13

I have a repository that has a bunch of folders, but I want to create releases for just one of those folders.

Simpler story, it's for a gaming server, and I just want to create releases for the client, as the way of offering downloads of the client to players.

VonC
  • 1,129,465
  • 480
  • 4,036
  • 4,755
crosenblum
  • 1,785
  • 5
  • 32
  • 57
  • By "release" do you mean "tag"? – Ed. Aug 27 '17 at 17:17
  • If they can be released separately, they should be separate repositories. Pull them together ideally using a package management tool. Or there's [options to have a repository made of other repositories](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Submodules). – Schwern Aug 27 '17 at 17:32
  • By release, have a zipped file to be made available but of only a specific folder within the repository. Perhaps showing the details will help. https://github.com/crosenblum/kalbase Is my main repository. But I want to create zipped file release of changes to this folder. https://github.com/crosenblum/kalbase/tree/master/client – crosenblum Aug 27 '17 at 18:14
  • very good question @crosenblum , did you ever find a way of releasing from a folder? we have a master repo with many folder, each folder representing different databases, eveyr database has its own version, any thoughts? – dim_user Feb 14 '18 at 19:26
  • 1
    @dim_user not sure if it's still useful 2+ years later, but I just detailed below [how to customize your release contents](https://stackoverflow.com/a/64446749/6225838). – CPHPython Oct 20 '20 at 14:01

2 Answers2

2

When a release is published, the automatically generated Source Code .zip and .tar.gz files include all files in the branch you choose here: Selecting git branch for release

Therefore, I answered the OP's question this way:

1. Use a branch containing only the release contents

  1. Create a new branch with the contents of your current branch and check it out (e.g. git checkout -b rel)
  2. Delete all non-release files and folders (don't worry, you're only deleting them from the new branch, confirm you are on the right one using git branch)
  3. Move release folder contents to the root folder and delete the empty folder
  4. Stage and commit all changes (e.g. git add . + git commit -a -m "v1 release"
  5. (optional: do not do this if you prefer using the Github interface for writing the release details) Create a release version tag (e.g. `git tag v1.0.0 -m "initial release")
  6. Push this new branch (e.g. git push --set-upstream origin rel)

2. Add an executable/installer to the release

  1. Browse and log into your account and head to https://github.com/USER-NAME/PROJECT-NAME/releases
  2. Click the button for a new release and fill in the release details, choosing the branch you created above
  3. Since GitHub limits uploads of files larger than 50MB (unless you use Git LFS), your runnables (e.g. .exe or .apk) can be added and uploaded into the release itself before publishing it via drag-and-drop:

Dragging files to release

The release will be automatically saved as draft and, only upon publishing, the Source Code archive files will be generated (without the runnables you added above).

P.S.: Images and steps for creating and editing a release available on Managing Releases Gihub Docs page.

CPHPython
  • 9,522
  • 4
  • 50
  • 66
0

If the client/ folder content can be re-built from the rest of the project, ideally, it should not be versioned.

Versioned or not, you can build your release artifact (here, a zip of the client/ folder) and publish it to your repo as a GitHub release.
See "Creating Releases".

It supposes you make a tag first on your repo, in order to associate that zip file to a precise version of said repo.

VonC
  • 1,129,465
  • 480
  • 4,036
  • 4,755
  • 4
    How do I do that, most of what you said, sounds very unclear to me. can you say it plainer, what actual steps I need to take? – crosenblum Aug 29 '17 at 03:57
  • @crosenblum what steps are unclear in https://help.github.com/articles/creating-releases/? – VonC Aug 29 '17 at 04:58
  • There references to branches, tags, etc. – crosenblum Aug 30 '17 at 02:03
  • @crosenblum Exactly: a release is associated to a tag: create a tag referencing the content of the repo which matches the release you are producing from said content, and upload your release associated to that tag. – VonC Aug 30 '17 at 06:54
  • 8
    Downvoted, as this doesn't answer the question (although TBF github may have changed their releases feature since this answer): The link to github's "creating releases" page only describes how to create a release of the project including all its source code, with additional uploaded files... not how to exclude the source.zip (created by default by github) and instead include a .zip with different (subfolder) contents, which is what the OP needs. – thclark Feb 20 '19 at 19:24
  • @crosenblum not sure if it's still useful 3+ years later, but I just detailed the steps on [how to customize your release contents](https://stackoverflow.com/a/64446749/6225838). – CPHPython Oct 20 '20 at 14:05