Memory Pool System Release Build Procedure

1. Introduction

This is the procedure for building a generic release of the Memory Pool System (an "mps-kit") from the version sources.

The intended readership of this document is Ravenbrook development staff. (If you are a user of the MPS, and want to build object code from an mps-kit, please see the readme.txt file in the kit).

This document is not confidential.

All relative paths are relative to //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/.

2. Procedure

2.1. Setting up for release

  1. Choose a RELEASE name of the form "VERSION.N" (for example, 0.3.0). VERSION is the number of the version you're releasing. N is the first unused release number (starting at zero). Look in the index of releases (release/index.html) for existing release numbers for your version.

  2. Ensure that version/VERSION/readme.txt contains an up-to-date description of the release you intend to build and the correct release name.

  3. In version/VERSION/code/version.c, set MPS_RELEASE to the correct value (see the rules in the comments), and check strings that contain copyright dates, etc.

  4. Please update version/VERSION/example/hello-world/index.txt, so that it works with the RELEASE you are creating (eg. 1.106.1 → 1.106.2).

  5. Submit readme.txt, version.c, and other changed files to Perforce before you continue.

  6. Determine the CHANGELEVEL at which you're going to make the release. This will usually be the latest submitted changelevel on the version branch; to get it, use p4 changes with a max of 1 (one):

    p4 changes -m 1 version/VERSION/...

2.2. MPS Kit Tarball

On a Unix box:

  1. Sync the version sources to the CHANGELEVEL you determined in step 2.1. Sync the version sources to a clean area of the disk, to be sure that there are no extraneous files around.

    p4 sync version/VERSION/...#none
    rm -rf version/VERSION
    p4 sync version/VERSION/...@CHANGELEVEL
  2. Create a tarball containing the MPS sources, and open it for add:

    cp -R version/VERSION mps-kit-RELEASE
    mkdir -p release/RELEASE
    tar cf - mps-kit-RELEASE | gzip -c > release/RELEASE/mps-kit-RELEASE.tar.gz
    rm -r mps-kit-RELEASE
    p4 add release/RELEASE/mps-kit-RELEASE.tar.gz
  3. Add the readme.txt file to the release directory:

    p4 integrate version/VERSION/readme.txt release/RELEASE/readme.txt
  4. Submit the tarball and the readme.txt file to Perforce with the comment "MPS: adding the MPS Kit tarball and readme.txt file for release RELEASE."

2.3. MPS Kit Zip file

On a Microsoft Windows box:

  1. Sync the version sources to the CHANGELEVEL you determined in step 2.1. Sync the version sources to a clean area of the disk, to be sure that there are no extraneous files around.

  2. Using the Windows file-browser, copy the version/VERSION directory, paste a copy, and rename it mps-kit-RELEASE.

  3. Use the Info-ZIP command-line utility "zip" to create a new archive of these files, called "mps-kit-RELEASE.zip" in the directory "release/RELEASE":

    zip -r  release\RELEASE\mps-kit-RELEASE.zip  mps-kit-RELEASE
  4. Make a self-extracting archive called "mps-kit-RELEASE.exe" from "mps-kit-RELEASE.zip" (in the same directory). The approved way to do this is to prepend the "unzipsfx.exe" extractor (here presumed to be "C:\local\bin\unzipsfx.exe"), and then adjust the offsets in the resulting file:

    copy /b  C:\local\bin\unzipsfx.exe+release\RELEASE\mps-kit-RELEASE.zip  release\RELEASE\mps-kit-RELEASE.exe
    zip -A  release\RELEASE\mps-kit-RELEASE.exe
    
  5. You can check both archives like this:

    unzip -tq  release\RELEASE\mps-kit-RELEASE.zip
    unzip -tq  release\RELEASE\mps-kit-RELEASE.exe
    
  6. Add the zip file and the self-extracting archive to Perforce with the comment "MPS: adding the MPS Kit zip file for release RELEASE."

2.4. Registering the release

  1. Edit the index of releases (release/index.html) and add the release to the table, in a manner consistent with previous releases.

  2. Edit the index of versions (version/index.html) and add the release to the list of releases for VERSION, in a manner consistent with previous releases.

  3. Edit the //info.ravenbrook.com/infosys/cgi/issue.cgi script to add the release changelevel to the releases table, so that the correct set of known and fixed issues can be derived.

  4. Submit these changes with the comment "MPS: registered release RELEASE."

  5. Edit the main MPS Project index page at //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/index.html, to refer to the new release:

    • update links to 'the latest release' or 'download' (important);
    • consider updating the 'project status' section.
  6. Inform the project manager and staff by e-mail to mps-staff@ravenbrook.com. Consider announcing the new release by e-mail to mps-discussion@ravenbrook.com.

A. References

B. Document History

2002-06-17 RB Created based on P4DTI procedure.
2002-06-19 NB Fixed up based on experience of release 1.100.0.
2004-03-03 RB Fixed the way we determine the release changelevel to avoid possible pending changelists.
2005-10-06..31 RHSK Clarify this procedure is for general mps-kit releases; correct cp -r to -R. Add: check version.c.
2006-01-19..30 RHSK Correct readership statement, and direct MPS users to the mps-kit readme.
2006-02-16 RHSK Use Info-ZIP (free) for Windows archives, not WinZip.