Release engineering: what changed

Revision 1 to 2. Removed lines have a minus sign; added lines have a plus sign.

Old	New		Line
1	1		This article discusses how to make a release of the FPC compiler on various platforms.
2	2
3	3		## Migration of existing SVN checkout
4	4
5	5		The existing checkout of the 'fixes_2_2' branch can be switched to the release tag using SVN command "switch", specifically its first variant (see below). However, it's recommended to build in exported sources, not in checked out version.
6	6
7	7		`~/fpc>>> svn sw --help`\
8	8		`switch (sw): Update the working copy to a different URL.`\
9	9		`usage: 1. switch URL [PATH]`\
10	10		` 2. switch --relocate FROM TO [PATH...]`
11	11
12	12		` 1. Update the working copy to mirror a new URL within the`\
13	13		` repository.`\
14	14		` This behaviour is similar to 'svn update', and is the way to move`\
15	15		` a working copy to a branch or tag within the same repository.`
16	16
17	17		` 2. Rewrite working copy URL metadata to reflect a syntactic change`\
18	18		` only.`\
19	19		` This is used when repository's root URL changes (such as a scheme`\
20	20		` or hostname change) but your working copy still reflects the same`\
21	21		` directory within the same repository.`
22	22
23	23		## Create libgdb.a and or binutils
24	24
25	25		- If you have problems building recent binutils or libgdb's on any *nix, and the error is related to intl.h or libintl.a, reconfigure using ../\<srcdir\>/configure --disable-nls (assuming you use a separate builddir)
26	26		- Some cygwin hints:
27	27		- ensure you've installed gcc, bison and flex
28	28		- use\
29	29		`./configure --disable-ide --disable-libgui --disable-install-libgui`\
30	30		to configure
31	31
32	32		## General notes about release building
33	33
34	34		To create a build, you always have to start with compiler from the last previous major release (e.g. 2.0.0 for all 2.0.x and 2.2.0 releases, 2.2.0 for 2.2.x, etc.), or the last previous minor release (i.e. you can use 2.0.2 for building 2.0.4).
35	35
36	36		## Convert the faq.adp to faq.htm and faq.txt
37	37
38	38		The faq's in fpcbuild/install/doc are generated from the faq.adp in the html-repository. (It's a good idea too check if the faq.adp is still up-to-date before converting it.) To do the conversion, check out the html-repository and do a 'make all'. Then create the faq.htm and .txt by:
39	39
40	40		` ./adp2html faq.adp -m external-master.adp -p maindir=`[`http://www.freepascal.org/`](http://www.freepascal.org/)` -p x=.var > faq.htm`\
41	41		` w3m -dump faq.htm > faq.txt`
42	42
43	43		It could be that you have to install w3m first. If the conversions are succesfull update these files in the fpcbuild-repository.
44	44
45	45		## OS/CPU specific release engineering
46	46
47	47		### FreeBSD
48	48
49	49		[[FreeBSD specific Release Engineering]]
50	50
51	51		### Linux
52	52
53	53		Get sources, download the fpcbuild from ftp and extract it or use a command like:
54	54
55	55		` git clone --branch release_3_2_2 --depth 1 --recurse-submodules --remote-submodules --shallow-submodules `[`https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/build.git`](https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/build.git)` fpcbuild`\
56	56		` rm -rf fpcbuild/.git && rm -rf fpcbuild/fpcsrc/.git && rm -rf fpcbuild/fpcdocs/.git`
57	57
58	58		Versions 3.0.x and below and some special targets are using libgdb inside the ide to be able to debug. For those versions you have to get libgdb for your CPU from <ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/pub/fpc/contrib/libgdb/>, extract it into `fpcbuild/fpcsrc/` preserving pathes. Before building please check for files libiberty.a, libopcode.a and libbfd.a. These files are often installed in directories like /usr/lib. The compiler must not be able to find them! The reason is that otherwise the compiler might use the preinstalled ones instead of the ones you put in the libgdb directory, and the preinstalled ones are not compatible with libgdb.a. If the compiler finds and uses these libraries in /usr/lib, the IDE will crash on any debugging attempt.
