Review of CCP4 Release 5.0 Peter Briggs CCP4 CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Peter Briggs (release coordinator) Martyn Winn (library coordinator) Personnel Core staff at DL Peter Briggs (release coordinator) Martyn Winn (library coordinator) Charles Ballard Alun Ashton Pryank Patel CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Tools used Regular meetings of DL group summarised and sent to all afterwards External webpage to communicate with non-DL developers Internal webpage giving current status of tasks, task assignments, criticality for all components updated after each meeting Daily automatic test builds (autobuilds) on DL machines (After June 03) Defect tracking using Bugzilla Test releases CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Outline of the release process Initial plan (in response to 4.2 experiences) Preparatory phase: September 2002 – January 2003 Release phase: February 2003 – May 2004 Post release phase: May 2004 - present CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Lessons learnt from 4.2 Discuss well in advance with contributors (both local and external) regarding what will be provided for the next release Allow time for porting, dealing with new dependencies, making consequent updates to CCP4i, and for testing. The only code changes we will accept after the submission deadline for release has passed are bug fixes against specific bug reports. No developmental changes will be accepted i.e. there will be a code freeze. Better communication with the external developers Inform contributors of changes which might impact on their software. Keep external developers informed of the release status via the Developers Bulletin Board (ccp-dev) and dedicated webpages. Better communication with the test sites To ensure that they have the most up-to-date test version, and that bugs reported by them are properly tracked and fixed. (See http://www.ccp4.ac.uk/dev/releases/leassons-from-4.2.html and report on 4.2 at http://www.ccp4.ac.uk/dev/releases/history-of-4.2.html) CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Initial plan presented to WG2 Proposed release schedule: Initial plan presented to WG2 Stage Timing Description Requirements Deadline for core developmental submissions N/A End of development period & code freeze for core components: no more developmental changes can be submitted to CVS (including local developments at DL). To be agreed with contributors. Consolidation & non-core developmental submissions Consolidation: 6 weeks Grace period for adding the new & updated programs at DL merge in changes; minor updates to CCP4i interfaces for altered programs only changes allowed now from external developers are bug fixes against specific bug reports review & if necessary update documentation, examples, tutorials Suite must build on all platforms at DL (including NT); run-all (and other test scripts) must execute successfully. Non-core developments: 4 weeks To run concurrently with initial stages of consolidation and provide time to respond to core changes, if necessary. To be agreed and tackled on a prioritised basis. Alpha Release & Test 6 weeks make alpha version available "locally" (initial testing at DL) make alpha version available to limited test sites; begin bug tracking from external sites As "Consolidation", plus: must have addressed all bug reports from test sites Beta Release & Test make beta version available to wider audience via developers bb As "Alpha Release & Test". Public Release Full release CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Preparatory Phase Date Action 24/09/02 Release plan presented to WG2 Throughout 10/02 Communicated with external contributors 22/10/02 Submission deadline 15th Jan 03 agreed at DL 5/1/03 Meeting at DL agreed a list of developments & contributions and a release timetable CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Core components Core components: New CCP4 libraries CCP4i Database handler Clipper FFTW New programs Dtrek2Scala, BP3, What_Check Updated programs including Refmac, Mosflm, Molrep (and all the usual suspects) Core was defined as “essential components which impact significantly on the installation and stability of the suite.” These were assigned high priority for early inclusion to allow time for longer testing. CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Non-core components Non-core developments were considered to be non-essential and could be dropped from the release These included most developments by DL staff CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Proposed timescale Core developments completed by 31st January 2003 followed by prealpha release of core components e.g. libraries Non-core developments complemented by 28th February concurrently with consolidation stage Consolidation to end by 14th March followed by alpha release phase Beta release test phase by 28th March Public release 30th April 2003 CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Planned use of external sites for testing Developers using the software in their own products should get access to versions as soon after initial deadline (for integrating and testing compatibility) SHARP, MOSFLM, ARP/wARP, EBI, PDB Small number of external sites should receive initial prealpha release to provide us with feedback Successive alpha/beta releases would then be made available to wider audiences at each release This assumed that each release would be more stable than the last CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Release process: January to April 2003 Date Action 31st January 2003 – submission deadline 4/02/03 DL review meeting agrees that the due to problems with the new libraries, these are the highest priority for all group members Still aiming for mid-March alpha release 26/02/03 Alpha release target pushed to 4th April due to continuing library problems 27/02/03 DL meeting reiterates that highest priority for all is stabilising the libraries Target dates are: stable libraries by end of April, integration of missing core components + testing with provisional release by early July 1st April 2003 - prealpha test version released to York & Cambridge CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Release Process: April to May 2003 Date Action 23/4/03 DL meeting reports libraries stabilising but still with problems. New software licence is mentioned for first time New strategy/timeline is agreed: Make “rolling releases” in May (maximise testing of libraries Deadline for changes/start of testing 30th May, public release 28th June – 19th July 6th May 2003 - prealpha “0.1” test version released Sent to Clemens Vonrheinm, Tassos Perrakis, PDB and EBI to get more external testing CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Release Process: May to June 2003 Date Action 16/5/03 DL meeting identified missing key components: WHAT_CHECK, MOLREP, SFCHECK, REFMAC, LIBCHECK, BEAST, FFTW, CLIPPER, MOSFLM also some library functionality still missing new software licence Clemens & EBI testers start using remote CVS No change to target dates 3/6/03 REFMAC, LIBCHECK, MOSFLM, FFTW, WHAT_CHECK 24th June 2003 Test version 5.0.a released CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Release process: change in strategy, June 2003 With the release of 5.0.a the revised strategy was: “make further test releases until the public release is finalised” This test version was released to an even wider set of potential testers (10 sites) Target date for beta release revised to end of July CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Release Process: June to July 2003 Other significant developments: DL group start being directly involved in preparation of new software licence DL group start using Bugzilla for defect tracking Missing components shrinks to REFMAC, FFTW, MOSFLM, new licence & Windows build Test version 5.0.b released 4th July 2003 CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Release Process: July to August 2003 Date Action 16/7/03 DL meeting delays target release date until mid-August due to lack of new software licence 18th July 2003 – test release 5.0.c August 03 DL group is at half strength for much of August due to the various absences of PJB, CCB, AWA 18/8/03 FFTW is incorporated 20th August 2003 – test version 5.0.d released in response to addition of FFTW CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Release Process: September 2003 At the start of September the major missing components are identified as: New licence REFMAC, MOSFLM (requires updating for new libraries), BULK, MOSFLM-CCP4i, Tutorials, Library documentation “Test sites are very quiet … either they are encountering fewer problems or they have given up” CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Release Process: September to October 2003 Refocusing meeting mid-September in an attempt to reverse project Specific actions are assigned to each group member, minuted and followed up at the next meeting By the end of September very few major tasks are still outstanding (mainly tidying & bug fixes) By October the new software licence remains the most major missing component: “The status of the new licence remains ambiguous but since we … have no control over it we should consider it irrelevant to getting the release finished.” CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Release Process: November 2003 to February 2004 Date Action 4th November 2003 – test version 5.0.e released 8/11/03 “Examination of ftp logs showed that take up of 5.0.e by users sites was quite poor…” 22nd December 2003 – test version 5.0.f released 15/1/04 DL meeting sets targets: Beta release end of January Public release 3-4 weeks later 3rd February 2004 – Beta test version released 20th February 2004 – Beta1 test version released in order to maintain momentum in absence of finalised licence CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Release Process: February – May 2004 Licence resolution process continued: 30/2/04 – draft academic licence agreed 6/5/04 – final commercial licence agreed Some problems with finalising versions of REFMAC and MOSFLM in this time period Public release of 5.0 on 11th May 2004 CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Patch release 5.0.1 made 6th July 2004 Post Release 5.0 Patch release 5.0.1 made 6th July 2004 13 problems in 5.0 reported on problems pages 1 installation, 4 program, 1 library, 7 CCP4i Included serious error in Refmac Patch release 5.0.2 made 6th August 2004 9 problems in 5.0.1 reported on problems pages 1 installation, 4 program, 1 library, 3 CCP4i Addressed serious memory leak in library introduced in 5.0.1 CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Source code downloads May to August 2004 CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Defects logged and resolved CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

Total number of defects tracked CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review