
139 Tagging the LLVM Release Candidates
140 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
142 Tag release candidates using the tag.sh script in utils/release.
146 $ ./tag.sh -release X.Y.Z -rc $RC
148 The Release Manager may supply pre-packaged source tarballs for users. This can
149 be done with the export.sh script in utils/release.
153 $ ./export.sh -release X.Y.Z -rc $RC
155 This will generate source tarballs for each LLVM project being validated, which
156 can be uploaded to the website for further testing.
161 The builds of ``llvm``, ``clang``, and ``dragonegg`` *must* be free of
162 errors and warnings in Debug, Release+Asserts, and Release builds. If all
163 builds are clean, then the release passes Build Qualification.
165 The ``make`` options for building the different modes:
167 +-----------------+---------------------------------------------+
169 +=================+=============================================+
170 | Debug | ``ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=0`` |
171 +-----------------+---------------------------------------------+
172 | Release+Asserts | ``ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1`` |
173 +-----------------+---------------------------------------------+
174 | Release | ``ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 DISABLE_ASSERTIONS=1`` |
175 +-----------------+---------------------------------------------+
180 Build ``Debug``, ``Release+Asserts``, and ``Release`` versions
181 of ``llvm`` on all supported platforms. Directions to build ``llvm``
182 are :doc:`here <GettingStarted>`.
184 Build Clang Binary Distribution
185 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
187 Creating the ``clang`` binary distribution (Debug/Release+Asserts/Release)
188 requires performing the following steps for each supported platform:
190 #. Build clang according to the directions `here
191 <http://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html>`__.
193 #. Build both a Debug and Release version of clang. The binary will be the
196 #. Package ``clang`` (details to follow).
198 Target Specific Build Details
199 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
201 The table below specifies which compilers are used for each Arch/OS combination
202 when qualifying the build of ``llvm``, ``clang``, and ``dragonegg``.
204 +--------------+---------------+----------------------+
205 | Architecture | OS | compiler |
206 +==============+===============+======================+
207 | x86-32 | Mac OS 10.5 | gcc 4.0.1 |
208 +--------------+---------------+----------------------+
209 | x86-32 | Linux | gcc 4.2.X, gcc 4.3.X |
210 +--------------+---------------+----------------------+
211 | x86-32 | FreeBSD | gcc 4.2.X |
212 +--------------+---------------+----------------------+
213 | x86-32 | mingw | gcc 3.4.5 |
214 +--------------+---------------+----------------------+
215 | x86-64 | Mac OS 10.5 | gcc 4.0.1 |
216 +--------------+---------------+----------------------+
217 | x86-64 | Linux | gcc 4.2.X, gcc 4.3.X |
218 +--------------+---------------+----------------------+
219 | x86-64 | FreeBSD | gcc 4.2.X |
220 +--------------+---------------+----------------------+
221 | ARMv7 | Linux | gcc 4.6.X, gcc 4.7.X |
222 +--------------+---------------+----------------------+
224 Release Qualification Criteria
225 ------------------------------
227 A release is qualified when it has no regressions from the previous release (or
228 baseline). Regressions are related to correctness first and performance second.
229 (We may tolerate some minor performance regressions if they are deemed
230 necessary for the general quality of the compiler.)
232 **Regressions are new failures in the set of tests that are used to qualify
233 each product and only include things on the list. Every release will have
234 some bugs in it. It is the reality of developing a complex piece of
235 software. We need a very concrete and definitive release criteria that
236 ensures we have monotonically improving quality on some metric. The metric we
237 use is described below. This doesn't mean that we don't care about other
238 criteria, but these are the criteria which we found to be most important and
239 which must be satisfied before a release can go out.**
244 LLVM is qualified when it has a clean test run without a front-end. And it has
245 no regressions when using either ``clang`` or ``dragonegg`` with the
246 ``test-suite`` from the previous release.
251 ``Clang`` is qualified when front-end specific tests in the ``llvm`` regression
252 test suite all pass, clang's own test suite passes cleanly, and there are no
253 regressions in the ``test-suite``.