59	59
60	60		Get the most recent docs package from the ftp site, it's called doc-pdf.tar.gz and copy it into the `fpcbuild/` directory.
61	61
62	62		Change into `fpcbuild/`. Now become root, or use fakeroot, then execute
63	63
64	64		` install/makepack`
65	65
66	66		#### Building an rpm
67	67
68	68		To build an RPM, change into `fpcbuild` and execute
69	69
70	70		` make rpm`
71	71
72	72		the documentation will be built as well and that requires a working Tex installation. To prevent the documentation from being built, execute
73	73
74	74		` make rpm NODOCS=1`
75	75
76	76		#### Building a deb
77	77
78	78		To build an Debian Package, please refer to [[Debian Packaging]] page. Here are quick hints :
79	79
80	80		\- Ensure that you have at least installed the following debian packages: dpkg-dev, fakeroot
81	81
82	82		\- Modify the `fpcbuild/install/debian/changelog` file adding the following
83	83
84	84		`fpc (x.y.z-b) unstable; urgency=low`\
85		-	\
	85	+
86	86		` * release candidate build`\
87		-	\
	87	+
88	88		` -- First Last <mail@address.ext> Thu, 07 Jul 2006 23:44:00 +0100`\
89	89		` `
90	90
91	91		where b is package building number. Normally if b = 0, then packages will be named substituting b by the building date, otherwise it will be conserved. But this is changed because b\>0 is reserved for official Debian-builds. So in fact we should always use b=0. The value for b is only replaced by the date when SNAPSHOT=1. Please note that z could be a number but also a word like 2rc1
92	92
93	93		\- change into `fpcbuild` and execute
94	94
95	95		` make deb [GDBLIBDIR=<path/${OS_TARGET}/${CPU_TARGET}>]`
96	96
97	97		the documentation will be built as well and that requires a working Tex installation. To prevent the documentation from being built, execute
98	98
99	99		` make deb NODOCS=1`
100	100
101	101		### Dos installer
102	102
103	103		(See also [[go32v2 development]])
104	104
105	105		The basis is the fpcbuild repository, with the last release compiler as starting compiler, as always.
106	106
107	107		Most recent GDB for go32v2 is 6.1.1, you can fetch it from [gdb 6.1.1](ftp://freepascal.stack.nl/pub/fpc/contrib/libgdb/v6.1.1/). Older targets have no architecture designation, so put it in fpcsrc/libgdb/go32v2
108	108
109	109		Then do a make go32v2zip in the fpcbuild/ dir. On XP this takes a really long time......
110	110
111	111		\[b\] Note this process will not work on Vista in the default configuration, since Vista only seems to allocate 16 or 32MB for DPMI use to a dosbox (and rumour is that W7 does too), which is too little. I've tried several of the workarounds, (see [[go32v2 development]]), but as of yet, to no avail.\[/b\]
112	112
113	113		That is, the full procedure to build a release for go32v2 is, from fpcbuild directory:
114	114
115	115		1. \<create the fpcsrc\libgdb\go32v2 directory and copy libgdb files there\>
116	116		2. make go32v2zip OPT="-dGDB_V601"
117	117		3. make sourcezip
118	118		4. make demozip
119	119		5. make docsrc
120	120		6. make utilities
121	121		7. \<now we have long file names packages\>
122	122		8. make shortnames
123	123
124	124		### Windows Inno setup
125	125
126	126		The situation for Windows is pretty much similar to makepack. However, instead of a script, [[Inno Setup]] is used. Note that this is the rough principle only. For real, official releases, probably more steps (make sure install/doc/whatsnew is up to date etc, proper SVN tag) must be observed.
