Official builds come in several flavors:

• Major version releases: when significant new or changed functionality comes out, we bump up the major build number; i.e. from 2.3 to 3.0. This is fairly rare; anyone reading xalan-dev will know when this is happening.
  
  
• Minor version releases happen when we fix bugs or make moderate improvements to the product. These are moving from 2.3 to 2.4; they should be planned out.
  
  
• Maintenance point releases are when we find bugs in an existing version and fix them without adding new functionality; these go from 2.3 to 2.3.1. They should be done on a branch if the mainline development has already moved forward; the point is to make critical bugfixes for existing customers who want to stay on the stable release.
  
  
• Developer releases are very ad hoc; they represent a chunk of progress along the HEAD of our CVS tree towards a new major or minor release. The developer release versions would be going from 2.3 to a new 2.4.D1 - the developer release is somewhat like a 'beta' towards a new 2.4 minor version release. Quality standards for developer releases are much less stringent than other releases.
  
  

A very brief list of stages in running a build.

1. Email xalan-dev with build plan.
   
   
2. Verify all code changes are checked in.
   
   
3. Verify any doc updates for code changes are in.
   
   
4. Update build numbers in doc, code, and build scripts.
   
   
5. Do a clean checkout and tag the sources.
   
   
6. build dist smoketest -logfile ..\dist.log
   
   
7. Verify smoketest passed; check docs built with new build numbers.
   
   
8. PGP/GPG sign all .zip/.tar.gz distribution files (distros).
   
   
9. Copy distros up to the website.
   
   
10. Update website documentation set.
    
    
11. Email xalan-dev with build notice!
    
    

Preparation before you run a build.

• Email xalan-dev with build plan.

Apache projects are communities: you should always let the community know what the plans for builds are. The xalan-dev mailing list is the primary communication mechanisim for committers and developers working on Xalan-Java; you may also wish to cc: the xalan-j-users list to let other users and folks know what's coming. For major releases you may also want to cc: the general@xml.apache.org list so that other xml.apache.org projects know our plans, although this is not required.

• Verify all code changes are checked in.

Ensure that any code changes you're planning to have in this release are actually checked in; make sure any open work by other committers is in a stable state. You should also review any other projects we're dependent on and make sure that (when possible) we've updated to the latest version of their .jar files: like xercesImpl.jar, ant.jar, etc. Note that occasionally we will have a specific development need to stay with a different version of these projects.

Getting documentation and version numbers in sync.

• Verify any doc updates for code changes are in.

Check that the documentation is up to date. Make sure that any new features or major functionality changes are properly documented.

Update the commits list and the 'what was done' list in xdocs/sources/xalan/readme.xml and whatsnew.xml. Note that currently some of the status information for the xsltc portion of Xalan-Java is stored separately in xsltc_history.xml and XSLTCDONE

Check in all your work!

• Update build numbers in doc, code, and build scripts.

Currently the actual version number is stored in several places in the CVS tree - we hope to improve this in the future by using the Ant build system's filtering capabilities.

Once you know what the version number should be, you'll need to update it in a number of places - both for the product itself, for the build system, and for the documentation. If you don't understand how to update any of these files, then please get help - don't just try to wing it.

Version.java should replace XSLProcessorVersion.java; we just haven't gotten around to doing it yet... -Shane

• src/org/apache/xalan/Version.java (The NEW 2.2+ actual code version of the processor - currently just a wrapper for XSLProcessorVersion, which is deprecated and will be removed after 2.2 gold ships in favor of the simpler Version class, which uses static accessor methods instead of static strings)
  
  
• src/org/apache/xalan/processor/XSLProcessorVersion.java (The old 2.2 and earlier actual code version of the processor) Update the int format VERSION, RELEASE, MAINTENANCE, and DEVELOPMENT numbers, each as an integer. The version string will be automagically built from these.
  
  
• build.xml Update the following lines for each version field:
  <property name="version.VERSION" value="2"/>
  <property name="version.RELEASE" value="4"/>
  <property name="version.DEVELOPER" value="D"/><!-- Set this to "D" if a developer release; blank "" if maintenance point release --> <property name="version.MINOR" value="1"/><!-- EITHER the developer release number, or a maintenance point release number -->
  
  
• src/org/apache/xalan/res/XSLTInfo.properties:
  Update the version number.
  
  
• xml-xalan/java/xdocs/sources/entities.ent (xslt4j-current, xslt4j-dist) documentation updates. The xsl4j-dist is used to construct links to the actual distribution units, and must be coordinated with whatever xml-xalan/java/build.xml uses for ${version}.
  
