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Preparing
PowerShell releases use Semantic Versioning. Until we hit 1.0, each sprint results in a bump to the minor version number, and interim bugfix releases bump the patch number.
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 vX.Y.Z.
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. 'v0.6.0 beta release of Open PowerShell'.
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.
Building Packages
Linux / OS X
The build.psm1 module contains a Start-PSPackage function to build Linux packages.
It requires that Start-PSBuild -Publish has been run.
The output must be published so that it includes the runtime.
This function will automatically deduce the correct version from the most recent annotated tag (using git describe),
and if not specified, will build a package for the current platform.
At this time, Linux packages must be built on Linux, and OS X packages on OS X;
however, an RPM can be created on Ubuntu.
This requires installing the rpm package, building with -Runtime centos.7.1-x64, and packaging with -Type rpm.
The Start-PSBuild function relies on the Effing Package Management project,
which makes building packages for any (non-Windows) platform a breeze.
Follow their readme to install FPM.
To modify any property of the packages, edit the Start-PSPackage 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).
Windows
The Start-PSBuild function delegates to New-MSIPackage which creates a Windows Installer Package of PowerShell.
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 -Publish includes a powershell.exe executable which can simply be launched.