qpdf/README.maintainer

Release Reminders
=================

 * Test for binary compatility. The easiest way to do this is to check
   out the last release, run the test suite, check out the new
   release, run make build_libqpdf, check out the old release, and run
   make check NO_REBUILD=1.

 * When making a release, always remember to run large file tests and
   image comparison tests (--enable-test-compare-images
   --with-large-file-test-path=/path). For Windows, use a Windows
   style path, not an MSYS path for large files. For a major release,
   consider running a spelling checker over the source code to catch
   errors in variable names, strings, and comments. Use ispell -p
   ispell-words.

 * Run tests with sanitize address enabled:

   ./configure CFLAGS="-fsanitize=address -g" \
      CXXFLAGS="-fsanitize=address -g" \
      LDFLAGS="-fsanitize=address" \
      --enable-werror --disable-shared

   As of gcc 6.3.0, this exposes some good things but appears to also
   have some false positive leak reports. Valgrind is more reliable
   but also may miss some things that this catches.

 * Consider running tests with latest gcc and/or valgrind. To test
   with valgrind:

   ./configure --disable-shared
   make -j8 -k VALGRIND=1
   make -k check NO_REBUILD=1

   This moves each binary into a subdirectory and replaces it with a
   link to make/exec-z. See make/exec-z.

 * Check all open issues in the sourceforge trackers and on github.

 * If any interfaces were added or changed, check C API to see whether
   changes are appropriate there as well.  If necessary, review the
   casting policy in the manual, and ensure that integer types are
   properly handled.

 * Remember to avoid using operator[] with std::string or
   std::vector.  See README.hardening for details.

 * Increment shared library version information as needed (LT_* in
   configure.ac)

 * Update release notes in manual -- look at diffs and ChangeLog

 * Add a release entry to ChangeLog

 * Make sure version numbers are consistent in the following
   locations:

     configure.ac
     libqpdf/QPDF.cc
     manual/qpdf-manual.xml

   make_dist verifies this consistency.

 * Update release date in manual/qpdf-manual.xml.  Remember to ensure
   that the entities at the top of the document are consistent with
   the release notes for both version and release date.

 * Check TODO file to make sure all planned items for the release are
   done or retargeted.

 * Each year, update copyright notices. Just do a case-insensitive
   search for copyright. Don't forget copyright in manual. Also update
   debian copyright in debian package. Last updated: 2017.

 * To construct a source distribution from a pristine checkout,
   make_dist does the following:

    ./autogen.sh
    ./configure --enable-doc-maintenance --enable-werror
    make build_manual
    make distclean

 * To create a source release, do an export from the version control
   system to a directory called qpdf-version.  For example, from this
   directory:

   rm -rf /tmp/qpdf-x.y.z
   git archive --prefix=qpdf-x.y.z/ HEAD . | (cd /tmp; tar xf -)

   From the parent of that directory, run make_dist with the directory
   as an argument.  Remember to have fop in your path.  For internally
   testing releases, you can run make_dist with the --no-tests option.

 * To create a source release of external libs, do an export from the
   version control system into a directory called qpdf-external-libs
   and just make a zip file of the result called
   qpdf-external-libs-src.zip.  See the README.txt file there for
   information on creating binary external libs releases. Run this
   from the external-libs repository:

   git archive --prefix=external-libs/ HEAD . | (cd /tmp; tar xf -)
   cd /tmp
   zip -r qpdf-external-libs-src.zip external-libs

 * To create Windows binary releases, extract the qpdf source
   distribution in Windows (MSYS + MINGW, MSVC).  From the extracted
   directory, extract the binary distribution of the external
   libraries.  Run ./make_windows_releases from there.  You will need
   to have zip in your path.

 * Before releasing, rebuild and test debian package.

 * Remember to copy README-what-to-download.txt separately onto the
   download area.

 * Remember to update the web page including putting new documentation
   in the "files" subdirectory of the website on sourceforge.net.

 * Create a tag in the version control system, and make backups of the
   actual releases.  With git, use git tag -s to create a signed tag:

   git tag -s release-qpdf-$version HEAD -m"qpdf $version"

 * When releasing on sourceforge, external-libs distributions go in
   external-libs/yyyymmdd, and qpdf distributions go in qpdf/vvv.
   Make the source package the default for all but Windows, and make
   the 32-bit mingw build the default for Windows.


General Build Stuff
===================

QPDF uses autoconf and libtool but does not use automake.  The only
files distributed with the qpdf source distribution that are not
controlled are "configure", "libqpdf/qpdf/qpdf-config.h.in",
"aclocal.m4", and some documentation.  See above for the steps
required to prepare a source distribution.

A small handful of additional files have been taken from autotools
programs.  These should probably be updated from time to time.

 * config.guess, config.sub, ltmain.sh, and the m4 directory: these
   were created by running libtoolize -c.  To update, run libtoolize
   -f -c or remove the files and rerun libtoolize.

 * Other files copied as indicated:

   cp /usr/share/automake-1.11/install-sh .
   cp /usr/share/automake-1.11/mkinstalldirs .

The entire contents of the m4 directory came from libtool.m4.  If we
had some additional local parts, we could also add those to the m4
directory.  In order for this to work, it is necessary to run "aclocal
-I m4" before running autoheader and autoconf.

If building or editing documentation, configure with
--enable-doc-maintenance.  This will ensure that all tools or files
required to validate and build documentation are available.

If you want to run make maintainer-clean or make distclean and you
haven't run ./configure, you can pass CLEAN=1 to make on the command
line to prevent it from complaining about configure not having been
run.

Local Windows Testing Procedure
===============================

This is what I do for routine testing on Windows.

From Linux, run ./autogen.sh and make autofiles.zip

From Windows, git clone from my Linux clone, unzip external-libs, and
unzip autofiles.zip.

Look at make_windows_releases. Set up path the same way and run
whichever ./config-* is appropriate for whichever compiler I need to
test with. Run from msys started from one of the visual studio command
line shells. The build doesn't work from git bash on my local system.