Release Steps

Pre-release (stable only)

• Start the string freeze two weeks before the release.
• Do the pot update:

scons pot-update update-po4a manual
git add -A
git commit -am "pot-update and regenerate doc files"

• Email the translator's mailing list stating that the string freeze is starting.

Release (stable and master branches)

• Update macro-reference.html:

cd data/tools/
make macro-reference.html

• If stable

scp macro-reference.html wesnoth@wesnoth.org:WWW/html/macro-reference.html

• If master

scp macro-reference.html wesnoth@wesnoth.org:WWW/html/macro-reference-1.<version>.html

• Regenerate the game credits and paste the contents to Credits on the wiki:

data/tools/about_cfg_to_wiki -w ./wesnoth > ./about.wiki

• Check the changelog_entries folder for entries and update the changelog as necessary.
• Run the pot update (second time if this is a stable release).
• Do the pre-tag commit (check a previous commit as an example - this removes the "+dev" suffix everywhere).
• The the post-tag commit (check a previous commit as an example - this re-adds the "+dev" suffix everywhere).
• Tag the pre-tag commit with:

git tag -a <version> -m "Wesnoth <version> (Alpha)" <commit hash>

- (Alpha)/(Beta) is only added for dev releases depending on where we are in the release cycle.

• Push the commits and the tag:

git push
git push origin <version>

• Ping the packagers on Discord that the release has been tagged:

@packagers <version> has been tagged.

• Check that the new version is allowed on its respective multiplayer server.
• Update the header in Discord's #development channel.
• Add items to the Release Notes page on this wiki for the release.
• Sync items on the Release Notes page to the changelog.
• Upload source code tarball to SourceForge and files.wesnoth.org (done by loonycyborg).
• Send an email to the packagers mailing list (done by loonycyborg).
• Upload the release to the various places Wesnoth is distributed (Steam, itch.io, SourceForge, macOS App Store, Flathub).
  • Windows/Linux - handled by loonycyborg.
  • macOS - handled by hrubymar.
• Post the forum announcements.
• Update the Downloads wiki page.
  • url: https://wiki.wesnoth.org/Download
  • dev template: https://wiki.wesnoth.org/Template:DevDownload#Development_.281.15_branch.29
  • stable template: https://wiki.wesnoth.org/Template:StableDownload
• Add the News forum post.
• Post the Discord announcement.
  • Make sure to publish it.
  • Short link is: https://r.wesnoth.org/t#####
• Post the itch.io devlog (copy of the Discord announcement).
• Update the wesnoth.org front page.
  • See a previous version update commit to the wesmere repository.
  • ssh into the website VM and execute the following shell commands (yes, it is specifically 'make', not 'make install'!):

sudo -iu wesnoth
cd ~/git/wesmere/static
git pull
make

• Generate the Steam announcement by running the following command in your local wesnoth repository root:

python3 data/tools/steam-changelog changelog.md <version> > <version>.txt

• Post the Steam announcement.
• Log into Wesnoth's Steam page.
  • Click "A Game Update".
  • Pick "Small Update".
  • Paste the output of of the above python command into the event description.
  • Click "Link To Build" and select the appropriate branch.
  • Edit the appropriate .xcf file from the Resources repository (wesnoth_event_header.xcf for stable releases, wesnoth_beta_header.xcf for development releases) and export it to PNG.
    • This requires the oldania font to be installed, which on Linux/Ubuntu-derivatives can be installed via the command:

apt install fonts-adf-oldania

• Post the announcement to Fosstodon.
• Post the announcement to Reddit. (Elvish_Hunter)
  • Add the "Development release"/"Stable release" flair.
  • Don't paste the link in the post, directly post it as a link.

New Stable Series

Beta 1

Write up the new Start page (ie: https://www.wesnoth.org/start/1.16/).

Beta 2

Make the new Start page available to Translators.

RC1

Before release, the new multiplayer server and add-ons server instances need to be setup.

• Multiplayer server
  • Needs no changes since it goes to port 15000 and then that redirects based on version. The existing dev multiplayer server will be reused as the new stable instance.
  • The Discord website status bot and the site status page (https://status.wesnoth.org/ - bin/valen.pl) need to be updated to rename the dev version to the stable version.

• Add-ons server - The port is the version number, for example 1.16 is 15016, 1.18 is 15018, etc.
  • C++ update (currently default_campaignd_port in addon/validation.cpp)
  • Python update (data/tools/wesnoth/campaignserver_client.py)
  • Website update (bin/valen.pl) in the valen repository to add the new
  • The Discord website status bot and the site status page (https://status.wesnoth.org/ - bin/valen.pl) need to be updated to add the new version.
  • Add a 1.18 cron job for ~wesnoth/bin/update_addons in the websites VM.

• Update ci_main.yml to use the new branch instead of the master branch.