11.1. Release Process¶

The release process creates an RTEMS release. The process has a number of stages that happen before a release can be made, during the creation of the release and after the release has been made.

11.1.1. Releases¶

RTEMS is released as a collection of ready to use source code and built documentation. Releases are publicly available on the RTEMS servers under https://ftp.rtems.org/pub/rtems/releases.

Releases are group under the major version number as a collection of directories consisting of the version number. This is termed a release series. A release may also contain release snapshots.

All releases must have a three digit version number and this can be optionally followed by a dash character (-) and an identifier, e.g. 5.1.0-acme-1.

The RTEMS Project reserves releases with only the three digit version number, e.g. 5.1.0. This identifies an RTEMS Project release.

11.1.1.1. Release Layout¶

All released source archives are XZ compressed tar files.
Top level contains:

README.txt:: A set of brief release instructions.
contrib:: Contributed sources. For example the release scripts used to create the release.
docs:: Compressed documentation build in HTML, Single page HTML and PDF formats. Provide compressed files for each document and a single archive of all the documentation. Provide an SHA512 check sum file.
rtems-<VERSION>-release-notes.pdf:: RTEMS Release notes document the changes in a release. This is a capture of the Trac report for the release’s milestone in PDF format.
sha512sum.txt:: SHA512 checksum of all files in this directory.
sources:: All source code referenced by the release.

11.1.1.2. Release Version Numbering¶

The release numbering scheme changed with RTEMS 5.

The master branch has the version N.0.0 with N being the next major release number. The release branch in a repository will be just the major number.

The first release of this series will have the version number N.1.0. The first bugfix release (minor release) of this series will have the version number N.2.0.

The release branch will have the version number N.M.1 with M being the last minor release of this series. Tools will use N as the version number and must be compatible with all releases and the release branch of the N series.

Examples:

5.0.0 is the version number of the development master for the 5 series

5.1.0 is the first release of the 5 series

5.1.1 is the version number of the 5 series release branch right after the 5.1.0 release until 5.2.0 is released

5.2.0 is the first bugfix release of the 5 series

5.2.1 is the version number of the 5 series release branch right after the 5.2.0 release until 5.3.0 is released

6.0.0 is the version number of the development master for the 6 series

11.1.1.3. Release Scripts¶

The release scripts are held in the top level repository https://git.rtems.org/rtems-release.git.
The scripts are written for FreeBSD and can run on FreeBSD 10 through FreeBSD 12. No other host operating system is supported for the release scripts. Updates are welcome if the changes do not affect the operation on FreeBSD.
A Python virutalenv environment is required for a working Sphinx documentation building environment. Follow the procedure in the rtems-docs.git top level README file.
Building a standard release requires you provide the release major number and the release’s remaining version string including any additional identifiers:
```
./rtems-release 5 1.0
```
To create a release snapshot:
```
./rtems-release 5 0.0-m2003
```
A 3rd option of a release URL can be provided to create a test or deployable release. The URL is a base path the RSB uses to download the release source files from:
```
./rtems-release \
    -u https://ftp.rtems.org/pub/rtems/people/chrisj/releases \
    5 0.0-m2003-2
```
Building the release notes requires the Web Toolkit HTML to PDF converter be installed. The FreeBSD package is wkhtmltopdf.

11.1.1.4. Release Snapshots¶

Release snapshots are only created for the current development version of RTEMS. For example RTEMS 5 snapshot path is 5/5.0.0/5.0.0-m2003.
Release snapshots are based on the development sources and may be unstable or not suitable for use in production.
A release snapshot is created each month and is named as <major>/<version>/<version>-<YYMM> where YY is the last two digits of the current year and MM is the month as a two digit number.
In the lead up to a release more than one snapshot can be created by appending -<count> to the snapshot version string where <count> is incremented starting from 1. The first snapshot without a count is considered number 0.
Release snapshots maybe removed from the RTEMS servers at the discretion of the RTEMS project

11.1.2. Release Repositories¶

The following are the repositories that a release effects. Any repository action is to be performed in the following repositories:

rtems.git
rtems-central.git
rtems-docs.git
rtems-examples.git
rtems-libbsd.git
rtems-release.git
rtems-source-builder.git
rtems-tools.git
rtems_waf.git

11.1.3. Pre-Release Procedure¶

All tickets must be resolved, closed or moved to a later milestone. Tickets can exist that are specific to the branch and are to be resolved before the first release is made.
Create release snapshots and post suitable build and test results.

