Release process
Preparations
The release procedure generally takes a few weeks. In the first week or two, patches that should go into the release are reviewed and possibly merged. These patches are either fixes or patches pointed out by the community.
Patch review, when finished, is followed by a git freeze, which is a period where only fixes are pushed to the git. During that period community is expected to run a LTP pre-release tests, reports problems, and/or send fixes to the mailing list. In this period we are especially making sure that there are no regressions in the test results on a wide range of distributions and architectures.
Once the stabilization period has ended the time has finally come to proceed with the release.
Prepare the release notes
Part of the preparation is also to write the release notes, which are then added to the GitHub release and also sent as announcement to various mailing lists (see below).
Have a look at this release letter to get the idea how it should look.
Tag the git and push changes to github
cd ltp
echo YYYYMMDD > VERSION
git commit -S -s -m 'LTP YYYYMMDD' VERSION
git tag -s -a YYYYMMDD -m 'LTP YYYYMMDD'
git push origin master:master
git push origin YYYYMMDD
The string YYYYMMDD should be substituted to the current date.
You can use tools/tag-release.sh script to have the above automated process. It allows you to verify the tag before pushing it and does other checks.
$ ./tools/tag-release.sh
===== git push =====
new tag: 'YYYYMMDD', previous tag: '20230127'
tag YYYYMMDD
Tagger: Person-who-released LTP <foo@example.com>
Date: ...
LTP YYYYMMDD
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
...
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
commit 3ebc2dfa85c2445bb68d8c0d66e33c4da1e1b3a7
gpg: using RSA key ...
...
Primary key fingerprint: ...
Author: Person-who-released LTP <foo@example.com>
Date: ...
LTP YYYYMMDD
Signed-off-by: Person-who-released LTP <foo@example.com>
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index af4c41fec..ae488c0e7 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-20230127
+YYYYMMDD
Please check tag and signature. Proceed? [N/y]: y
Pushing changes to upstream git. Proceed? [N/y]: y
...
To github.com:linux-test-project/ltp.git
* [new tag] YYYYMMDD -> YYYYMMDD
Prepare tarballs and metadata documentation
The following procedure will show how to create the release archives and the metadata documentation:
# clone already clonned git repository to new folder
cd ..
git clone ltp ltp-full-YYYYMMDD
cd ltp-full-YYYYMMDD
# update all submodules
git submodule update --init
# Generate configure script
make autotools
# Generate tarballs
cd ..
tar -cjf ltp-full-YYYYMMDD.tar.bz2 ltp-full-YYYYMMDD --exclude .git
tar -cJf ltp-full-YYYYMMDD.tar.xz ltp-full-YYYYMMDD --exclude .git
# Generate checksums
md5 ltp-full-YYYYMMDD.tar.xz > ltp-full-YYYYMMDD.tar.xz.md5
sha1 ltp-full-YYYYMMDD.tar.xz > ltp-full-YYYYMMDD.tar.xz.sha1
sha256sum ltp-full-YYYYMMDD.tar.xz > ltp-full-YYYYMMDD.tar.xz.sha256
# Generate metadata documentation
./configure --with-metadata-generator=asciidoctor
make -C metadata
cp -v docparse/metadata.html ../metadata.YYYYMMDD.html
You can use tools/create-tarballs-metadata.sh script to have the above
procedure automated. All generated files are placed in the
ltp-release-YYYYMMDD directory.
$ ./tools/create-tarballs-metadata.sh
===== git clone =====
Cloning into 'ltp-full-YYYYMMDD'...
done.
===== Update submodules =====
Submodule 'tools/kirk' (https://github.com/linux-test-project/kirk.git) registered for path 'tools/kirk'
...
===== Generate configure script =====
sed -n '1{s:LTP-:m4_define([LTP_VERSION],[:;s:$:]):;p;q}' VERSION > m4/ltp-version.m4
aclocal -I m4
...
===== Generate tarballs =====
===== Generate checksums =====
===== Generate metadata documentation =====
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
...
'docparse/metadata.html' -> '/home/foo/ltp-release-YYYYMMDD/metadata.YYYYMMDD.html'
Generated files are in '/home/foo/ltp-release-YYYYMMDD', upload them to github
Upload the generated files to GitHub
Go to tags. Click on Add release notes.
There should be Attach binaries ... link at the bottom of the page.
Don’t forget to upload checksums for the tarballs and metadata documentation as well.
Send release announcement
The announcement is sent to:
ltp at lists.linux.it
linux-kernel at vger.kernel.org
libc-alpha at sourceware.org
CCed to:
lwn at lwn.net
akpm at linux-foundation.org
torvalds at linux-foundation.org