release.sh

release.sh generates an addon zip file from a Git, SVN, or Mercurial checkout.

release.sh works by creating a new project directory (.release by default), copying files from the checkout into the project directory, checking out external repositories then copying their files into the project directory, then moves subdirectories into the project root. The project directory is then zipped to create a distributable addon zip file which can also be uploaded to CurseForge, WoWInterface, Wago, and GitHub (as a release).

release.sh assumes that tags (Git annotated tags and SVN tags) are named for the version numbers for the project. It will identify if the HEAD is tagged and use that as the current version number. It will search back through parent commits for the previous tag and generate a changelog containing the commits since that tag.

Building with GitHub Actions

For a full example workflow, please check out the wiki page.

Example using options

- uses: BigWigsMods/packager@v2
  with:
    args: -p 1234 -w 5678 -a he54k6bL

What changed with v2.3.0?

1. The ## Interface: and ## Interface-[Type]: values can be a comma separated list of values.

2. Every interface value in every (non-external) TOC file will be included as a supported version when uploading to CurseForge, Wago, and WowInterface. This behavior differs from v2.2.2.

   When detecting versions, the package-as TOC file is parsed first, then TOC files in move-folders paths. In v2.2.2, the first interface value found for a game type was used and the rest were ignored. So if you had 100207 in your main TOC file, but missed updating 100206 in your modules, the final version would just be 10.2.7. But now the final version will include all interface versions, meaning it will be 10.2.7,10.2.6.

   You can still use -g to override version detection entirely, but it is still kind of the nuclear option.

3. Fallback TOC files are no longer needed. If you create a TOC file with only ## Interface-[Type]: lines and use TOC file creation (splitting), the original TOC file is not included.

4. The base ## Interface: doesn't affect splitting, and will just be carried through to the fallback TOC file.

Customizing the build

release.sh uses the TOC file to determine the package name for the project. You can also set the CurseForge project id (-p), the WoWInterface addon id (-w) or the Wago project id (-a) by adding the following to the TOC file:

## X-Curse-Project-ID: 1234
## X-WoWI-ID: 5678
## X-Wago-ID: he54k6bL

Your CurseForge project id can be found on the addon page in the "About Project" side box.

Your WoWInterface addon id is in the url for the addon, eg, the "5678" in https://wowinterface.com/downloads/info5678-MyAddon.

Your Wago project id can be found on the developer dashboard.

The PackageMeta file

release.sh can read a .pkgmeta file and supports the following directives. See the wiki page for more info.

• externals (Git, SVN, and Mercurial) Caveats: An external's .pkgmeta is only parsed for ignore and externals will not have localization keywords replaced.
• ignore
• plain-copy
• license-output
• changelog-title
• manual-changelog
• move-folders
• package-as
• enable-nolib-creation (defaults to no) Caveats: nolib packages will only be uploaded to GitHub and attached to a release. Unlike with the CurseForge packager, manually uploaded nolib packages will not be used by the client when users have enabled downloading libraries separately.
• enable-toc-creation (defaults to no) Create game type specific TOC files from your TOC file if you have multiple ## Interface-[Type]: lines.
• tools-used
• required-dependencies
• optional-dependencies
• embedded-libraries Note: All fetched externals will be marked as embedded, overriding any manually set relations in the pkgmeta.

You can also use a few directives for WoWInterface uploading.

• wowi-archive-previous : yes|no (defaults to yes) Archive the previous release.
• wowi-create-changelog : yes|no (defaults to yes) Generate a changelog using BBCode that will be set when uploading. A manual changelog will always be used instead if set in the .pkgmeta.
• wowi-convert-changelog : yes|no (defaults to yes) Convert a manual changelog in Markdown format to BBCode if you have pandoc installed; otherwise, the manual changelog will be used as-is. If set to no when using a generated changelog, Markdown will be used instead of BBCode. Note:: Markdown support is experimental and needs to be requested on a per-project basis.

String replacements

release.sh supports the following repository substitution keywords when copying the files from the checkout into the project directory. See the wiki page for more info.

