Distribution Build Scripts for Windows ====================================== The scripts are used to build the binary distribution zip files for windows. Environment ----------- A full installation of msys2 is required along for the build. The various dependencies of Emacs need to be installed also. These change over time, but are listed in build-deps-zips.py. File System Organization ------------------------ They are relatively strict about the file system organization. In general, they should work across several more than just the version of Emacs they come with, as the dependencies of Emacs change relatively slowly. The file system needs to be organized like so: ~/emacs-build/git Contains checkouts and worktrees of the Emacs git repository, organized according to branches. ~/emacs-build/git/master A checkout out of the master branch of the Emacs git repository. ~/emacs-build/git/emacs-$major-version A worktree of the git repository containing the current release branch. This has to be created by hand. ~/emacs-build/git/emacs-$release-version A branch of the git repository containing the last release. The build-zips.sh file will create this for you. ~/emacs-build/deps A location for the dependencies. This needs to contain two zip files with the dependencies. build-dep-zips.py will create these files for you. ~/emacs-build/deps/libXpm Contain libXpm-noX4.dll. This file is used to load images for the splash screen, menu items and so on. Emacs runs without it, but looks horrible. The files came original from msys2, and contains no dependencies. It has to be placed manually (but probably never need updating). ~/emacs-build/build/$version We build Emacs out-of-source here. This directory is created by build-zips.sh. This directory can be freely deleted after zips have been created ~/emacs-build/install/$version We install Emacs here. This directory is created by build-zips.sh. This directory can and *should* be deleted after zips have been created. ~/emacs-upload Zips are created and moved here from where they can be, well, uploaded. Build Process ------------- ### For each major version The dependencies files need to be created. This can be around the time of the pre-tests, then used for all releases of that version, to ensure the maximum stability. To do this: Update msys to the latest version with `pacman -Syu`. Then run build-dep-zips.py, in the ~/emacs-build/deps directory. Two zips will be created, containing the dependencies, as well as the source for these. For emacs release or pre-test version: Run `build-zips.sh -g` in the release branch. This will create a worktree with the tag of the last version. Then run `build-zips.sh` in this worktree. Eventually, four new zip files will be created in ~/emacs-upload from where they can be signed and uploaded with `gnupload`. ### For snapshots from Master Snapshots are generally created from master when there is a release branch on which a release has already been created. At this point, only pre-tests or full releases need to happen from the release branch. To do this: Update msys to the latest version with `pacman -Syu`. Then run build-dep-zips.py, in ~/emacs-build/deps directory. Two zips will be created, containing the dependencies, as well as the source for these. These deps files contain the date of creation in their name. The deps file can be reused as desired, or a new version created. Where multiple deps files exist, the most recent will be used. Now, run `build-zips.sh -s` to build a snapshot release. ### For snapshots from a Release Branch Snapshots can be built from a release branch; this is really only useful before a pre-test has happened. The process is the same as for building from the master branch, except that the release branch should already exist as a worktree, and the version number must be added to the command line with `build-zips.sh -V 27 -s`. The final zips will be named after the branch rather than the version (e.g emacs-27-2019-12-26.zip) rather than the Emacs version (e.g emacs-27.0.50.zip). ### For snapshots from another branch Snapshots can be build from any other branch. There is rarely a need to do this, except where some significant, wide-ranging feature is being added on a feature branch. In this case, the branch can be given using `build-zips.sh -b pdumper -s` for example. Any "/" characters in the branch title are replaced.