1 =============================
2 How To Validate a New Release
3 =============================
12 This document contains information about testing the release candidates that will
13 ultimately be the next LLVM release. For more information on how to manage the
14 actual release, please refer to :doc:`HowToReleaseLLVM`.
16 Overview of the Release Process
17 -------------------------------
19 Once the release process starts, the Release Manager will ask for volunteers,
20 and it'll be the role of each volunteer to:
22 * Test and benchmark the previous release
24 * Test and benchmark each release candidate, comparing to the previous release and candidates
26 * Identify, reduce and report every regression found during tests and benchmarks
28 * Make sure the critical bugs get fixed and merged to the next release candidate
30 Not all bugs or regressions are show-stoppers and it's a bit of a grey area what
31 should be fixed before the next candidate and what can wait until the next release.
35 * The severity of the bug, how many people it affects and if it's a regression or a
36 known bug. Known bugs are "unsupported features" and some bugs can be disabled if
37 they have been implemented recently.
39 * The stage in the release. Less critical bugs should be considered to be fixed between
40 RC1 and RC2, but not so much at the end of it.
42 * If it's a correctness or a performance regression. Performance regression tends to be
43 taken more lightly than correctness.
50 The scripts are in the ``utils/release`` directory.
55 This script will check-out, configure and compile LLVM+Clang (+ most add-ons,
56 like ``compiler-rt``, ``libcxx`` and ``clang-extra-tools``) in three stages, and
57 will test the final stage. It'll have installed the final binaries on the
58 Phase3/Releasei(+Asserts) directory, and that's the one you should use for the
59 test-suite and other external tests.
61 To run the script on a specific release candidate run::
66 -triple x86_64-apple-darwin \
71 Each system will require different options. For instance, x86_64 will obviously not need
72 ``-no-64bit`` while 32-bit systems will, or the script will fail.
74 The important flags to get right are:
76 * On the pre-release, you should change ``-rc 1`` to ``-final``. On RC2, change it to ``-rc 2`` and so on.
78 * On non-release testing, you can use ``-final`` in conjunction with ``-no-checkout``, but you'll have to
79 create the ``final`` directory by hand and link the correct source dir to ``final/llvm.src``.
81 * For release candidates, you need ``-test-asserts``, or it won't create a "Release+Asserts" directory,
82 which is needed for release testing and benchmarking. This will take twice as long.
84 * On the final candidate you just need Release builds, and that's the binary directory you'll have to pack.
86 This script builds three phases of Clang+LLVM twice each (Release and Release+Asserts), so use
87 screen or nohup to avoid headaches, since it'll take a long time.
89 Use the ``--help`` option to see all the options and chose it according to your needs.
92 findRegressions-nightly.py
93 --------------------------
105 Follow the `LNT Quick Start Guide <http://llvm.org/docs/lnt/quickstart.html>`__ link on how to set-up the test-suite
107 The binary location you'll have to use for testing is inside the ``rcN/Phase3/Release+Asserts/llvmCore-REL-RC.install``.
108 Link that directory to an easier location and run the test-suite.
110 An example on the run command line, assuming you created a link from the correct
111 install directory to ``~/devel/llvm/install``::
113 ./sandbox/bin/python sandbox/bin/lnt runtest \
117 --test-suite ~/devel/llvm/test/test-suite \
118 --cc ~/devel/llvm/install/bin/clang \
119 --cxx ~/devel/llvm/install/bin/clang++
121 It should have no new regressions, compared to the previous release or release candidate. You don't need to fix
122 all the bugs in the test-suite, since they're not necessarily meant to pass on all architectures all the time. This is
123 due to the nature of the result checking, which relies on direct comparison, and most of the time, the failures are
124 related to bad output checking, rather than bad code generation.
126 If the errors are in LLVM itself, please report every single regression found as blocker, and all the other bugs
127 as important, but not necessarily blocking the release to proceed. They can be set as "known failures" and to be
128 fix on a future date.
130 .. _pre-release-process:
138 When the release process is announced on the mailing list, you should prepare
139 for the testing, by applying the same testing you'll do on the release candidates,
140 on the previous release.
144 * Download the previous release sources from http://llvm.org/releases/download.html.
146 * Run the test-release.sh script on ``final`` mode (change ``-rc 1`` to ``-final``).
148 * Once all three stages are done, it'll test the final stage.
150 * Using the ``Phase3/Release+Asserts/llvmCore-MAJ.MIN-final.install`` base, run the test-suite.
152 If the final phase's ``make check-all`` failed, it's a good idea to also test the
153 intermediate stages by going on the obj directory and running ``make check-all`` to find
154 if there's at least one stage that passes (helps when reducing the error for bug report
165 When the Release Manager sends you the release candidate, download all sources,
166 unzip on the same directory (there will be sym-links from the appropriate places
167 to them), and run the release test as above.
171 * Download the current candidate sources from where the release manager points you
172 (ex. http://llvm.org/pre-releases/3.3/rc1/).
174 * Repeat the steps above with ``-rc 1``, ``-rc 2`` etc modes and run the test-suite
177 * Compare the results, report all errors on Bugzilla and publish the binary blob
178 where the release manager can grab it.
180 Once the release manages announces that the latest candidate is the good one, you
181 have to pack the ``Release`` (no Asserts) install directory on ``Phase3`` and that
182 will be the official binary.
184 * Rename (or link) ``clang+llvm-REL-ARCH-ENV`` to the .install directory
186 * Tar that into the same name with ``.tar.gz`` extensioan from outside the directory
188 * Make it available for the release manager to download
192 Bug Reporting Process
193 =====================
198 If you found regressions or failures when comparing a release candidate with the
199 previous release, follow the rules below:
201 * Critical bugs on compilation should be fixed as soon as possible, possibly before
202 releasing the binary blobs.
204 * Check-all tests should be fixed before the next release candidate, but can wait
205 until the test-suite run is finished.
207 * Bugs in the test suite or unimportant check-all tests can be fixed in between
210 * New features or recent big changes, when close to the release, should have done
211 in a way that it's easy to disable. If they misbehave, prefer disabling them than
212 releasing an unstable (but untested) binary package.