  
• If you updated xercesImpl.jar or any other dependent .jar files, make sure you update the documentation to reflect this. xml-xalan\java\xdocs\sources\entities.ent (xml4j-used)
  
  
• xml-xalan/java/xdocs/sources/xalan-jsite (document id="index" label="Xalan-Java x.x")
  
  

I did remind you to check in all your work, didn't I?

Get clean sources and build a distribution and (at least) the smoketest.

• Do a clean checkout and tag the sources.

Of course, you checked in all your earlier work to the CVS repository, right?

The safest way to perform a build for distribution is to check out a fresh new copy of the repository from CVS. This avoids any potential problems with uncommitted changes or extra files on your local machine.

Check out a new copy of both xml-xalan/java and xml-xalan/test repositories to a blank directory on your local machine. You then need to tag the files in the repository with a marker noting that these versions are the actual ones being used in the build (you could actually do this after running the build below). Use the CVS tag command to add the tag to both repositories (/java and /test). The tag name should be something like 'xalan-j_2_4'; look at the log of any file to see the exact format of previous builds.

• build dist site smoketest -logfile ..\dist.log

The above command will build the 'dist' or distribution .zip/.tar.gz files, as well as building the full product plus all documentation. It will then run the smoketest, and saves all of it's output in ..\dist.log. Note that this will take up a moderate amount of space, especially when building the .tar.gz files, so ensure you have plenty of disk space first.

• Verify smoketest passed; check docs built with new build numbers.

Review the dist.log quickly to ensure there were no build errors. Note that you can ignore any 'warnings' from the javadoc target; however any 'error's in the documentation must be fixed.

The logfile should also report the Smoketest results at the end; if it does not say that the Smoketest passed, then you must fix the test results before posting the build. Even for developer's builds, we must ensure that at least the Smoketest passes. For major or minor releases, we should also perform more testing to ensure stability. More detailed log files for the Smoketest can be found in the xml-xalan/test/smoketest/ directory.

You should also test that the documentation built properly, and that it has the proper build or release number that you edited above.

IMPORTANT: if you changed any files at all, be sure to check in your work and re-start this process!

Sign the distribution units so end-users can trust them, then copy to the website.

• PGP/GPG sign all .zip/.tar.gz distribution files (distros).

As a security measure, all xml.apache.org projects must sign or otherwise ensure the integrity of their public distributions. This is most commonly done by signing the actual .zip/.tar.gz files with your personal PGP or GPG key. Note that you must sign the files before copying them up to the website.

Two prerequisites to signing the distribution are: 1) you must have a personal PGP or GPG key, and 2) the public half of your key must be in the appropriate KEYS file before you begin a build. If you hadn't previously checked in your public key to the KEYS file before beginning this whole process, you'll have to go back and start again.

We need some good links on getting PGP and GPG, and on actually code signing and verifying signatures. Jakarta has some, but they're scattered. This would be a good volunteer project for someone.

Sign every .zip and .tar.gz file with your personal key, and make a detached text file with the signature - this will usually create a foo.zip.asc or foo.zip.sig file for each foo.zip file you sign.

• Copy distros up to the website.

You'll need to copy all of the distros plus all of your detached signature files to the website so people can download them. Note that apache.org machines generally do not allow inbound ftp, so you'll need to either scp them or login to the apache machines and use scp or pftp from there outbound to some server that you've copied them to.

(Subject to change as www.apache.org/dist gets ready for mirroring) You'll need to log on to xml.apache.org (which is a separate machine from cvs.apache.org) and upload the files to /www/xml.apache.org/xalan-j/dist

You should also update the distribution directory's html files to note the new build numbers. Carefully edit the .htaccess file to update the 'Latest Stable Build' and 'Latest Developers Build' lines as needed. If you don't understand the format of this file, ask for help.

Update the live website doc and let the community know you're done!

• Update website documentation set.

Now that the distribution is available for downloading, you should also update the static copy of the documentation that's posted to xml.apache.org.

• Email xalan-dev with build notice!

After everything is posted, you need to let the community know that a new build is available. Write up a short email announcing this with just a couple of the highlights of the new build, and a link to the distribution area.

Make the subject something like: [ANN] Xalan-J 2.x Point/Developers/Whatever Release posted to xml.apache.org and send your email to: general@xml.apache.org, xalan-dev@xml.apache.org, xalan-j-users@xml.apache.org. Note that for developers releases, you can omit the general@xml.apache.org address if you don't think it will be of interest to the larger audience.