Memory Pool System Version Create Procedure

1. Introduction

This document tells you how to create a new version from the master sources. (For example, if the last version of the MPS is 1.105, with releases 1.105.0 and 1.105.1, this document tells you how to abandon the 1.105 lineage and take a new clone from the master sources to create version 1.106).

Readership: MPS staff. Confidential: no. Status: rough notes, informally peer-reviewed.

Background: refer to PQTCM ("Product Quality Through Change Management", http://www.ravenbrook.com/doc/1999/05/20/pqtcm/) for background, terminology, rationale, and usage guidance. This tells you what "a version" actually is.

2. Preamble

Do I need this procedure?

You might not need to create a new version. An alternative is to create a further 'point release' on the existing version. Refer to PQTCM when deciding. (Summary: am I changing the specification?).

What is a version?

A version is a 'clone' of all the master source files, that then has its own evolution. A Version has these parts:

  • Perforce branch, defining the mapping used to integrate from master to version. By convention, the name of the branch is "mps/version/A.BBB": note that we make the branch name exactly match the pathname of that version's sub-tree. For example:
    p4 branch -o mps/version/1.105 //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/master/... //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/version/1.105/...
  • Cloned (integrated) and submitted files, in the "version/A.BBB/..." sub-tree. Usually this is a clone of the entire "master" subtree and all its files. These were created in a single change with "p4 integrate -b <branchspec>". This initial integrate is what populates the version branch with files; before that it was empty. For each of these files, Perforce reports the first action as "branch". Some files may then be further modified.
  • Origin: The point in time that the initial integrate was performed, expressed as its changelevel minus one, defines the "Origin" of the version. The Origin is the last change on the master sources that also made it into the version sources by virtue of the initial integrate command.
  • Entry in the table at http://info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/version/.

3. Procedure: How to make a new version

0. Some files contain an MPS version-name. What version-name do the *master* copies of these files contain? It depends. Some contain the pseudo-version-name "master": you will leave these files unchanged on master, and only update them on the version branch (see step 6 below). Others, even in master, refer to the expected next version-name: you should update these files before making the branch. Make these files contain the expected new version-name, and/or information pertinent to the new version: master/readme.txt master/code/version.c master/code/w3build.bat master/example/hello-world/index.txt (check the "Setup" section of procedure/release-build for the full list of these files) Submit these files before you continue.

1. Make the branch: p4 branch mps/version/A.BBB Description: Branching master sources for version A.BBB. Always the whole of master:

//info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/master/... //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/version/A.BBB/...

2. Make sure you have no unsubmitted files, and then:

p4 integrate -b mps/version/A.BBB

3. p4 submit

4. Determine the Origin of the new version: do p4 changes -m 5 on the master, and note the latest change that was in before the integrate.

[Note: it's better to do it this way -- do the integrate from the _implicit_ tip of the master, and then check back to see what happened -- because it's hard to get wrong. Also, then the integrate has the changelevel origin+1. Clashes with master submits could theoretically occur, and could be avoided by determining the origin first and specifying it to the initial integrate, but in practice this never happens. RHSK]

5. Update the table at <http://info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/version/>.

6. Edit Master->Version in documents that erroneously say "Master". Always edit version/A.BBB/index.html, eg. (case-sensitive): 

"of the Master version"  ->  "of Version A.BBB"
"Master"  ->  "Version A.BBB"

Less importantly, edit various other files. See change 30260.

7. Do an empty-integrate of this change back on to the masters, so P4 thinks it's done and doesn't keep suggesting it: 

p4 integrate -r -b mps/version/A.BBB <Files Edited Master->Version>
p4 resolve -ay <Files Edited Master->Version>

A. References

B. Document History

2005-10-03  RHSK  Created.
2006-12-27  RHSK  Step 0: edit some files on master before making version branch
2007-07-05  RHSK  Releasename now also in w3build.bat.  Make sure all submitted before integ.
2008-10-29  RHSK  Convert from text to html.