Maintainer Guide

Release checklist

This applies to both zigc and zigtsc.

1. Bump VERSION

Edit the VERSION constant in src/main.zig:

// zigc:   src/main.zig line 5
// zigtsc: src/main.zig line 11
const VERSION = "0.3.0";

2. Commit and push

git add src/main.zig
git commit -m "release: v0.3.0"
git push

3. Tag and push

git tag v0.3.0
git push --tags

The v* tag triggers .github/workflows/release.yml, which cross-compiles for 4 targets and creates a GitHub Release with tarballs.

4. Wait for CI

Check the Actions tab. The release job builds:

aarch64-macos
x86_64-macos
aarch64-linux-gnu
x86_64-linux-gnu

Each target produces a tarball: <tool>-<target>.tar.gz (e.g. zigc-aarch64-macos.tar.gz).

5. Update Homebrew formula

After the release is published, update the tap repo with the new version and sha256 hashes.

# For zigc:  github.com/nathanjmorton/homebrew-zigc
# For zigtsc: github.com/nathanjmorton/homebrew-zigtsc

# In Formula/<tool>.rb, update:
  version "0.3.0"
  sha256 "..."   # for each platform block

Get the sha256 for each tarball from the release page, or compute locally:

curl -sL <tarball-url> | shasum -a 256

6. Verify

# Self-update (shell script / build-from-source installs)
zigc upgrade

# Homebrew
brew upgrade zigc

# Confirm version
zigc help    # should show new version in behavior

How the upgrade command works

Both zigc upgrade and zigtsc upgrade follow the same logic:

1. curl GitHub API → /repos/{owner}/{repo}/releases/latest
2. Extract "tag_name" from JSON response
3. Compare against compiled-in VERSION constant
4. If newer: detect platform (comptime), build download URL
5. which <tool> → find binary location on PATH
6. If Homebrew path detected → print "use brew upgrade" and exit
7. curl tarball → /tmp, tar extract → overwrite binary
8. chmod +x, clean up tarball

The VERSION constant is compiled into the binary at build time. This is why bumping it is the first step — without a bump, the upgrade command thinks it's already up to date.

Architecture

src/main.zig        VERSION constant + all CLI commands
.github/workflows/  release.yml — triggered by v* tags
install.sh          Shell installer (downloads from GitHub releases)
homebrew-*/          Separate tap repos with Formula/*.rb

The Homebrew tap repos are at nathanjmorton/homebrew-zigc and nathanjmorton/homebrew-zigtsc.