perl-5.18.3 -- what happened?

I just announced perl 5.18.4, just about twelve hours after previously
uploading 5.18.3.  This, of course, was not the plan.  What happened?

perl-5.18.3 was uploaded with a META.json that reported its release status as
"testing," despite being a stable release.  This caused the "regen test" to
fail, meaning you couldn't install the release following the normal "build,
test, install" procedure.  So, why did that happen?

Unfortunately, the answer is not very interesting.  It was a stupid mistake on
my part.  During the final few steps of releasing, I left my house to run an
errand.  When I returned, I had lost my place in the process, and completed the
upload without reading the results of the final testing, which were sitting
elsewhere in a terminal tab.

David Golden suggested that it would've been helpful to have a checklist.  I
agree!  The RMG, in fact, can be converted into a checklist.  There are two
reasons that this didn't help:  for one thing, I didn't use it, because I know
the procedure so well.  "Ha ha."  The other is that the checklist isn't easy
enough to print out and use as a real checklist.  There are two obvious
corrective actions to take:

• Make the checklist more useful as a printed document.
• Always use the checklist, no matter how expert one feels.

Neither of these is dependent on the other.

I think the whole result of this affair has been to embarrass me.  That is:  I
hope no one has been inconvenienced by this mistake.  Whether or not you have
been, though, I apologize for this avoidable mistake.

-- 
rjbs

• perl-5.18.3 -- what happened? by Ricardo Signes
• Re: perl-5.18.3 -- what happened? by demerphq