RELEASING.md

Releasing EncodeForge

These are manual steps. They were previously in prepare_release.sh, which looked like an executable release process but only printed this text — running it did nothing and invited the assumption that a release had been prepared.

Check the current version with:

python3 -c "from app import __version__; print(__version__)"

1. Install build dependencies

pip install -r requirements-dev.txt   # includes Nuitka, ordered-set, zstandard

2. Compile

python3 build_nuitka.py

For a Windows single-file executable:

NUITKA_ONEFILE=1 python3 build_nuitka.py

3. Build platform installers

Outputs land under dist-packages/.

macOS

export CODESIGN_IDENTITY='Developer ID Application: … (TEAM_ID)'
./packaging/macos/build-release-macos.sh

Notarisation is optional and skipped unless configured. Set NOTARY_PROFILE (default AC_PASSWORD) after running xcrun notarytool store-credentials.

Linux

./packaging/linux/build-deb-rpm.sh
./packaging/linux/build-appimage.sh

Requires fpm (gem install fpm) for deb/rpm, and appimagetool on PATH for the AppImage.

Windows

powershell -File packaging/windows/package-zip.ps1

4. Verify before tagging

• Bump __version__ in app/__init__.py. It is the single source of truth — setup.py and the settings file stamp both read it, so nothing else needs editing.
• Tag the release to match, prefixed with v (v0.5.0). Pre-release tags keep their suffix (v0.5.1-beta-1): the update checker compares full PEP 440 versions, so the suffix is significant and must not be dropped.
• Update CHANGELOG.md and the version strings in docs/index.html, docs/guide.html, and README.md. The download page reads GitHub Releases at runtime and needs no edit.
• CI runs the unit suite on every branch; confirm it is green.