S3_0 alpha1 is going to be first ever alpha light-weight-release of freeciv. For now this article is just notes about that release. At later date I hope to turn this in to proper document about alpha release process.
Instead of the actual version number, which is below 3.0 (2.94.90-alpha1) and may be confusing for someone looking for freeciv-3.0 development version, I refer to alpha1 as S3_0 alpha1 when ever possible.
Ticket: Task #700704
Forum thread: S3_0 alpha1 testing
I originally hoped to have a new msys2 environment available for S3_0 alpha1, but unfortunately I have had no opportunity to make such a thing, nor do I expect to make it within next couple of weeks. I'm currently thinking that maybe alpha2 would be something to release after Windows build environments have been updated (new version of both msys2 and crosser).
By the time of alpha1 release, document listing main features of the development version (at the time of alpha; alpha commit) relative to previous major version should already exist. For S3_0 we have one as FEATURES-3.0.txt Copy that is frozen to alpha1 level should go to same place with other alpha1 files. It now lives in the tarballs directory.
I've also been updating various "How to update..." documents on wiki toward alpha1 level.
I had tested 'make dist' (even 'make distcheck') before going for alpha1 release, but that didn't prevent it from breaking on the moment I switched version label to longer "alpha1". Filepaths in the deepest reaches of the directory hierarchy became too long for 'tar' to handle. Bug #740207
When I started to setup public server on h1.jasminek.net, I found out that it doesn't have all the requirements of freeciv S3_0. I have tested S3_0 build there in the past, but apparently too distant past (the package was probably dropped from there in the last server update).
installer_cross builds live in 'alphas' subdirectory of their own hierarchy: S3_0-alpha1. Similarly msys2 builds should go to 'alphas' subdirectory of their own hierarchy: S3_0-alpha1