127	127
128	128		Steps to do once only:
129	129
130	130		`* install Inno Setup. For FPC 3.2.2 we are trialing version 5.6.1-unicode `\
131	131		`* If support for Win9x/Win ME is needed, install an Ansi version lower than 5.5.0 (see 5.5.0 section in `[`Inno changelog`](http://www.jrsoftware.org/files/is5-whatsnew.htm)`) `
132	132
133	133		Steps per build:
134	134
135	135		`* checkout fpcbuild`\
136	136		`* export it to avoid lardering source zips with GIT dirs. (git can only export archives, but extracting on the fly with cygwin tar works: mkdir ../fpcexp and then git archive main \|tar xC ../fpcexp )`\
137	137		`* make sure the last FPC release is first in your path (bootstrap)`\
138	138		`* `~~`copy libgdb to its location (fpcsrc/libgdb/win32) (see e.g. `[`http:/www.stack.nl/~marcov/mingw`](http:/www.stack.nl/~marcov/mingw)` ). For this test release I used mingw. Pass OPT='-dUSE_MINGW_GDB'" on the make inno commandline to to select the mingw debugger for the IDE. ``obsolete: starting with 3.2.0, IDE uses MI interface on Windows`~~` `\
139	139		`* get "doc-pdf.zip" from FTP in the relevant version. Put it in fpcbuild/`\
140	140		`* to build the installer I ran "make inno"`\
141	141		`* inno has options to speed up compression (multithreading), but these are not used yet.`\
142	142		`* .. _WAIT_ ... :-) `
143	143
144	144		Tips:
145	145
146	146		- if due to atypical Windows configuration the iscc.exe installation script compiler can't be found (e.g. because your program files dir is not detected properly), pass it with ISCCPROG="g:\Program Files\Inno Setup 5\ISCC.exe"
147	147		- the Inno script is in fpcbuild/install/fpc.ist and is postprocessed by fpcsubst to become fpc.iss passed to Inno. fpcsubst fixes the builddir, the exact versions and optionally translates and passes NODOCS to build a release without docs.
148	148
149	149		Known Issues:
150	150
151	151		- No help/docs for ide. (chms must be added, and maybe even preinstalled)
152	152		- If a FPC install has been done before, the installer suggests the old install dir. (often the previous release).
153	153
154	154		#### Windows to x86_64 cross compiler
155	155
156	156		- Follow the same instructions as for Windows Inno setup, but instead of "make inno OPT=...", do a:
157	157
158	158		`make innox64`
159	159
160	160		#### Windows combined 32-bit and x86_64 cross compiler in a single package
161	161
162	162		- Follow the same instructions as for Windows Inno setup, but instead of "make inno OPT=...", do a:
163	163
164	164		`make innox86x64`
165	165
166	166		#### Windows to Android cross compiler
167	167
168	168		- Install the latest FPC release for Windows.
169	169		- Install the Android NDK.
170	170		- FPC 3.2 still supports the android-mips target, but mips support is no longer available since Android NDK r17. In order to build the setup package you need to download NDK r16b from <https://developer.android.com/ndk/downloads/older_releases> and unpack it to some folder.
171	171		- Follow the same instructions as for Windows Inno setup, but instead of "make inno OPT=...", do:
172	172
173	173		`make innoandroid NDK=<Path to the NDK, like C:\Users\joost\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\ndk\r16b>`
174	174
175	175		- When finished you will get a setup file such as `fpc-3.2.0.i386-win32.cross.android.exe` in the top level folder of the fpcbuild's source tree.
176	176
177	177		#### Windows to i8086-msdos cross compiler
178	178
179	179		- Install the latest stable version of the Open Watcom C++ compiler for Windows. As of now, this is open-watcom-c-win32-1.9.exe.
180	180		- Follow the same instructions as for Windows Inno setup, but instead of "make inno OPT=...", do a:
181	181
182	182		`make innomsdos`
183	183
184	184		- Compilation takes a very long time (3-7 hours, depending on CPU speed), so be patient. The reason for that is, we build fpc 20 times (5 memory models for 4 subarchs - 8086, 80186, 80286 and 80386), using smartlinking (for which, an external assembler is launched for each function in the rtl and packages, and launching a process is slow on windows).
185	185
186	186		### Darwin (Mac OS X) - Fink
187	187
188	188		#### Files
189	189
190	190		1. fpc-config.info
191	191		2. fpc.info
192	192		3. fpc-cross-*
193	193		4. fpc-doc.info
194	194		5. fpc-sources.info (needed by lazarus)
195	195
196	196		#### 32 bit vs 64 bit
197	197
198	198		Contrary to fpc from disk images, fpc is built as 64 bit resulting in 64bit ppcx64 as default. The main reason is that it fits better to the presence of all the 64bit C libraries in fink. Nevertheless, 32bit is still available as cross-compiler as fpc-cross-i386-darwin.
