Releasing

The exact, repeatable process to ship a new ShareClick version — SemVer policy, the release checklist, and what CI builds.

This is the exact, repeatable process to ship a new version. Following it means end users always get working one-click installers and the history stays clean.

Versioning policy (SemVer)

MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH:

Bump	When	Wire/config
PATCH	bug fixes	no wire or config changes
MINOR	new features	backward-compatible (old configs still load via #[serde(default)]; PROTOCOL_VERSION unchanged)
MAJOR	breaking changes	also bump PROTOCOL_VERSION in crates/protocol/src/lib.rs and document the migration

The crate version lives once in the workspace: Cargo.toml → [workspace.package] version. All crates inherit it.

Release checklist

1. Green build & tests

   cargo test                       # native
   cargo test --no-default-features # core
   cargo build --release --features tray
   cargo run --release -- bench --encrypted   # no latency regression
   
2. Bump the version

   In Cargo.toml ([workspace.package] version). Run cargo build once so Cargo.lock updates.

3. Update CHANGELOG.md

   Move ## [Unreleased] items under a new ## [X.Y.Z] - YYYY-MM-DD heading; start a fresh empty Unreleased.

4. Commit on main

   git add -A && git commit -m "release: vX.Y.Z"
   
5. Tag & push

   This triggers the CI release workflow:

   git tag vX.Y.Z
   git push origin main --tags
   
6. Wait for CI

   .github/workflows/release.yml builds and attaches ShareClick-X.Y.Z.dmg (macOS universal) and ShareClick-Setup-X.Y.Z.exe (Windows installer) to a GitHub Release.

7. Smoke-test & announce

   Install, launch and connect once on both OSes. The Release page is the download link for users.

What CI does

Trigger

Pushing a tag matching v* (or a manual workflow_dispatch).

macos job (macos-14)

Adds both Apple targets, runs packaging/macos/build-app.sh $VERSION → universal .app + .dmg (arm64 + Intel).

windows job (windows-latest)

cargo build --release --features tray, then choco install innosetup and ISCC /DMyAppVersion=$VERSION shareclick.iss → .exe installer.

release job

Downloads both artifacts and publishes the GitHub Release with auto-generated notes.

Building installers locally

macOS

# produces dist/ShareClick.app + dist/ShareClick-<ver>.dmg
bash packaging/macos/build-app.sh 0.1.0

# after cargo build --release --features tray
iscc /DMyAppVersion=0.1.0 packaging\windows\shareclick.iss

Code signing & notarization (current status)

Builds are unsigned today (no paid developer certificates):

• macOS: Gatekeeper blocks first launch. Removing this friction needs an Apple Developer ID ($99/yr) and a notarization step (codesign + xcrun notarytool submit). The build script already ad-hoc signs so it runs locally.
• Windows: SmartScreen shows an “unknown publisher” warning. An EV/OV code-signing certificate would remove it.

When certificates are available, add the signing secrets and steps to the CI jobs (see the TODO markers in release.yml).

Rollback

If a release is broken, delete the GitHub Release + tag, fix, and re-tag with a new PATCH version. Never re-use a published version number.