11.1.4. Release Branching¶

A release has a release branch in each of the release repositories. A release is a created from a release branch. The release branch label is the RTEMS major version number.

11.1.4.1. LibBSD Release Branch¶

The rtems-libbsd.git is an exception as it has two active release branches. The repository has a release branch based on the master like all the release repositories and it can have a FreeBSD version specific release branch that is used in the release.

LibBSD runs two branches during it’s development cycle. The master branch tracks the FreeBSD master branch. This means LibBSD tracks FreeBSD’s development. LibBSD also tracks a FreeBSD branch for the RTEMS release. For example RTEMS 5 tracks FreeBSD 12 as it’s release base. This provides functionaly stability to the RTEMS 5 release by allowing a control process to track bug fixes in FreeBSD 12.

11.1.4.2. Pre-Branch Procedure¶

All tickets assigned to the release’s first milestone must be resolved. Tickets can exist that are specific to the branch and are to be resolved before the first release is made.
The following BSP must build using the RSB:
- arm/beagleboneblack
Check and make sure the RSB kernel, libbsd and tools configurations reference the master when the branch is made.

The RSB Git builds reference a specific commit so it is important the relevant configurations are valid.

11.1.4.3. Branch Procedure¶

Branch labels are the major number as branch releases increment the minor number. A branch is only created when the first major release is made.

The commands to set a remote branch for a release in a repository are:

git clone <URL>/<REPO> <REPO>
cd <REPO>
git checkout -b <VERSION> origin/master
git push origin <VERSION>

Example:

git clone ssh://chrisj@dispatch.rtems.org/data/git/rtems.git rtems.git
cd rtems.git
git checkout -b 5 origin/master
git push origin 5

Check and make sure the RSB kernel, libbsd and tools reference the branch commit.

11.1.4.4. Post-Branch Procedure¶

Create a release page for the next RTEMS release in Trac.
Update the releases table. The page link is:

https://devel.rtems.org/wiki/Release

Update the table adding the new development release to the top moving down the previous releases.

Label the new release branch as “Releasing”. The documentation link is left pointing to master until the release is made and the documentation is installed on the RTEMS Documentation web site.
Update the release table in the front page of the Trac Wiki. The page link is:

https://devel.rtems.org/wiki/

Add the milestones for the new development branch. The Trac page is:

= 6.1 (open)

== Statistics

||   '''Total'''||[[TicketQuery(milestone=6.1,count)]]                                      ||
||         Fixed||[[TicketQuery(status=closed&milestone=6.1,resolution=fixed,count,)]]      ||
||       Invalid||[[TicketQuery(status=closed&milestone=6.1,resolution=invalid,count,)]]    ||
||  Works for me||[[TicketQuery(status=closed&milestone=6.1,resolution=worksforme,count,)]] ||
||     Duplicate||[[TicketQuery(status=closed&milestone=6.1,resolution=duplicate,count,)]]  ||
||     Won't fix||[[TicketQuery(status=closed&milestone=6.1,resolution=wontfix,count,)]]    ||

== Distribution
[[TicketQuery(milestone=6.1&group=type,format=progress)]]

== Summary
[[TicketQuery(milestone=6.1)]]

== Details
[[TicketQuery(col=id|time|resolution|component|reporter|owner|changetime,status=closed&milestone=6.1,rows=summary|description,table)]]

Replace 6.1 with the required milestone.