199	199
200	200		#### Bootstrap Compiler
201	201
202	202		Building the fink packages is based on a bootstrap compiler. Whereas the official FPC releases still support 10.4 and later, starting with fpc 3.0.0 the package descriptions support only 10.7 and up. Therefore, only the 64-bit compiler and no universal compiler are required as bootstrap compiler. The 64-bit bootstrap compiler is build using strip and tar commands similar to below. The description below refers to fpc up to 2.6 and any system above 10.4.
203	203
204	204		Separate bootstrap compilers for each cpu would be possible, but a universal bootstrap compiler has been choosen, since it makes the installation script simpler. The increased filesize (about twice the size of a single separate bootstrap compiler) of the bootstrap compiler is considered negligible compared to the size of the complete source tarball. Reverting this decision should be doable by well chosen names for the bootstrap compiler tar balls, such as fpc-%v.%m-darwin.bootstrap.tar.bz2, with %m being the cpu. The universal bootstrap compiler is created from the separate compilers using "lipo". The file size is reduced by applying "strip" on the binaries. Although it is possible to use the previous stable release of fpc as a bootstrap compiler, it is better to use the same version, because "make cycle" becomes faster, since only two instead of three cycles are performed.
205	205
206	206		This is a typical sequence of commands to produce the tar ball of a universal bootstrap compiler on an IntelMac:
207	207
208	208		` make all PP=PATH_TO_A_LAST_VERSION_COMPILER`\
209	209		` cp compiler/ppc386 $HOME/Desktop`\
210	210		` make distclean`\
211	211		` make all CPU_TARGET=x86_64 PP=$HOME/Desktop/ppc386`\
212	212		` cp compiler/ppcx64 $HOME/Desktop`\
213	213		` make distclean`\
214	214		` make all CPU_TARGET=powerpc PP=$HOME/Desktop/ppc386`\
215	215		` cp compiler/ppcppc $HOME/Desktop`\
216	216		` cd $HOME/Desktop`\
217	217		` strip ppc386`\
218	218		` strip ppcx64`\
219	219		` strip ppcppc`\
220	220		` lipo -create ppc386 ppcx64 ppcppc -output ppcuniversal`\
221	221		` tar -cjf fpc-VERSION.universal-darwin.bootstrap.tar.bz2 ppcuniversal`\
222	222		` md5sum *.universal-darwin.bootstrap.tar.bz2`
223	223
224	224		#### Usually Required Adjustments for New Releases
225	225
226	226		These fields in the file fpc.info usually need changes (examples from version 2.1.2, a beta version of 2.2):
227	227
228	228		`Version: 2.1.2`\
229	229		`Source: `[`ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/pub/fpc/beta/%v/source/fpcbuild-%v.source.tar.gz`](ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/pub/fpc/beta/%v/source/fpcbuild-%v.source.tar.gz)\
230	230		`Source-MD5: a2ee4db22301cdcbda07185a7b6679b2`\
231	231		`Source2: `[`ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/pub/fpc/beta/%v/source/fpc-%v.universal-darwin.bootstrap.tar.bz2`](ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/pub/fpc/beta/%v/source/fpc-%v.universal-darwin.bootstrap.tar.bz2)\
232	232		`Source2-MD5: ca5e29e3683ff6d5caa491c0adf4635e`
233	233
234	234		The MD5 checksums can be obtained from the error message when fetching the sources with fink or with the terminal command md5sum.
235	235
236	236		The fpc-doc.info file also needs according changes in the Source and Source-MD5 fields.
237	237
238	238		#### History
239	239
240	240		2.6.* more crosscompilers
241	241
242	242		2.4.0 several crosscompilers (processors and systems) added.
243	243
244	244		2.2.4 minor changes.
245	245
246	246		2.2.2 extra package for the config file. cross compilers for win32 and linux. execution of tests enabled.
