Memory Pool System Version Create Procedure

author Richard Kistruck
confidentiality public
date 2008-10-29
organization Ravenbrook Limited
readership MPS developers

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).

Refer to "Product Quality Through Change Management" [RB_1999-05-20] for background, terminology, rationale, and usage guidance. This tells you what "a version" actually is.

2. Preamble

2.1. 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 [RB_1999-05-20] when deciding. (Summary: if changing the specification, make a new version; if improving the product against an unchanged specification, make a point release.)

2.2. What is a version?

A version is a clone of all the master sources, that has its own evolution. A version has these parts:

  1. The version branch specification, which defines the mapping used to integrate from the master sources to the version sources. By convention, the name of the branch specification is mps/version/A.BBB so that it exactly matches the path name of the version's sub-tree. For example:

    $ p4 branch -o mps/version/1.105
...
View:
        //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/master/... //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/version/1.105/...
...

  2. The version sources, in the version/A.BBB/... sub-tree. Usually these are clones of the master sources, and were created in a single change with p4 integrate -b BRANCH. Some files may then be further modified.

  3. The version origin, the last change on the master sources that made it into the version sources by virtue of the initial integrate command.

  4. An entry in the table of versions.

3. Procedure: How to make a new version

  1. Update the following files in the master sources that contain a version number, so that they refer to the version that you are about to create:

    code/version.c

    Submit these files to Perforce.

    (If there are other files that need updating, update this procedure and add them here. But it is better to parse the information out of code/version.c so that the version number is mentioned just once. See for example manual/source/conf.py.)

  2. Create the version branch specification by running:

    VERSION=A.BBB
BRANCH=mps/version/$VERSION
p4 branch $BRANCH

    The branch specification should contain the description:

    Description: Branching master sources for version $VERSION.

    Always branch the whole of the master sources:

    View:
        //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/master/... //info.ravenbrook.com/project/$BRANCH/...

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

    p4 integrate -b $BRANCH
p4 submit

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

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

  6. Edit configure.ac on the version branch, replacing [master] with [version A.BBB].

    (If there are other files that need updating, update this procedure and add them here. But it is better to organize the sources so that this is not necessary.)

  7. Do an empty integrate of this change back on to the masters, so Perforce knows that it's not wanted:

    p4 integrate -r -b $BRANCH
p4 resolve -ay
p4 submit -d 'Ignoring update of "master" to "version 1.111" from version branch'

A. References

[RB_1995-05-20]Richard Brooksby; "Product Quality Through Change Management"; Ravenbrook Limited; 1999-05-20; http://www.ravenbrook.com/doc/1999/05/20/pqtcm/

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.
2010-11-06 RHSK Correctly format example of p4 branch -o mps/version/1.105