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

3.1. Prerequisites

  1. Make sure that you are an authenticated Git Fusion user (follow the git-fusion procedure if not).

  2. Make sure that the sources for the version you are about to create, for the table of versions, and for the table of Git Fusion pushes, are mapped in your Perforce client:

    //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/version/$VERSION/...
//info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/branch/index.html
//info.ravenbrook.com/infosys/robots/git-fusion/etc/pushes

3.2. Create the version branch

  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 -i <<END
Branch: $BRANCH
Description: Branching master sources for version $VERSION.
View: //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/master/... //info.ravenbrook.com/project/$BRANCH/...
END

  3. Make sure you have no unsubmitted files:

    $ p4 opened
File(s) not opened on this client.

    and then:

    p4 integrate -b $BRANCH
p4 submit -d "Branching master sources for version $VERSION."

  4. Determine the origin of the new version:

    p4 changes -m 5 //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/master/...

    Note the latest change that was in before the integrate.

  5. Edit configure.ac on the version branch, replacing [master] with [version A.BBB], and then submit it:

    p4 submit -d "Update 'master' to 'version $VERSION'"

    (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.)

  6. 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 $VERSION' from version branch"

3.3. Register the new version branch

  1. Update the table of versions.

  2. Make a client specification that can be used by the git-fusion robot to sync the version:

    p4 client -i <<END Client: git-fusion-mps-version-$VERSION Description: Git-fusion client for syncing MPS version $VERSION Root: /home/git-fusion/.git-fusion/views/mps-version-$VERSION/p4 View: //info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/version/$VERSION/... //git-fusion-mps-version-$VERSION/... END

    Add an entry to the list of repositories to push to GitHub:

    PUSHES=$(p4 have //info.ravenbrook.com/infosys/robots/git-fusion/etc/pushes | cut -d' ' -f3) p4 edit $PUSHES printf "mps-version-$VERSIONtgit@github.com:Ravenbrook/mps-temporary.gittversion/$VERSION" >> $PUSHES p4 submit -d "Arranging for MPS version $VERSION to be pushed to GitHub by Git Fusion" $PUSHES

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
2014-01-13 GDR Make procedure less error-prone by giving exact sequence of commands (where possible) based on experience of version 1.112.
2014-01-14 GDR Step for adding to Git Fusion.