3 #+TITLE: Org maintainer tasks
7 This document describes the tasks the Org-mode maintainer has to do
8 and how they are performed.
12 The git repository has two branches:
14 - master :: for current development.
16 - maint :: for bug fixes against latest major or minor release.
18 Bug fixes always go on =maint= then are merged on =master=.
20 New features always go on =master=.
26 The release number for main releases look like this: =7.13=
28 Main releases are made whenever Org is in a state where the feature
29 set is consistent and we feel that the features that are implemented
30 is something we want to support in the future.
32 A major release turns the current state of the master branch into a
35 When doing a /major release/, make sure all changes from the maint
36 branch are merged into the the master branch, then merge the master
37 branch back into maint to synchronize the two. Further, make sure to
38 update the Version and Package-Requires headers in org.el.
42 The release number for minor releases look like this: =7.13.1=
44 Minor releases are small amends to main releases. Usually they fix
45 critical bugs discovered in a main release. Minor bugs are usually
46 not fixed -- they will be addressed in the next main release. Make
47 sure to update the Version header in org.el when making a new minor
50 Only the fix to the bug is bundled into a release, without the main
51 development work going on in the master branch. Since the bug fix
52 will also be needed in the master branch, usually the fix is made in
53 maint then merged in master.
55 ** Tagging the release
57 When doing a major and a minor release, after all necessary merging is
58 done, tag the _maint_ branch for the release with:
60 git tag -a release_7.9.1 -m "Adding release tag"
66 We also encourage you to sign release tags like this:
68 git tag -s release_7.9.1 -m "Adding release tag"
70 ** Uploading the release files from the orgmode.org server
72 Log on the orgmode.org server as the emacs user and cd to
80 to create the .tar.gz and .zip files, the documentation, and to
81 upload everything at the right place.
83 * Available Org's builds on the server
85 There are two cron tasks on the server: one that builds the ELPA
86 packages and one that builds org-latest.tar.gz and org-latest.zip.
88 ELPA packages are built from the *maint* branch. One ELPA package
89 contains Org's core, another one called "org-plus-contrib" contains
90 Org and contributed libraries.
92 org-latest* snapshots are built from the *master* branch.
94 * Synchronization with Emacs
96 ** Updating etc/ORG-NEWS
98 Latest changes in Emacs are described in Emacs =etc/NEWS=, and latest
99 changes in major Emacs packages are described in =etc/ORG-NEWS=.
101 If a major release is meant to be merged with the Emacs trunk (as it
102 always should), you need to update Org's =etc/ORG-NEWS= file so that
103 you can merge it with that of Emacs. There is one top-level section
104 for each release that is merged with Emacs.
106 ** Merging with Emacs trunk branch
108 This is still a significant headache. Some hand work is needed here.
110 Emacs uses bzr. A useful introduction to bzr for Emacs developers can
111 be found [[http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/BzrForEmacsDevs][here]]. While I see all the advantages this would have, I
112 cannot bring myself to switch away from git for my day-to-day work,
113 because I know git so well, and because git seems to me as being much
114 more powerful, conceptionally simple (once you have [[http://newartisans.com/2008/04/git-from-the-bottom-up/][bent your head
115 around it]]), and so much faster.
117 So the way I have been doing things with Emacs is this:
119 1. I do not update the version in Emacs too often. Just once every
120 few months - this is frequently enough for the Emacs release cycle.
121 Care must be taken to get in a *new and stable* version shortly
122 before Emacs goes into feature freeze and pretest, because that
123 version is going to be in the wild for a long time.
125 2. I watch the Emacs diffs for changes made by the maintainers of
126 Emacs in the org-mode files in Emacs. Any changes that come up
127 there, I merge into the development version of Org-mode.
128 Occasionally I do not do this, if I do not agree with a change.
129 The changes go into Org /without/ a ChangeLog-like entry in the
130 commit message. The reason for this is that we will later generate
131 a ChangeLog file from our commit messages, and I do not want double
132 ChangeLog entries in the Emacs ChangeLog file.
134 3. When I have made a release (usually I wait for the minor releases
135 to stabilize), I *copy* org files into the Emacs repository. Yes,
136 I do not merge, I copy. This has been the source of some problems
137 in the past - Emacs developers are not happy when I accidentally
138 overwrite changes they made. But I have not had the patience to
139 work out a better mechanism, and I really dislike the idea that the
140 version in Emacs starts diverging from my own.
142 Careful: Copy /org.texi/ and /orgcard.tex/ into the right places,
143 and also copy the lisp files with *one exception*: Do *not* copy
144 /org-loaddefs.el/, Emacs generates its own autoloads.
146 4. Generate the ChangeLog entries
148 For this, I do in the org-mode git repository
150 : mk/make_emacs_changelog release_7.02.05..release_7.03.02
152 This will spit out ChangeLog entries (for the given commit range)
153 that need to go into the ChangeLog files in Emacs. Org-mode
154 contributes to 3 different ChangeLog files in Emacs:
156 : lisp/org/ChangeLog (for lisp changes)
157 : doc/misc/ChangeLog (for org.texi changes)
158 : etc/ChangeLog (for refcard changes)
160 When you run the =make_emacs_changelog= program, you will be
161 prompted for a date in ISO format YYYY-MM-DD, this date will be
162 used in the ChangeLog entries - Emacs developers want these dates
163 to be the time when the change has been installed into Emacs, not
164 the time when we made the change in our own repository. So all the
165 ChangeLog entries will get the same date. You will also be
166 prompted for the kind of ChangeLog you want to make, possible
167 answers are =lisp=, =texi=, and =card=. The program will then
168 select the correct entries for the specified ChangeLog file. If
169 you don't like being prompted, you can give the date and type as
170 second and third command line arguments to =make_emacs_changelog=,
173 : mk/make_emacs_changelog release_7.02.05..release_7.03.02 2010-12-11 lisp
175 These entries need to be added to the ChangeLog files in Emacs.
176 You should, in the ChangeLog file, select the inserted region of
177 new entries and do =M-x fill-region=, so that the entries are
178 formatted correctly. I then do look through the entries quickly to
179 make sure they are formatted properly, that the email addresses
182 5. Commit the changes into the bzr repository and you are done. Emacs
183 developers often look throught the commit and make minor changes -
184 these need to be merged back into our own repo.
186 * Updating the list of hooks/commands/options on Worg
188 Load the =mk/eldo.el= file then =M-x eldo-make-doc RET=.
190 This will produce an org file with the documentation.
192 Import this file into =worg/doc.org=, leaving the header untouched
193 (except for the release number).
195 Then commit and push the change on the =worg.git= repository.
197 * Copyright assignments
199 The maintainer needs to keep track of copyright assignments.
200 Even better, find a volunteer to do this.
202 The assignment form is included in the repository as a file that
203 you can send to contributors: =request-assign-future.txt=
205 The list of all contributors from who we have the papers is kept on
206 Worg at http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contribute.html, so that
207 committers can check if a patch can go into the core.
209 The assignment process does not allways go smoothly, and it has
210 happened several times that it gets stuck or forgotten at the FSF.
211 The contact at the FSF for this is: mailto:copyright-clerk@fsf.org
213 Emails from the paper submitter have been ignored in the past, but
214 an email from me (Carsten) as the maintainer of Org mode has usually
215 fixed such cases within a few days.