247	247
248	248		2.2.1 interims version for lazarus 0.9.24
249	249
250	250		2.2.0 first version with native Intel code
251	251
252	252		2.0.4 first version in stable tree (powerpc and Rosetta emulation only)
253	253
254	254		1.9.8 initial version in unstable tree
255	255
256	256		### Haiku
257	257
258	258		[[Haiku specific Release Engineering]]
259	259
260	260		## Documentation building and LaTeX limits
261	261
262	262		A lot of TeTeX distributions are configured to never use more than a very small amount of memory. The values chosen are more of the 486 era (several MBs, while now 256MB is considered "entry level").
263	263
264	264		The Free Pascal documentation is fairly large, and uses a lot of labels for convenient hyperlinked PDFs and thus hits this limit.
265	265
266	266		This can be remedied by modiying the save_size line in texmf.conf to
267	267
268	268		` save_size=10000`
269	269
270	270		Usually, you can also do this by environment variable.
271	271
272	272		`export save_size=10000`\
273	273		`pdflatex rtl.tex`
274	274
275	275		## Packaging system
276	276
277	277		See [[Packaging System and dividing FPC - Lazarus into packages]]
278	278
279	279		## Building the official fpc-packages
280	280
281	281		### Major versions
282	282
283	283		Major versions warrant some extra attention during the release process. Primarily the problem is that trunk is never really released from, and any branch to branch from it has to potential to have (many) hidden issues. Also during betas and release candidates, more issues are found for a major branch, since some features receive wide testing for the first time.
284	284
285	285		However since 2.2.2, most release engineering work for the fixes branch is performed in trunk, and then merged back to fixes, and in practice this improved this a lot. This however mainly improved the quality. The release engineering from the branchpoint from trunk till release is typically still 6-8 months.
286	286
287	287		Some points to consider:
288	288
289	289		- Traditionally major versions have had a beta release before the first release candidate.
290	290		- before branching a major branch, update all makefiles in trunk with a recent fpcmake. This avoids that when a rarely used package is updated, one gets an immense diff on the makefile.
291	291		- This is the time to remove deprecated functions. See [[major version to do]]
292	292
293	293		### Create directories on ftp
294	294
295	295		1. Create the following structure on ftp: (check which platforms are released for this version)
296	296		- {version}
297	297		- docs
298	298		- source
299	299		- separate
300	300		- tar
301	301		- zip
302	302		- short
303	303		- arm-linux
304	304		- arm-wince
305	305		- i386-freebsd
306	306		- i386-go32v2
307	307		- separate
308	308		- i386-linux
309	309		- deb
310	310		- rpm
311	311		- i386-netware
312	312		- i386-netwlibc
313	313		- i386-os2
314	314		- separate
315	315		- i386-win32
316	316		- powerpc-linux
317	317		- powerpc-macos
318	318		- powerpc-morphos
319	319		- powerpc64-linux
320	320		- sparc-linux
321	321		- x86_64-linux
322	322		- deb
323	323		- rpm
324	324		- x86_64-win64
325	325		2. Copy the extra files (asld.zip, gdb.zip, make*.zip) in i386-os2\separate and i386-gov32v2\separate from previous release (unless updated with new versions)
326	326
327	327		### Update the version-number
328	328
329	329		Make sure that fpcmake points to the relevant version for the branch you are running this for. (usually from fixes)
330	330
331	331		#### Version number of the Makefiles
332	332
333	333		For the final release, update the REQUIREDVERSION(2) in the toplevel Makefile.fpc to the new version and the last release.
334	334
335	335		Update the version numbers in all Makefile.fpc files containing version=... (plus regenerate all corresponding Makefiles). Do this for the fpc and fpcbuild-repositories. This can be done using the updmkver script from within the root of both repositories. The FPC_DIR environment variable has to be set to the fpcsrc-path:
336	336
337	337		` export FPCDIR=....../fpcbuild/fpcsrc`\
338	338		` cd fpcbuild`\
339	339		` install/updmkver {version} `\
340	340		` cd ../fpc`\
341	341		` ../fpcbuild/install/updmkver {version}`
342	342
343	343		Replace {version} with the version number, for example 2.2.4 or 2.2.4rc1
344	344
345	345		#### Version number of the fpmake files
346	346
347	347		Update the version numbers in all fpmake.pp files in the packages directory (toplevel and build dir). These files are normal code-files so replacing the version numbers can in principle only be done manually, but there is a script updfpmkver which finds all occurences of "Version:='xxx'" where xxx can be anything. Note that this will also update all dependencies to the specified version number.
