Release Process

This page lists all tasks that have to be done for a gPodder release.

Automating this is discussed in #293.

Notify Translators

make messages on the master branch and commit changes, then notify translators via the #518 github issue.

Update dependencies

If dependencies have been changed or updated, it’s a good time to update them:

macOS: to update native libraries, see the gpodder/gpodder-osx-bundle repository; once the macOS deps are built and released, update .github/workflows/release-from-macos.yml;
macOS bundle python deps: see the tools/mac-osx/release_on_mac.sh for the python deps with versions in pip install commands; update them;
Windows: see the _base.sh file in the tools/win_installer subdirectory of the gPodder repository. The files in this directory were adapted from the dev-utils/win_installer/ subdirectory of the QuodLibet repository, and upstream may contain fixes or improvements.
Python (and flatpak): Update the dependencies in tools/requirements.txt

Testing and release management in the repository

Test if gPodder works for normal and first-time use cases (TODO this should be done in CI):

  \# ... test if basic usage works with current data ...
  mv ~/gPodder ~/gPodder.saved
  \# ... test gPodder (subscribing + downloading) ...
  rm -rf ~/gPodder
  mv ~/gPodder.saved ~/gPodder

Test latest Windows and macOS builds in a similar manner.
Update src/gpodder/\_\_init\_\_.py with new version number and release date, update translations and manpages in a single command:
```
  make revbump VERSION=x.y.z
```
Add release to share/metainfo/org.gpodder.gpodder.appdata.xml, including the notable changes from release notes.

Commit changes

  git commit -m "prepare x.y.z release"

Release notes/website work

Tag the release

  git tag -a -m "gPodder x.y.z release" x.y.z
  git push --follow-tags

Let the CI take care of building and testing:
- Github testing,
- Github macOS build,
- Appveyor Windows build;
Use the tools/github_release.py script to download built windows and macOS packages and then upload and prepare the release notes (editing while the upload is in progress).
```
  cd tools
  GITHUB_TOKEN=xxx python github_release.py --download --mac-github-workflow LATEST_MAC_GA_WORKFLOW --appveyor APPVEYOR_JOB x.y.z
```
Once all is uploaded and release notes are ready, change the tag name and publish the release
Copy release notes from github releases and post to the Mailing list
Update versions on the website

Debian package

Notify Debian packager that a new release is available: tony on mancill dot com

Flathub package

The flatpak build files for flathub are in https://github.com/flathub/org.gpodder.gpodder

Update gpodder sources URL and sha256sum in the org.gpodder.gpodder.json build manifest
Add the release under the <releases> tag in appdata.xml
If python dependencies have changed, update python3-requirements.json by running flatpak-pip-generator -r <path to tools/requirements.txt in gpodder sources> (see flatpak-builder-tools)
Make a test build by running flatpak-builder --user --install build-dir org.gpodder.gpodder.json
Merge your changes to the flathub repo

Ubuntu PPA package

See https://github.com/gpodder/ppa-scripts