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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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 present
CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

5. 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 and report on 4.2 at
CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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 prealpha test version released to York & Cambridge
CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

13. 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 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. Patch release 5.0.1 made 6th July 2004
Post Release 5.0
Patch release 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 made 6th August 2004
9 problems in 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

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

24. Defects logged and resolved
CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review

25. Total number of defects tracked
CCP4 Release 5.0 – a review