348	348
349	349		` cd fpc`\
350	350		` ../../fpcbuild/install/updfpmkver {version}`
351	351
352	352		Please check the results manually. The following command searches for all occurences of "version" in all fpmake.pp files
353	353
354	354		` find -name fpmake.pp -exec grep -i version {} ';'`
355	355
356	356		#### Version number in the source & documentation files
357	357
358	358		The version number has to be updated in the following places.
359	359
360	360		FPCBuild:
361	361
362	362		- /install/doc/readme.txt
363	363		- /install/doc/whatsnew.txt
364	364		- /install/debian/changelog
365	365		- /install/debian/controls contains versions too?
366	366		- /install/doc/faq.htm (sections about latest version, on final release only)
367	367		- /install/doc/faq.txt (sections about latest version, on final release only)
368	368
369	369		FPCDocs: (there is only a trunk-version)
370	370
371	371		- /docs/fpc.sty (macro fpcversion)
372	372
373	373		FPC:
374	374
375	375		- /installer/install.dat (header)
376	376		- /installer/install.pas (installer version and copyright year)
377	377		- /compiler/version.pas
378	378		- packages/chm/src/chmbase.pas ~~and chmcmd.lpr~~ (now compiler macro)
379	379		- check the year of copyright in compiler/msg/errore.msg
380	380		- check the year of copyright in packages/ide/src/fpviews.pas
381	381
382	382		### Tag version
383	383
384	384		If the changes of the version-numbers are committed, use the createbranch script in fpcbuild to create a 'release_{version}' tag in svn. Use underscores in the version, instead of dots!
385	385
386	386		` ./createbranch.sh tags/release_3_0_4`\
387	387		` ./createbranch.sh tags/release_3_0_4_rc1`
388	388
389	389		### Create the source zips
390	390
391	391		A.s. Before doing this, update whatsnew,readme and faq in the fixes branch, so that changes can be merged from fixes to rc1/final branch.
392	392
393	393		Create all the source zips.
394	394
395	395		Once the version is tagged the makesource script in fpcbuild/install can create the fpc-{version}.source.tar.gz and fpc-{version}.source.zip. To build the fpcbuild-{version}.tar.gz and fpcbuild-{version}.zip use the makefpcbuild script. Before you run the scripts go to a temporary directory and become root or use fakeroot. If you want to create the sourcefile from a specific branch, you can provide it using the -svnpath parameter For example:
396	396
397	397		` fakeroot`\
398	398		` fpcbuild/install/makesource 3.0.4`\
399	399		` fpcbuild/install/makefpcbuild -svnpath tags/release_3_0_4_rc1 3.0.4rc1`
400	400
401	401		The zips for the "source/short" directory are made on a DOS / OS/2 platform (or MS Windows with an additional parameter "OS_SOURCE=go32v2" for all three commands) by executing:
402	402
403	403		` make sourcezip "OS_TARGET=go32v2" NOGDB=1`\
404	404		` make sourcezip "OS_TARGET=os2" NOGDB=1`\
405	405		` make shortsrc`
406	406
407	407		The reason for multiple invocations of make sourcezip with different parameters is the fact that make sourcezip only build ZIP files for sources supported on the particular target platform by default. Since the short version of the source ZIP files is supposed to be used on OS/2 and GO32v2 targets only at the moment, these two platforms need to be listed explicitly as a general rule (obviously, slightly simpler version is possible when running it under OS/2 or native DOS, but the example above should work everywhere).
