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RELEASE_BUILD.md

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Release Build Guide

This guide explains how to create professional release builds of Click Guardian with proper versioning and packaging.

🚀 Quick Start

For a simple release build:

scripts\release-build.bat

This will create:

  • dist\click-guardian.exe - Main application
  • dist\click-guardian-v1.0.4-windows-portable.zip - Complete release package

## 📋 Prerequisites

### Required

- **Go 1.24.1+** with CGO enabled
- **Git** (for version information)

### Optional

- **Windows SDK** (for code signing with `signtool`)
- **Code signing certificate** (for production releases)

## 📝 Version Management

### Change Version Number

Edit **ONE** file to change the version:

**File: `build\build.conf`**

```ini
VERSION=1.0.4

That's it! The build script automatically uses this version for:

  • Executable metadata
  • Package naming
  • Release documentation

The release build script automatically updates the following files with the new version:

  • wix.json - Windows installer configuration
  • build/windows/app.rc - Windows resource file (contains version info embedded in executable)
  • build/windows/app-manifest.xml - Application manifest file

Version Auto-Detection

The build script automatically includes:

  • Git commit hash - from git rev-parse --short HEAD
  • Build timestamp - current date/time
  • Builder name - from git config user.name or Windows username

🏗️ Build Process

The simplified build process:

  1. Load version from build\build.conf
  2. Get git info (commit, builder name)
  3. Generate Windows resource file (icon, manifest, version info) 
    windres build\windows\app.rc -O coff -o cmd\click-guardian\click-guardian.syso
  4. Build executables with embedded version info
  5. Create release package with documentation
  6. Generate ZIP file ready for distribution

What Gets Built

  • GUI Version (click-guardian.exe) - Main application for end users
    (Windows icon, manifest, and version info are embedded via click-guardian.syso)
  • Release Package (click-guardian-v1.0.4-windows-portable.zip) - Complete distribution package

🔧 Manual Build Commands

If you prefer to build manually:

Basic Build (Same as your original build.bat)

# GUI version (recommended for users)
go build -ldflags "-s -w -H=windowsgui" -o dist\click-guardian-gui.exe .\cmd\click-guardian

# Console version (for debugging)
go build -ldflags "-s -w" -o dist\click-guardian.exe .\cmd\click-guardian

Build with Version Information

# Set your version
set VERSION=1.0.4
set GIT_COMMIT=abc1234
set BUILD_BY=YourName

# Build with version info
go build -ldflags "-s -w -H=windowsgui -X click-guardian/internal/version.Version=%VERSION% -X click-guardian/internal/version.GitCommit=%GIT_COMMIT% -X click-guardian/internal/version.BuildBy=%BUILD_BY%" -o dist\click-guardian-gui.exe .\cmd\click-guardian

📝 Windows Resource File (.syso)

The build process uses a Windows resource file to embed the application icon, manifest, and version info into the executable.

  • Resource script: build/windows/app.rc
  • Icon: build/windows/app-icon.ico
  • Manifest: build/windows/app-manifest.xml
  • How to generate: 
    windres build\windows\app.rc -O coff -o cmd\click-guardian\click-guardian.syso
  • The .syso file must be in the same directory as main.go (cmd\click-guardian\).

🔐 Code Signing (Optional)

For Production Releases

  1. Get a certificate from a trusted CA (DigiCert, Sectigo, etc.)
  2. Use the signing script: 
    build\scripts\sign-code.bat dist\click-guardian-gui.exe path\to\cert.pfx password

Self-Signed Certificate (Testing Only)

# Create self-signed certificate (Windows will show warnings)
makecert -sv mykey.pvk -n "CN=YourName" mycert.cer
pvk2pfx -pvk mykey.pvk -spc mycert.cer -pfx mycert.pfx

📦 Release Package Contents

The ZIP package includes:

click-guardian-v1.0.4-windows/
├── click-guardian-gui.exe      # Main application
├── README.txt                  # Usage instructions
└── LICENSE                     # License (if present)

🚀 Distribution

GitHub Releases (Recommended)\n\n1. Update version in build\\build.conf\n2. Build release:\n ```cmd\n scripts\

elease-build.bat\n \n3. **Create git tag**:\n cmd\n git tag -a v1.0.4 -m "Release version 1.0.4"\n git push origin v1.0.4\n ```\n4. Upload to GitHub:\n - