Create a new Charm release

Before creating a prerelease

• Check on GitHub to see if bugs targeted for the release version are done. If they aren't, decide if they can be postponed or get after people to fix them.

• Check that libraries which we distribute with Charm are up to date:

  • hwloc
  • Boost uFcontext threads
  • QuickThreads
  • METIS
  • LLVM OpenMP runtime.

• Add release notes to CHANGES.

• Update the Charm++ version number in the configure script, CMakeLists.txt, and Charm++ manual.

• Update the list of authors in the README.md.

Prereleases

Release an RC on a branch (branch named charm-X.X.X and tagged vX.X.X-rcX) and ask the application teams to do performance tests. Give them about a week to respond. If there are performance regressions or major bugs reported, then fix them before release.

Release

When release is ready, create a tag on the branch (vX.X.X) and do the following:

• Add release notes to CHANGES, and update the version numbers in the configure script, CMakeLists.txt, and Charm++ manual.
• Update both webpages with the release tarballs and with news items: https://charm.cs.illinois.edu/download/ and http://charmplusplus.org/download/
• The Charm++ wikipedia page also has the current release info, so update it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charm%2B%2B
• Modify the charm-latest.tar.gz link to point to the new release.
• Update the tar files on the web server using "./package_tarball.sh --release".
• Update the tar files for Projections & CharmDebug too.
• Email charm.cs mailing list announcing the release with the release notes.
• Close out the release on GitHub's roadmap, update mainline charm CHANGES, README.md, etc.
• Create a new release of the manual on readthedocs.io
• Update the Spack package.