This document is for software release reviewers and describes how to review an Apache Taverna incubator release, not how to prepare the release candidate.
Permalink: https://s.apache.org/review-release
NOTE: In this document, items from the ASF release checklist are identified by (RC) and items from the ReleaseChecklist wiki are identified by (RCw).
Congratulations! You are about to participate in a important Apache Software Foundation activity. This document focuses on what is required to review a Taverna release. Details: How to Review A Release will walk you through the steps in more detail, if necessary.
Reviewers must:
Some necessary and optional tools:
Speak up immediately if you know of a reason not to do the release. For example, if there is a critical security bugfix that has not been included, alert the community so it can be fixed before the release.
Each project community determines its release philosophy. Projects that "release early, release often." like Taverna, will likely allow certain bugfixes to wait until the next release. See the guidelines for Taverna's release philosophy.
The README.md file for each distribution lists the prerequisites, such as which Java or Maven versions are required. [example]
Download the release candidate(s), including all hash and signature files, using the links in the VOTE email. (The release candidates are Zip files, the hash files are .md5 and .sha1 files, and the signature files are .asc files.)
Check the following items (in order).
Check that the MD5 and SHA checksums of the downloaded release candidate match the values in the VOTE email.
Use the Apache Taverna KEYS files to check that the signature is valid.
(See the Release Signing dev documentation. (RC) )
Check that the git commit ID of each distribution matches the value in the VOTE email.
Disclaimer
File names: Verify that all file names include "incubating."
Verify the top-level LICENSE and NOTICE files in the distribution match ASF guidelines, plus any Taverna-specific requirements.
See Details: How to Review A Release for more information.
(Also, see the Licensing How-To, plus various pages under Legal Affairs. (RC))
(See the ASF Source Header and Copyright Notice Policy. (RC) )
(See the IP clearance section of the Mentor's guide, as well as the Releases section of the Incubator's policy page.} (RC)
This is generally relevant where we have accepted a new larger contribution, e.g. a GSOC student has contributed a new module.
Check that all dependency licenses have been handled correctly and that no Category X licenses have inadvertently been included.
NOTE: CHECK THIS BEFORE YOU BUILD.
Each Apache release must contain a source package. This package may not contain compiled components (such as "jar" files) because compiled components are not open source, even if they were built from open source.
"The source artifact is the thing being released. Binaries and git are secondary."
The expanded source archive is expected to build and pass tests. The goal is to receive a BUILD SUCCESS message at the end of the building and testing process.
Do not skip any automated unit tests (E.g., do not use -DskipTests=true)
In addition to cursory checks of the jars, at least one person should check that all staged JARs are the same as those built from the downloaded release candidate. One approach is to do a recursive wget of the repository , and then compare the result of "find . -name '*jar'" in the wget-tree with */*/target/*.jar.
NOTE: Binary releases are considered "convenience only" and are not crucial for the vote: The source release is what everything else should be made from. However, in practical terms, most people download the binaries from the Maven repository. Therefore, it is important this is checked at least once.
Detailed Instructions for Reviewing a Release contains detailed instructions for how to check (verify) the release.
General review and voting requirements
Minimum Taverna release review guidelines (TBR)
This is a draft list of candidate community guidelines. It has not yet been validated by the community.
ALL
PPMC Members (and others, if they want)
NOTE: Functional testing will be limited until the full Taverna suite has been released.
(See also Podling Releases and voting process.)
A list of possible additional items is maintained on the ReleaseChecklist wiki page. This is the list (as of 3/2016):
- Provide build instructions, unless obvious. (RCw) *(obvious to whom?)*
- Match each source archive *(define)* with the corresponding SCM *(define)* tag. (RCw)
- Ensure RAT *(link? define?)* report is clean. (RCw)
- Ensure change log is clean. (RCw) *("clean" is determined by each project? replace with "meets the community guidelines"?)* - this appears to be referring to release notes.
- Ensure all copyright dates are current. (RCw)
- Ensure issue tracker (e.g., JIRA) is clean. (RCw)
- Run extended tests (if any) and ensure they pass.(RCw)
- Test that build succeeds on all target platforms.(RCw)
- Ensure documentation builds correctly.(RCw)
- Ensure binary release does not contain redundant dependency archives.(RCw)
Schreiber, Andreas. (2013) "Increasing software quality using the provenance of software development processes," in ESA Software Product Assurance Workshop 2013, 12-13 June 2013, Noordwijk, Niederlande. [link]