Versions, CMake builds and Linux releases

The next release starts the v6.0.0 series. The native filter engine and CMake build migration are breaking changes from the last tagged v5 release.

Build and install

Host build dependencies are CMake 3.20+, Python 3.9+, a C compiler, and Ninja or Make. Thread and iconv support come from the platform’s C library on Linux. Optional ccache is enabled for compilation when found. Normal builds do not download anything, invoke Pandoc, or need the private Sieve test libraries.

cmake -S . -B out/build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build out/build --parallel
cmake --install out/build

The default install prefix is $HOME/.local; make install uses the same user-only default. Add ~/.local/bin to PATH if necessary. The command, resources and manuals go into bin, share/jaromail and share/man/man1 under that prefix. No sudo is needed.

install-system explicitly installs under /usr/local:

sudo make install-system
# Native CMake equivalent, after building:
sudo cmake --build out/build --target install-system

Both Make install targets honor PREFIX from the environment or command line and DESTDIR for package staging. The native CMake install-system target also honors the PREFIX environment variable and leaves the configured user prefix intact. For example, Debian and other distribution packagers can run:

make install-system PREFIX=/usr DESTDIR="$PWD/package-root"
# Or use the already configured native CMake build:
PREFIX=/usr DESTDIR="$PWD/package-root" cmake --build out/build --target install-system

These commands stage package-root/usr/bin/jaro, package-root/usr/share/jaromail and package-root/usr/share/man/man1 without writing to the live system.

For normal CMake installs, -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/your/prefix at configure time or cmake --install out/build --prefix /your/prefix overrides the default. A fresh configure also accepts PREFIX from the environment; an explicit CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX takes precedence. Existing build directories retain their cached prefix until reconfigured explicitly. Set DESTDIR when running cmake --install to stage a normal install too. Both staged installations and extracted binary archives resolve their resource directories relative to bin/jaro; build-machine paths are not needed to run them.

The old Make commands and platform entry points delegate to CMake. There is no separate native compiler recipe in the compatibility Makefiles. Native test callers enable JARO_BUILD_TEST_DRIVERS; ordinary installations and release packages include the seven application helpers and bundled abook 0.6.2. In-source CMake configuration is refused to protect the compatibility Makefile. The old optional bundled mutt-kz/Mixmaster build aliases are outside the supported core build; use the external mail clients listed in the README.

Committed manpages are installed unchanged. Maintainers regenerate explicitly with cmake --build out/build --target man and commit the generated .1 files alongside their Markdown sources. No wall-clock date is embedded.

Bundled addressbook

CMake builds the full vendored abook 0.6.2 source alongside the native helpers. Native builds need wide-character ncurses and GNU readline development libraries (libncurses-dev libreadline-dev on Debian/Ubuntu). CMake generates its config header outside the source tree and requires no Autotools or network access. cmake --build out/build --target abook builds just the addressbook.

The binary is installed as share/jaromail/bin/abook, where the runtime already searches first. System abook installations are untouched. Its two manual pages, sample configuration, authors and GPLv3 license are installed with Jaromail. -DJARO_ABOOK_NLS=ON optionally builds the five upstream translations with gettext tools and libintl; the default uses English messages.

Static releases use Dyne musl v2.6.0 and reuse its bundled target ncurses 6.6 and GNU readline 8.3 from /opt/dyne/<target-triplet>. abook, musl, ncurses and readline are linked into one fully static executable. The explicit dependency step uses --require-bundled: incomplete toolchains fail before any dependency build or download. Both bundled library/header sets enter the cache identity and installed provenance.

For manual builds with older musl toolchains, build/abook-deps.json retains checksum-pinned source fallbacks. Release CI uses the prebuilt bundle directly. build/abook-deps.py verifies cached installed bytes, stages target dependencies in a private cache, and prints their prefix for -DJARO_ABOOK_DEPS_PREFIX=.... Ordinary CMake builds never download them. Both architectures run abook conversion/query smoke tests and open/quit its TUI in a private pseudo-terminal (arm64 via QEMU). Embedded descriptions for common terminals let the static TUI run even without a system terminfo database. Dependency license notices and source pins accompany static packages.

See source provenance and customization. The full upstream source remains unchanged by this import; new behavioral changes belong in later commits with focused addressbook regressions.

Version assignment

VERSION contains the v6 development baseline. A source checkout uses its highest reachable stable vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH tag at or above that baseline. Tags on unrelated branches and malformed or prerelease tags are not selected. Git archive export metadata preserves the version when .git is unavailable; unversioned source copies use the baseline. Fetch tags before building a checkout. CMake tracks loose tag references and packed refs so incremental builds refresh assigned metadata when tags change. -DJARO_VERSION=6.2.3 explicitly assigns a version, as the release workflow does before the new tag exists.

The assigned value is installed as share/jaromail/VERSION. The CLI reads it for jaro --version, jaro -v, help, and the startup banner. Installed versions do not contact GitHub or require Git/Python to report their version. The internal filter compiler/cache ABI identifier is separate from the project’s release version and remains stable while that contract is unchanged.

Automatic releases

Pushes to the default branch trigger .github/workflows/release.yml. The workflow accepts both master (the current default) and main; publishing is restricted to the repository’s actual default branch. The workflow does not rename branches or publish from pull requests. Manual dispatch on the default branch can resume a failed release.

The version job uses ietf-tools/semver-action, pinned to a reviewed revision. It compares the latest reachable stable tag against the exact pushed commit. The first release injects a one-time major change, validated to produce exactly v6.0.0 from the existing v5 history. Thereafter, Conventional Commits assign versions: feat: increments minor, fix:/perf:/ refactor:/test: increments patch, and BREAKING CHANGE: notes or breaking headers increment major. Changes without a bump default to patch. Completed release retries use the existing version rather than creating another tag.

Tests must pass before publishing. The Linux matrix uses dyne/musl-action, pinned to a reviewed revision and the checksum-verified Dyne musl v2.6.0 toolchains. Both builds run on an x86_64 Linux host:

Artifact architecture	Action target	Compiler tuple	Runtime smoke test
x86_64	x86_64	x86_64-linux-musl	Native
arm64	arm_64	aarch64-linux-musl	qemu-aarch64

Each of the eight executables (the seven helpers plus abook) must be an ELF64 binary of the correct machine type, with neither an ELF interpreter nor shared-library dependencies. Failed static checks, tests, smoke tests or either architecture prevent publication.

CPack creates jaromail-VERSION-linux-ARCH.tar.gz; each archive has a matching .sha256 file. Archives contain bin/jaro, the native helpers, Zsh modules, version metadata, committed manuals, configuration templates and license text. The scripts still need Zsh and the normal external mail tools, including fetchmail, msmtp, neomutt, notmuch, pinentry, wipe and mblaze. These tools are not bundled or rebuilt as part of this release.

Both architectures and checksums are uploaded to one draft GitHub release at the triggering commit, then published together. Published releases are never overwritten. A retry can complete an existing draft on the same commit; missing or corrupt local artifacts and conflicting tag commits fail before publication. Pull requests run the same static matrix and semantic-version preview as read-only checks, uploading preview archives without creating tags or GitHub releases.

Local verification

cmake --build out/build --target check-strict
ctest --test-dir out/build --output-on-failure

The full suite also needs the existing mail-tool fixtures and pinned private Sieve development libraries described in the interface documentation. CI provisions those separately; they do not enter the installed application or binary archives. build/check-static.py --bin-dir out/static/bin --arch x86_64 verifies a static build made with -DJARO_STATIC=ON. Use a separate CMake build directory for each architecture and toolchain.