PowerShell releases use Semantic Versioning.
Until we hit 6.0, each sprint results in a bump to the build number,
so v6.0.0-alpha.7 goes to v6.0.0-alpha.8.
When a particular commit is chosen as a release,
we create an annotated tag that names the release,
and list the major changes since the previous release.
An annotated tag has a message (like a commit),
and is not the same as a lightweight tag.
Create one with git tag -a v6.0.0-alpha.7.
Our convention is to prepend the v to the semantic version.
The summary (first line) of the annotated tag message should be the full release title,
e.g. 'v6.0.0-alpha.7 release of PowerShell'.
While creating a release, it is advised to make a new branch such that necessary documentation updates and hot fixes can be made, without having to include all changes made to master. This release branch can be reviewed by the normal PR process.
When the annotated tag is finalized, push it with git push --tags.
GitHub will see the tag and present it as an option when creating a new release.
Start the release, use the annotated tag's summary as the title,
and save the release as a draft while you upload the binary packages.
Just as important as creating the release is updating the links on our readme, and the package names in the installation instructions. The AppVeyor build number should also be incremented.
When creating the packages, please ensure that the file path does not contain user names.
That is, clone to /PowerShell on Unix, and C:\PowerShell for Windows.
The debug symbols include the absolute path to the sources when built,
so it should appear /PowerShell/src/powershell/System.Management.Automation,
not /home/username/src/PowerShell/....
The build.psm1 module contains a Start-PSPackage function to build packages.
It requires that Start-PSBuild -CrossGen has been run.
The Start-PSBuild function delegates to New-UnixPackage.
This function will automatically deduce the correct version from the most recent annotated tag (using git describe).
At this time, each package must be made on the corresponding platform. The packages each have the .NET Core runtime-identifier appended to their filename. This is necessary to differentiate the Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 packages, which must be separate due to having different dependencies.
The Start-PSBuild function relies on the Effing Package Management project,
which makes building packages for any (non-Windows) platform a breeze.
Similarly, the PowerShell man-page is generated from the Markdown-like file
assets/powershell.1.ronn using Ronn.
The function Start-PSBootstrap -Publish will install both these tools.
To modify any property of the packages, edit the New-UnixPckage function.
Please also refer to the function for details on the package properties
(such as the description, maintainer, vendor, URL,
license, category, dependencies, and file layout).
Note that the only configuration on Linux and OS X is
Linux, which is release (i.e. not debug) configuration.
To support side-by-side Unix packages, we use the following design:
We will maintain a powershell package
which owns the /usr/bin/powershell symlink,
is the latest version, and is upgradeable.
This is the only package named powershell
and similarly is the only package owning any symlinks,
executables, or man-pages named powershell.
Until we have a package repository,
this package will contain actual PowerShell bits
(i.e. it is not a meta-package).
These bits are installed to /opt/microsoft/powershell/6.0.0-alpha.8/,
where the version will change with each update
(and is the pre-release version).
On OS X, the prefix is /usr/local,
instead of /opt/microsoft because it is derived from BSD.
When we have access to package repositories where dependencies can be properly resolved, this
powershellpackage can become a meta-package which auto-installs the latest package, and so only owns the symlink.
For explicitly versioned packages, say for PowerShell 6.0,
we will maintain separate packages named in the form powershell6.0,
which owns the binary powershell6.0, the symlink powershell6.0,
the man-page powershell6.0,
and is installed to /opt/microsoft/powershell/6.0/.
Specifically this package owns nothing named powershell,
as only the powershell package owns those files.
This package is upgradeable, but should only be updated with hot-fixes.
This is a necessary consequence of Unix package managers,
as files among packages cannot conflict.
From a user-experience perspective,
if the user requires a specific version of PowerShell,
they should not be required to use an absolute path,
and instead should be given a binary with the version in the name.
This pattern is followed by many other languages
(Python being the most obvious example).
This same pattern can be followed for versions 6.1, 7.0, etc.,
and can be used for patch version (e.g. 6.0.1).
Use Start-PSPackage -Name powershell6.0 to generate
the versioned powershell6.0 package.
Without -Name specified, the primary powershell
package will instead be created.
The Start-PSBuild function delegates to New-MSIPackage which creates a Windows Installer Package of PowerShell.
The packages must be published in release mode, so use Start-PSBuild -CrossGen -Configuration Release.
It uses the Windows Installer XML Toolset (WiX) to generate a PowerShell_<version>.msi,
which installs a self-contained copy of the current version (commit) of PowerShell.
It copies the output of the published PowerShell application to a version-specific folder in Program Files,
and installs a shortcut in the Start Menu.
It can be uninstalled through Programs and Features.
Note that PowerShell is always self-contained, thus using it does not require installing it.
The output of Start-PSBuild includes a powershell.exe executable which can simply be launched.