• @localization(locale="locale", format="format", ...)@
  • escape-non-ascii
  • handle-unlocalized
  • handle-subnamespaces="concat"
  • key
  • namespace
  • same-key-is-true
  • table-name
• @file-revision@
• @project-revision@
• @file-hash@
• @project-hash@
• @file-abbreviated-hash@
• @project-abbreviated-hash@
• @file-author@
• @project-author@
• @file-date-iso@
• @project-date-iso@
• @file-date-integer@
• @project-date-integer@
• @file-timestamp@
• @project-timestamp@
• @project-version@
• @build-date@
• @build-date-iso@
• @build-date-integer@
• @build-timestamp@

Build type keywords

Specific keywords used in a comment at the start (@keyword@) and end (@end-keyword@) of a block of code can be used to conditionally run that code based on the build type. If the build type does not match, the block of code is comment out so line numbers do not change.

Supported keywords and when the code block will run:

• alpha: in untagged builds.
• debug: never. Code will only run when using an unpackaged source.
• do-not-package: never. Same as debug except removed from the packaged file.
• no-lib-strip: (not supported in Lua files) in any build other than a nolib build.
• retail,version-retail,version-classic,version-bcc,version-wrath, version-cata, version-mists: based on game version.

do-not-package is a bit special. Everything between the tags, including the tags themselves, will always be removed from the packaged file. This will cause the line numbers of subsequent lines to change, which can result in bug report line numbers not matching the source code. The typical usage is at the end of Lua files surrounding debugging functions and other code that end users should never see or execute.

All keywords except do-not-package can be prefixed with non- to inverse the logic. When doing this, the keywords should start and end a block comment as shown below.

More examples are available on the wiki page.

In Lua files

--@keyword@ and --@end-keyword@
turn into --[===[@keyword and --@end-keyword]===].

--[===[@non-keyword@ and --@end-non-keyword@]===]
turn into --@non-keyword@ and --@end-non-keyword@.

In XML files

Note: XML doesn't allow nested comments so make sure not to nest keywords. If you need to nest keywords, you can do so in the TOC instead.

<!--@keyword@--> and <!--@end-keyword@-->
turn into <!--@keyword and @end-keyword@-->.

<!--@non-keyword@ and @end-non-keyword@-->
turn into <!--@non-keyword@--> and <!--@end-non-keyword@-->.

In TOC files

The lines with #@keyword@ and #@end-keyword@ get removed, as well as every line in-between.

The lines with #@non-keyword@ and #@end-non-keyword@ get removed, as well as removing a '# ' (note the space) at the beginning of each line in-between.

Changing the file name

release.sh uses the file name template "{package-name}-{project-version}{nolib}{classic}" for the addon zip file. This can be changed with the -n switch (release.sh -n "{package-name}-{project-version}").

These tokens are always replaced with their value:

• {package-name}
• {project-revision}
• {project-hash}
• {project-abbreviated-hash}
• {project-author}
• {project-date-iso}
• {project-date-integer}
• {project-timestamp}
• {project-version}
• {game-type}
• {release-type}

These tokens are "flags" and are conditionally shown prefixed with a dash based on the build type:

• {alpha}
• {beta}
• {nolib}
• {classic}

{classic} has some additional magic:

1. It will show as the non-retail build type, so -classic, -bcc, -wrath, -cata, or -mists.
2. It will not be shown if -classic, -bcc, -wrath, -cata, or -mists is in the project version (tag).
3. If it is included in the file name (it is by default) and #2 does not apply, it will also be appended to the file label (i.e., the name shown in the file list on CurseForge).

Building for multiple game versions

release.sh automatically detects what game version(s) the addon supports. You only need to run a build once and the file will be tagged with the appropriate versions when uploaded.

For builds with multiple game types, you won't be able to use build version keywords (e.g., @version-retail@ ... @end-version-retail@) in Lua files for controlling what code blocks execute based on the build version, you need to switch to plain old Lua control statements. Fortunately, there are some [constants](https://warcraft.