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## Releasing new versions of Widelands ¶

[TOC] ¶

This document is about what steps are to perform to release a new build of Widelands. ¶

We release one release candidate before each release, to make sure no completely stupid mistakes creep into a release. The steps for preparing the RC are mostly the same as the steps for preparing the final release, to ensure that problems with the release problems are found with the release candidate. ¶

### Step 1: First-Snow Feature Freeze ¶

* Implement or reschedule targeted features for this build. ¶
* Maintenance stuff: ¶
* update developers ¶
* update changelog ¶
* update copyright year by running `utils/update_copyright.py <year>` ¶
* check docs (everything in data/txts, debian, website wiki) ¶
* [update and validate translations](https://wl.widelands.org/wiki/TranslationMaintenance/) ¶
* Agree on a date for first-snow feature freeze on widelands-public. ¶
* First-Snow feature freeze means: ¶
* no new features ¶
* no style fixes ¶
* no changes to campaigns ¶
* no new tagged strings ¶
* only minimal invasive bug fixes. That is if a bug can be fixed in a ¶
dirty-but-minimal-invasive change and in a correct way, the one that ¶
doesn't touch on any other code should be preferred and the correct way ¶
should go into a feature branch. ¶
* Announce the feature freeze date on the homepage to give translators/graphic ¶
artists a chance to catch up. ¶
* Announce a string freeze on Transifex. ¶

Development should not cease but continue in feature branches. No more stuff should go to trunk though. ¶
As soon as all targeted bugs are fixed, we continue with ¶

### Step 2: Winter-Time feature freeze (The Real Feature freeze) ¶

* When all targeted bugs are fixed, a date for winter-time feature freeze is ¶
set. This should be roughly two weeks from the last bug's fixings date. One week ¶
after this the build candidate release is to be scheduled. ¶
* Maintenance stuff: (all of the above) ¶
* Double-check copyright year in main menu and About tab. ¶
* This feature freeze extends to **everything**: from translations to media, ¶
code, style. So there is one week where everything should already be perfectly working before the ¶
build candidate just to make sure that no last minute things come up. ¶
* Obviously, new surfacing critical bugs are to be vanquished. Non critical bugs are to be deferred to ¶
the next version. What's critical should be discussed on the mailing list if there is no consensus. ¶

### Step 3: Build candidate ¶

* On the build candidate day the release does the following: ¶
* Maintenance stuff: (all of the above) ¶
* Update the screenshots in `debian/widelands.appdata.xml.stub` and add release information, then run `utils/update_appdata.py`. ¶
* Branch from trunk. ¶
* Add a proper `WL_RELEASE` file. ¶
* Tag the release in the new branch. ¶
* Mark all bugs that have *Fix Committed* as *Fix Released*. Add as comment the name of this build candidate. ¶
* Disable the milestone. Do not mark it as release yet. ¶
* Use `bzr export` to export the source package (tar.bz2). ¶
* Upload the source tarball so that packagers can use it as reference. ¶
* Inform the packagers. ¶
* Add a new milestone for the final build ¶

* As soon as Windows, Mac and Linux binaries are available: ¶
* Mark the milestone as a release, upload the packages. ¶
* Add a post on the homepage. ¶

Approximately one week after the release candidate, the final release should follow: ¶

### Step 4: Releasing ¶

* Fix a date for release on widelands public. ¶
* On the date: ¶
* Merge trunk into the build branch ¶
* Update the `WL_RELEASE` file. ¶
* Update the release information in `debian/widelands.appdata.xml.stub`, then run `utils/update_appdata.py`. ¶
* Mark all bugs that have *Fix Committed* as *Fix Released*. Add as comment the name of this build. ¶
* Tag the build in the build branch ¶
* Disable the milestone. Do not mark it as release yet. ¶
* Use `bzr export` to export the source package (tar.bz2). Upload the source ¶
tarball so that packagers can use it as reference. ¶
* Upload the source package for packagers to find. ¶
* Inform the packagers. ¶
* As soon as Windows, Mac and Linux binaries are available: ¶
* Prepare a release statement for news etc.; use release statements of previous releases as a template. ¶
* Mark the milestone as a release, upload the packages. ¶
* Update the DownloadPage to link to the new build. ¶
* Update the screenshot section. ¶
* Send a Mail to *widelands-announce* with the release-statement ¶
* Announce on launchpad with the release-statement and full changelog ¶
* Add a post on the homepage. ¶

### Step 5: Post Release ¶

* Post-Release Mail to widelands-public: ¶
* Discuss problems with this release. Update this checklist with good changes accordingly. ¶
* Lift feature freeze from trunk. ¶
* Encourage people to update infos about widelands on the web: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widelands), [LGDB](https://lgdb.org/game/widelands) [LibreGameWiki](https://libregamewiki.org/Widelands), [Giant Bomb](http://www.giantbomb.com/widelands/3030-55521/), [Heise](https://www.heise.de/download/product/widelands-51404) and more. ¶

* Send cap-over-the-mill Mail to *widelands-public* about the next build ¶
* State organisatorial plans ¶
* State project driver vision plans ¶
* State plans as a developer ¶
* encourage other developers to post replies and their own plans. ¶

### Creating binary packages ¶

#### Windows ¶

For compilation of widelands-binary take a look at BuildingWidelandsUnderWindows and the README-file in [widelands-trunk]/build/win32 ¶

Compilation of a Setup-file is done via /build/win32/innosetup/Widelands.iss Script, which can be run with [Inno Setup](http://jrsoftware.org) -Compiler. ¶

#### Linux (directory independent) ¶

These points are intended to help in creating a tarball that can easily be extracted and run in-place (e.g. in a user's home directory). For general Linux build info, see [Build using cmake](http://wl.widelands.org/wiki/BuildingWidelands/#building_with_cmake), among others. ¶

Please note, that the locale directory must be correct; otherwise, Widelands will not find translations. Adding the parameters _-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="<prefix>" -DCMAKE_BINDIR="<gamesdir>" -DCMAKE_DATADIR="<datadirpath>" -DCMAKE_LOCALEDIR="<widelandslocaledir>"_ to the cmake command line should work, but be sure to test the binary package before the actual release. ¶

These are the suggested steps for building the package: ¶

* Extract the release source package (using bzr export). ¶
* Build the widelands executable using cmake and make (but be aware of the "locale" point above). ¶
* Perform some basic test (e.g. that translations are found). ¶
* Delete everything that is only relevant for source packages. ¶
* Create the tarball. ¶
* Extract the tarball into a new directory and perform some basic tests before uploading.