Notes on how Fossil deliverables are built and uploaded

• All builds are statically link against OpenSSL, which is a library that is often missing from systems on which Fossil might be installed. By statically linking with OpenSSL, the dependency on OpenSSL is omitted, making the precompiled binaries more portable.
• The latest version of OpenSSL is used for new builds. As of 2024-11-06, OpenSSL 3.4.0 is being used. Use the fossil version -v to find out which version of OpenSSL your version of Fossil is linked against.

Pre-Release Checklist

• If pikchr.c has been updated since the last release, be sure that its WASM build is up-to-date, as documented in build.wiki. The easiest approach is simply to see if both /finfo/extsrc/pikchr.c and /finfo/extsrc/pikchr.wasm have the same checkin time. If the WASM build is out of date, the /pikchrshow app will be using a different pikchr version than the rest of fossil.

After-Release Checklist (This section is to jog the memory of the release manager)

1. Verify that all items on the Before-Release Checklist have been run
2. Update the version number and related links on the homepage.
3. fossil uv edit download.js
4. Edit the "releases" variable in the javascript to add the new release number and title and various hyperlinks. Perhaps also remove older releases.
5. Remove obsolete build products: fossil uv rm --glob $PATTERN
6. fossil uv edit latest-release.md
7. Update the latest result tarball link
8. fossil uv edit releases.md
9. Update the list of releases and move the "(latest)" suffix to new top-most entry.
10. fossil uv sync

Linux

• Build the in-tree OpenSSL library:
  • Download the OpenSSL tarball and unpack it into compat/openssl
  • cd into the compat/openssl directory
  • ./config no-ssl3 no-weak-ssl-ciphers no-shared no-threads --openssldir=/etc/ssl
  • CFLAGS=-Os make -e
• ./configure --with-openssl=tree --disable-fusefs
• If the Makefile contains a reference to -lpthread, remove it.
• CFLAGS="-Os" make -e clean fossil
• strip fossil
• Verify dependencies using "ldd ./fossil"
• tar czf fossil-linux-x64-$VERSION.tar.gz fossil
• fossil uv add fossil-linux-x64-$VERSION.tar.gz
• fossil uv sync

Mac

• Published Fossil builds use the lead developer's 2010 Macbook Air running MacOS 10.13.6 for x64 and the lead devloper's minimac running MacOS 12.0.1 for arm. Binaries are signed on the lead developer's 2017 iMac. All that said, the following procedure should work on any Mac.
• Build the in-tree OpenSSL library:
  • Download the OpenSSL tarball and unpack it into compat/openssl
  • cd into the compat/openssl directory
  • ./config no-ssl3 no-weak-ssl-ciphers no-shared no-threads no-asm --openssldir=/etc/ssl
  • CFLAGS=-Os make -e
• ./configure --with-openssl=tree
• CFLAGS=-Os make -e clean fossil
• Verify no shared library dependencies using: otool -L ./fossil
• strip fossil
• Optional: codesign -s drh@sqlite.org fossil then verify the signature using codesign -d -v fossil
• tar czf fossil-mac-ARCH-VERSION.tar.gz fossil where ARCH is either x64 or arm64.
• fossil uv add fossil-mac-ARCH-VERSION.tar.gz
• fossil uv sync

Raspberry Pi

• Build the in-tree OpenSSL library:
  • Download the OpenSSL tarball and unpack it into compat/openssl
  • cd into the compat/openssl directory
  • ./Configure linux-generic32 no-ssl3 no-weak-ssl-ciphers no-shared no-threads no-asm --openssldir=/etc/ssl
  • CFLAGS=-Os make -e
• ./configure --with-openssl=tree --static
• CFLAGS="-Os" make -e clean fossil && strip fossil
• tar czf fossil-pi-$VERSION.tar.gz fossil
• fossil uv add fossil-pi-$VERSION.tar.gz
• fossil uv sync

Windows 32-bit using MSVC

• Run all of the following from a "x32 Native Tools Command Prompt"
• Build the in-tree OpenSSL library:
  • Install Strawberry-Perl (or similar) if it is not already installed. Perl is needed to run the OpenSSL configuration script prior to building OpenSSL from sources. Fossil itself does not use Perl.
  • Download the OpenSSL tarball and unpack under compat/openssl. Note that the OpenSSL tarball will unpack into openssl-3.X.Y. You will need to rename that folder to just openssl.
  • cd into the OpenSSL source directory, openssl.
  • C:/Strawberry/perl/bin/perl Configure VC-WIN32 no-asm no-ssl3 no-weak-ssl-ciphers no-shared /D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0501
    • The _WIN32_WINT definition on the perl Configure command, and the FOSSIL_ENABLE_WINXP=1 term on the second nmake command below, are necessary in order for this build to work on older WindowsXP machines. See forum thread 66f106195aaf289e.
  • nmake /f makefile
• cd into the win/ subfolder of the Fossil source tree.
• nmake /f Makefile.msc FOSSIL_ENABLE_SSL=1 FOSSIL_ENABLE_WINXP=1 OPTIMIZATIONS=4 clean fossil.exe
  • The previous step builds the stand-alone Fossil binary. If that is all you want to accomplish, you can stop here. The remaining steps describe how the stand-alone Fossil binary is published.
• Verify dependencies: dumpbin /dependents fossil.exe
• zip fossil-w32-$VERSION.zip fossil.exe
• fossil uv add fossil-w32-$VERSION.zip
• fossil uv sync

Windows 64-bit using MSVC

• Run all of the following from a "x64 Native Tools Command Prompt"
• Build the in-tree OpenSSL library:
  • Install Strawberry-Perl (or similar) if it is not already installed. Perl is needed to run the OpenSSL configuration script prior to building OpenSSL from sources. Fossil itself does not use Perl.
  • Download the OpenSSL tarball and unpack under compat/openssl. Note that the OpenSSL tarball will unpack into openssl-3.X.Y. You will need to rename that folder to just openssl.
  • cd into the OpenSSL source directory, openssl.
  • C:/Strawberry/perl/bin/perl Configure VC-WIN64A no-asm no-ssl3 no-weak-ssl-ciphers no-shared
  • nmake /f makefile
• cd into the win/ subfolder of the Fossil source tree.
• nmake /f Makefile.msc FOSSIL_ENABLE_SSL=1 OPTIMIZATIONS=4 clean fossil.exe
  • The previous step builds the stand-alone Fossil binary. If that is all you want to accomplish, you can stop here. The remaining steps describe how the stand-alone Fossil binary is published.
• Verify dependencies: dumpbin /dependents fossil.exe
• zip fossil-w64-$VERSION.zip fossil.exe
• fossil uv add fossil-w64-$VERSION.zip
• fossil uv sync