408	408
409	409		Note, in 2.6.0 "make shortsrc" doesn't seem to work anymore. For 2.6.0 and 2.6.2 the following commands were used instead (and manually pushed "n" a few times)
410	410
411	411		` make renametoshort NOGDB=1 "OS_SOURCE=os2" "OS_TARGET=os2" PKGPRE=os2- PKGUNITSPRE=units- ZIPSUFFIX=.source ZIPSUFFIXSHORT=src`\
412	412		` make renametoshort NOGDB=1 "OS_SOURCE=go32v2" "OS_TARGET=go32v2" PKGPRE=go32v2- PKGUNITSPRE=units- ZIPSUFFIX=.source ZIPSUFFIXSHORT=src`
413	413
414	414		### Create bootstrap compiler archives
415	415
416	416		- darwin (fink)
417	417
418	418		From ppc386 and ppcppc create ppcuniversal using lipo, create .tar.bz2 archive (full name: fpc-version.universal-darwin.bootstrap.tar.bz2) and place it in the source dir.
419	419
420	420		### Documentation
421	421
422	422		Latex takes date/time formats from the locale. Make sure your linux distro/environment variables are set to e.g. the US locale to avoid non English month names in the docs. In my case, it was simply the matter of changing the locale in the Ubuntu GUI settings app, and latex adapted.
423	423
424	424		Most formats: run
425	425
426	426		` make alldist`
427	427
428	428		in fpcdocs/
429	429
430	430		CHM: run fixdocs.sh but edit it first to correct the location of the fpcsrc repo.
431	431
432	432		## Release schedule
433	433
434	434		- [[FPC Release Schedule]].
435	435
436	436		## Testing a release
437	437
438	438		In general:
439	439
440	440		1. check all zip/deb/rpm etc files
441	441		2. try the installer (if available)
442	442		3. make sure readme.txt & whatsnew.txt are for the current version
443	443		4. run all executables
444	444		5. make cycle with newly installed binaries and sources
445	445		6. run testsuite
446	446		7. IDE
447	447		1. open the installed hello.pp in IDE
448	448		2. make a minor change in the demo in IDE & save it
449	449		3. view documentation in IDE, traverse 2-3 pages (at least one with screenshots)
450	450		4. compile the demo file in IDE
451	451		5. run the demo within the IDE (debugger)
452	452		8. Documentation (open all files)
453	453		1. Check PDF documentation (if available)
454	454		2. Check HTML documentation (if available)
455	455		3. Check TXT documentation (if available)
456	456
457	457		Target-specific:
458	458
459	459		1. GO32v2
460	460		1. dos???.zip installation
461	461		2. dos???full.zip installation (over the previously installed dos???.zip to simulate updates)
462	462		2. OS/2
463	463		1. os2???.zip installation
464	464		2. os2???full.zip installation (over the previously installed os2???.zip to simulate updates)
465	465		3. Win32
466	466		1. Run installer
467	467		4. x86_64-linux and i386-linux
468	468		1. Test a .rpm install
469	469		2. Test a .deb install
470	470		5. darwin (fink)
471	471		1. fink install fpc-config fpc
472	472		2. fink install fpc-doc
473	473		3. optional on Intel-Darwin: fink install fpc-cross-***
474	474
475	475		## Testers template
476	476
477	477		See [[Testers Template]].
478	478
479	479		### Previous releases
480	480
481	481		\| \| \| \| \|
482	482		\|----\|----\|----\|----\|
483	483		\| [[Testers 3.2.2]] \| [[Testers 3.2.0]] \| [[Testers 3.0.4]] \| \|
484	484		\| [[Testers 2.6.4]] \| [[Testers 2.6.2]] \| [[Testers 2.6.0]] \| \|
485	485		\| [[Testers 2.4.4]] \| [[Testers 2.4.2]] \| [[Testers 2.4.0]] \| \|
486	486		\| [[Testers 2.2.4]] \| [[Testers 2.0.4]] \| \| \|
487	487
488	488		---
489	489		From the Free Pascal wiki, page "Release engineering", as it stood on 2023-07-25 after a change by Michael, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's [[Licensing]] page. If you have concerns about this material, [message the admin](/wiki-contact).
490	490		Category: FPC development
491	491		Category: FPC release
492	492		Category: Release engineering

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