Release Process

ashell uses cargo-dist (v0.30.0) for automated release builds and GitHub Releases.

Note: Releases are managed by the project maintainer (@MalpenZibo). This page documents the process for reference.

How a Release Works

1. Draft release notes: The release-drafter.yml workflow automatically drafts release notes based on merged PRs. The maintainer reviews and edits the draft in GitHub Releases.

2. Trigger the release: The maintainer goes to Actions → Release → Run workflow and enters the version tag (e.g., v0.8.0).

3. Automated pipeline: The release workflow:

   • Runs dist plan to determine build matrix
   • Builds platform-specific artifacts (Linux binary + archives)
   • Builds global artifacts (shell installer, checksums)
   • Generates .deb and .rpm packages via generate-installers.yml
   • Uploads all artifacts to the GitHub Release
   • Un-drafts the release

4. Post-release: Downstream packaging jobs run automatically:

   • update-arch-package.yml updates the AUR package
   • remove-manifest-assets.yml cleans up dist manifests from the release

cargo-dist Configuration

dist-workspace.toml configures the release build:

[workspace]
members = ["cargo:."]

[dist]
cargo-dist-version = "0.30.0"
ci = "github"
installers = ["shell"]
targets = ["x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu"]

Dry Run

To test the release process without actually publishing, the maintainer can:

1. Go to Actions → Release → Run workflow
2. Enter dry-run as the tag
3. This runs the full pipeline but doesn’t create a GitHub Release

Versioning

• Version is defined in Cargo.toml: version = "0.7.0"
• Tags follow semver: v0.7.0
• Pre-releases use suffixes: v0.8.0-beta.1
• The --version flag shows: ashell 0.7.0 (abc1234) (version + git hash)