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Release Process

Releases are automated via GitHub Actions. Pushing a tag matching v* triggers the release workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml), which creates a draft GitHub release and builds binaries for all supported platforms in parallel.

Binaries

A single combined binary named skycoin (or skycoin.exe on Windows) is produced for each platform. This binary is compiled from cmd/release/ and includes all of the following as subcommands:

  • daemon — skycoin wallet node
  • cli — command line interface
  • web — thin client web wallet
  • explorer — blockchain explorer
  • newcoin — fibercoin creation tool
  • skyhw — hardware wallet utilities (only on platforms with CGO + libusb support)

The skyhw subcommand requires CGO and libusb. On platforms where CGO is disabled (Windows 386, Windows ARM64), the skyhw subcommand is excluded at compile time via build tags. All other subcommands are always available.

On Windows amd64, a separate skyhw.exe standalone binary is also built and included in the release archive alongside the required DLLs (libhidapi-0.dll, libusb-1.0.dll).

Build Method

All binaries are built using go install directly from the tagged module version:

go install github.com/skycoin/skycoin/cmd/release@<tag>

This approach embeds version information automatically via runtime/debug.BuildInfo without requiring ldflags. No repository checkout is needed for the build step — only specific support files (libusb build script, Windows installer template) are fetched individually when required.

Platforms

Linux

Architecture Archive CGO Linking Hardware Wallet
amd64 skycoin-<tag>-linux-amd64.tar.gz Yes Static (musl) Yes
arm64 skycoin-<tag>-linux-arm64.tar.gz Yes Static (musl) Yes
arm (ARMv6) skycoin-<tag>-linux-arm.tar.gz Yes Static (musl) Yes
armhf (ARMv7) skycoin-<tag>-linux-armhf.tar.gz Yes Static (musl) Yes
386 skycoin-<tag>-linux-386.tar.gz Yes Static (musl) Stub (gousb unsupported)
riscv64 skycoin-<tag>-linux-riscv64.tar.gz Yes Static (musl) Yes

All Linux binaries are statically linked using musl cross-compilers. This eliminates runtime dependencies — the binary runs on any Linux distribution without requiring glibc or any shared libraries.

The static linking process:

  1. Download musl cross-compiler toolchain for the target architecture
  2. Cross-compile libusb-1.0 as a static library using the musl toolchain (ci-scripts/build-libusb-musl.sh)
  3. Build the Go binary with -linkmode external -extldflags '-static' using the musl GCC as the C compiler

Musl toolchains are cached between builds to avoid repeated downloads.

macOS

Architecture Archive Installer CGO Hardware Wallet
amd64 (Intel) skycoin-<tag>-darwin-amd64.tar.gz skycoin-<tag>-darwin-amd64.pkg Yes Yes
arm64 (Apple Silicon) skycoin-<tag>-darwin-arm64.tar.gz skycoin-<tag>-darwin-arm64.pkg Yes Yes

macOS binaries are dynamically linked (standard for macOS). CGO is enabled with libusb and hidapi installed via Homebrew. Each architecture is built on its native runner (macos-15-intel for amd64, macos-latest for arm64).

The .pkg installers are created with pkgbuild and install the binary to /usr/local/bin/skycoin.

Windows

Architecture Archive Installer CGO Hardware Wallet
amd64 skycoin-<tag>-windows-amd64.zip skycoin-installer-<tag>-windows-amd64.msi Yes Yes (+ separate skyhw.exe)
386 skycoin-<tag>-windows-386.zip skycoin-installer-<tag>-windows-386.msi No No
arm64 skycoin-<tag>-windows-arm64.zip (none) No No

Windows amd64 is the only Windows architecture with CGO enabled. libusb and hidapi are installed via msys2/mingw. The 386 and arm64 builds use CGO_ENABLED=0, which excludes hardware wallet support but keeps all other functionality.

The amd64 archive includes a standalone skyhw.exe binary and the required DLLs (libhidapi-0.dll, libusb-1.0.dll) for hardware wallet operations.

MSI installers are built using WiX 3.11 for amd64 and 386 architectures. The amd64 MSI includes skycoin.exe, skyhw.exe, and the required DLLs. The 386 MSI includes only skycoin.exe. Both installers add the install directory to the system PATH. No MSI installer is produced for arm64.

Release Artifacts

Each release includes the following for every platform:

  • Binary archive (.tar.gz for Linux/macOS, .zip for Windows)
  • Per-archive SHA256 checksum (.sha256)
  • Combined checksums.txt with all checksums

macOS releases additionally include .pkg installers with checksums.

Windows amd64 and 386 releases additionally include .msi installers with checksums.

Triggering a Release

git tag v0.28.5
git push origin v0.28.5

The release is created as a draft. After verifying the artifacts, publish it manually from the GitHub releases page.

Local Builds

To build the release binary locally:

# With hardware wallet support (requires libusb-1.0-dev)
CGO_ENABLED=1 go build -tags cgo -o skycoin ./cmd/release/

# Without hardware wallet support
CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o skycoin ./cmd/release/

Or install from the module directly:

go install github.com/skycoin/skycoin/cmd/release@latest