Create the RC1 release candidate with the source as close the branch point as possible.
Create a ticket to the clean the RSB for the release. The RSB’s master branch carries a number of older configurations and new release configurations. These can be confusing to a new user and add no value to a released RSB. For example leaving RTEMS 6 tool building configurations in the RTEMS 5 release.
Check out the release branch of rtems-central.git. Change all Git submodules to reference commits of the corresponding release branch. Run ./spec2modules.py. Inspect all Git submodules for changes. If there are locally modified files, then there are two options. Firstly, integrate the changes in the release branches. Afterwards update the Git submodule commit. Secondly, change the specification so that a particular change is not made. Make sure that there are no changes after this procedure.

11.1.4.4.1. Post-Branch Version Number Updates¶

After the release repositored have been branched the master branch has to have the major version number updated. The follow is a list of the needed changes.

RTEMS requires the following files be changed:
- Doxyfile: Update PROJECT_NUMBER.
- rtems-bsps: Update rtems_version.
- spec/build/cpukit/optvermaj.yml: Update set-value.
- spec/build/cpukit/optvermin.yml: Update set-value.
- spec/build/cpukit/optverrev.yml: Update set-value.
- wscript: Update default_prefix.
RTEMS Documentation the following files be changed:
- wscript: Update rtems_major_version.
RSB requires the following files be changed:
- source-builder/sb/version.py: Update _version.
RTEMS Tools requires the following files be changed:
- config/rtems-version.ini: Update revision.
- tester/rtems/version.cfg: Update rtems_version.
rtems-libbsd requires the following files and branches be changed:
- README.md: Update Branches section.
- wscript: Update rtems_version.
- Create a new branch for tracking the FreeBSD stable version, for example 6-freebsd-12.
rtems-examples requires the following files be changed:
- wscript: Update rtems_version.

11.1.5. Release Procedure¶

The release procedure can be performed on any FreeBSD machine and uploaded to the RTEMS FTP server. You will need ssh access to the RTEMS server dispatch.rtems.org and suitable permissions to write into the FTP release path on the RTEMS server.

The release process starts by branching the repositories. To branch run the script:

./rtems-release-branch [-p] <USER> <VERSION> <REVISION>

Example:

cd
mkdir -p development/rtems/releases
cd development/rtems/releases
git clone git://git.rtems.org/rtems-release.git rtems-release.git
cd rtems-release.git
./rtems-release-branch -p chrisj 5

You need to have suitable commit access to the repositories.

To create the RTEMS release run the release script:

./rtems-release <VERSION> <REVISION>

Example:

./rtems-release 5 1.0

Copy the release to the RTEMS FTP server:

ssh <user>@dispatch.rtems.org mkdir -p /data/ftp/pub/rtems/releases/<VERSION>
scp -r <VERSION>.<REVISION> <user>@dispatch.rtems.org:/data/ftp/pub/rtems/releases/<VERSION>/.

Example:

ssh chrisj@dispatch.rtems.org mkdir -p /data/ftp/pub/rtems/releases/5
scp -r 5.1.0 chrisj@dispatch.rtems.org:/data/ftp/pub/rtems/releases/5/.

Verify the release has been uploaded by checking the link:

https://ftp.rtems.org/pub/rtems/releases/<VERSION>/<VERSION>.<REVISION>

Tag the release repositories with the following command:

git checkout -b origin/<VERSION>
git tag <TAG>
git push origin <TAG>

Example:

git clone ssh://chrisj@dispatch.rtems.org/data/git/rtems.git rtems.git
cd rtems.git
git checkout -b origin/5
git tag 5.1.0
git push origin 5.1.0

11.1.6. Post-Release Procedure¶

The following procedures are performed after a release has been created.

Update the release to the RTEMS servers:

rsync --rsh=ssh -arv 5.1.0 chrisj@dispatch.rtems.org:/data/ftp/pub/rtems/releases/5/.

Test a build of the beagleboneblack BSP.