255 Specific Target Qualification Details
256 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
258 +--------------+-------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
259 | Architecture | OS | clang baseline | tests |
260 +==============+=============+================+=============================+
261 | x86-32 | Linux | last release | llvm regression tests, |
262 | | | | clang regression tests, |
263 | | | | test-suite (including spec) |
264 +--------------+-------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
265 | x86-32 | FreeBSD | last release | llvm regression tests, |
266 | | | | clang regression tests, |
268 +--------------+-------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
269 | x86-32 | mingw | none | QT |
270 +--------------+-------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
271 | x86-64 | Mac OS 10.X | last release | llvm regression tests, |
272 | | | | clang regression tests, |
273 | | | | test-suite (including spec) |
274 +--------------+-------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
275 | x86-64 | Linux | last release | llvm regression tests, |
276 | | | | clang regression tests, |
277 | | | | test-suite (including spec) |
278 +--------------+-------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
279 | x86-64 | FreeBSD | last release | llvm regression tests, |
280 | | | | clang regression tests, |
282 +--------------+-------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
283 | ARMv7A | Linux | last release | llvm regression tests, |
284 | | | | clang regression tests, |
286 +--------------+-------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
291 Once all testing has been completed and appropriate bugs filed, the release
292 candidate tarballs are put on the website and the LLVM community is notified.
293 Ask that all LLVM developers test the release in 2 ways:
295 #. Download ``llvm-X.Y``, ``llvm-test-X.Y``, and the appropriate ``clang``
296 binary. Build LLVM. Run ``make check`` and the full LLVM test suite (``make
297 TEST=nightly report``).
299 #. Download ``llvm-X.Y``, ``llvm-test-X.Y``, and the ``clang`` sources. Compile
300 everything. Run ``make check`` and the full LLVM test suite (``make
301 TEST=nightly report``).
303 Ask LLVM developers to submit the test suite report and ``make check`` results
304 to the list. Verify that there are no regressions from the previous release.
305 The results are not used to qualify a release, but to spot other potential
306 problems. For unsupported targets, verify that ``make check`` is at least
309 During the first round of testing, all regressions must be fixed before the
310 second release candidate is tagged.
312 If this is the second round of testing, the testing is only to ensure that bug
313 fixes previously merged in have not created new major problems. *This is not
314 the time to solve additional and unrelated bugs!* If no patches are merged in,
315 the release is determined to be ready and the release manager may move onto the
321 Below are the rules regarding patching the release branch:
323 #. Patches applied to the release branch may only be applied by the release
326 #. During the first round of testing, patches that fix regressions or that are
327 small and relatively risk free (verified by the appropriate code owner) are
328 applied to the branch. Code owners are asked to be very conservative in
329 approving patches for the branch. We reserve the right to reject any patch
330 that does not fix a regression as previously defined.
332 #. During the remaining rounds of testing, only patches that fix critical
333 regressions may be applied.
335 #. For dot releases all patches must mantain both API and ABI compatibility with
336 the previous major release. Only bugfixes will be accepted.
341 The final stages of the release process involves tagging the "final" release
342 branch, updating documentation that refers to the release, and updating the
348 Review the documentation and ensure that it is up to date. The "Release Notes"
349 must be updated to reflect new features, bug fixes, new known issues, and
350 changes in the list of supported platforms. The "Getting Started Guide" should
351 be updated to reflect the new release version number tag available from
352 Subversion and changes in basic system requirements. Merge both changes from
353 mainline into the release branch.
357 Tag the LLVM Final Release
358 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
360 Tag the final release sources using the tag.sh script in utils/release.
364 $ ./tag.sh -release X.Y.Z -final
366 Update the LLVM Demo Page
367 -------------------------
369 The LLVM demo page must be updated to use the new release. This consists of
370 using the new ``clang`` binary and building LLVM.
372 Update the LLVM Website
373 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
375 The website must be updated before the release announcement is sent out. Here
378 #. Check out the ``www`` module from Subversion.
380 #. Create a new subdirectory ``X.Y`` in the releases directory.
382 #. Commit the ``llvm``, ``test-suite``, ``clang`` source, ``clang binaries``,
383 ``dragonegg`` source, and ``dragonegg`` binaries in this new directory.
385 #. Copy and commit the ``llvm/docs`` and ``LICENSE.txt`` files into this new
386 directory. The docs should be built with ``BUILD_FOR_WEBSITE=1``.
388 #. Commit the ``index.html`` to the ``release/X.Y`` directory to redirect (use
389 from previous release).
391 #. Update the ``releases/download.html`` file with the new release.
393 #. Update the ``releases/index.html`` with the new release and link to release
396 #. Finally, update the main page (``index.html`` and sidebar) to point to the
397 new release and release announcement. Make sure this all gets committed back
403 Have Chris send out the release announcement when everything is finished.