4 #+title: Maintainer tasks
7 This document describes the tasks the Org-mode maintainer has to do
8 and how they are performed.
14 The release number for main releases look like this: =7.13=
16 Main releases are made whenever Org is in a state where the feature
17 set is consistent and we feel that the features that are implemented
18 is something we want to support in the future.
20 A major release turns the current state of the master branch into a
21 release. The release process is a single make command:
23 : make release TAG=7.13
25 Before issuing this command, you should make sure that everything
26 during the process will work right, you can do so my running
28 : make testrelease TAG=7.13
30 When this fails, make sure to clean up. =git reset --hard= if
31 necessary, and check if there are unwanted files, directories, or
32 branches left over from the testing.
36 The release number for minor releases look like this: =7.13.01=
38 Minor releases are small amends to main releases. Usually they fix
39 bugs discovered in a main release. Only the fix to the bug is
40 bundled into a release, without the main development work going on in
41 the master branch. Since the big fix will also be needed in the
42 master branch, usually the fix is made in master and then
43 cherry-picked into maint. When this is done, a release is made from
44 maint with this command:
46 : make fixrelease TAG=7.13.01
50 While working on master between releases, I use something like
51 7.02trans as the version string. To set this version string in all
54 : UTILITIES/set_version 7.02trans
56 and commit the result. Note that the above command does not change
57 the version string in the file from which Org's homepage is
58 generated. To change that as well, you would use a =--all= flag. TO
59 change only this file, use =--only=.
61 * Synchonization with Emacs
63 This is still a significant headache. Some hand work is needed here.
65 Emacs uses bzr, and while I see all the advantages thiswould have, I
66 cannot bring myself to switch away from git for my day-to-day work.
67 So the way I have been doing things with Emacs is this:
69 1. I do not update the version in Emacs too often. Just once every
70 few month - this is frequently enough for the Emacs release cycle.
72 2. I watch the Emacs diffs for changes made by the maintainers of
73 Emacs in the org-mode files in Emacs. Any changes that come up
74 there, I merge into the development version of Org-mode.
75 Occasionally I do not do this, if I do not agree with a change.
76 The changes go into Org /without/ a ChangeLog-like entry in the
77 commit message. The reason for this is that we will later generate
78 a ChangeLog file from our commit messages, and I do not want double
79 ChangeLog entries in the Emacs ChangeLog file.
81 3. When I have made a release (usually I wait for the minor releases
82 to stabilize), I *copy* org files into the Emacs repository. Yes,
83 I do not merge, I copy. This has been the source of some problems
84 in the past - but I have not had the patience to work out a better
85 mechanism, and I really dislike the idea that the version in Emacs
86 starts diverging from my own.
88 Careful: Copy /org.texi/ and /orgcard.tex/ into the right places,
89 and also copy the lisp files with *two exceptions*: Do *not* copy
90 /org-colview-xemacs.el/ and /org-install.el/. The former does not
91 belong in Emacs. And the latter would actually be harmful because
92 Emacs generates its own autoloads. The Emacs distribution contains
93 an empty org-install.el, so that users can have =(require
94 'org-install)= in .emacs with no ill effects. So if you were to
95 copy org-install.el, you would overwrite that empty placeholder
98 4. Generate the ChangeLog entries
100 For this, I do in the org-mode git repository
102 : UTILITIES/make_emacs_changelog release_7.02.05..release_7.03.02
104 This will spit out ChangeLog entries (for the given commit range)
105 that need to go into the ChangeLog files in Emacs. Org-mode
106 contributes to 3 different ChangeLog files in Emacs:
108 : lisp/org/ChangeLog (for lisp changes)
109 : doc/misc/ChangeLog (for org.texi changes)
110 : etc/ChangeLog (for refcard changes)
112 When you run the =make_emacs_changelog= program, you will be
113 prompted for a date in ISO format YYYY-MM-DD, this date will be
114 used in the ChangeLog entries - Emacs wants these dates to be the
115 time when the change has been installed into Emacs, not the time
116 when we made the change in our own repository. You will also be
117 prompted for the kind of ChangeLog you want to make, possible
118 answers are =lisp=, =texi=, and =card=. The program will then
119 select the correct entries for the specified ChangeLog file. If
120 you don't like being prompted, you can give the date and type as
121 second and third command line arguments to =make_emacs_changelog=.
123 These entries need to be added to the ChangeLog files in Emacs.
124 You should, in the ChangeLog file, select the inserted region of
125 new entries and do =M-x fill-region=, so that the entries are
126 formatted correctly. I then do look through the entries quickly to
127 make sure they are formatted properly, that the email addresses
130 5. Commit the changes into the bzr repository and you are done. Emacs
131 developers often look throught the commit and make minor changes -
132 these need to be merged back into our own repo.