Playtest or Release Checklist

• Have the patches been reviewed?

  • The default should be "no merge"; justify why your patches are worth including, which is more than just "no nits".
  • Each patch should have been tested by its author, on at least the platform they run. If the patch is fixing something platform-specific on some other platform, it must have been tested there, otherwise you're just making stuff up.
  • Check for interactions between features. Many of these have been wrong, at least historically -- build/sell sell/capture etc.
  • Check for copypasta with simian and/or eyeballs.

• Does it build?

  • Check on both Windows and Mac/Linux.
  • There should be no warnings.
  • RALint should be clean, or at least no worse than at the previous tag.

• Does it work?

  • Everything should work, in all mods that will be included -- at least no worse than the previous tag.
  • Yes, this step sucks to verify.

• Has the CHANGELOG been updated?

• If there are master server changes [or any other infrastructure changes], have those been deployed first?

  • All infrastructure changes MUST be backwards-compatible; there are various old client versions still in use, which you must not break.

• If that's all good:

  • Assuming you aliased the upstream repository with openra git fetch openra then git checkout bleed && git reset --hard openra/bleed (warning this overwrites your own bleed branch). Check for compilation errors and do some test games.
  • Tag the commit you intend to release. git checkout openra/bleed && git tag playtest/release-yyyymmdd
  • Push the tag to OpenRA/OpenRA, and advance either the next or master branch as appropriate for the release type. git push openra playtest-yyyymmdd bleed:next or git push openra release-yyyymmdd next:master
  • Login to the build server, and deploy it with ssh-add && ssh -A build@build.open-ra.org to forward your authentication to the web-server later on, too. Then cd openra-package/ and ./checkout-and-build.sh playtest/release-yyyymmdd. Wait, you are mostly done now.

Download the package and head over to Publish on Desura. Create a new MCF file from a clean OpenRA installation, upload it and submit it for approval. See the Notes For Publishing On Desura if problems arise.

If it's a playtest

• Post a changelog somewhere ModDB/Forums (optional, but nice so that testers know what to check for and to signalize to the internet community that the project is still alive)

If it's a release:

• Announce it in a news post on the website.
• Announce the release on https://www.facebook.com/openra which gets automatically feeded into http://twitter.com/openra linking to the news post.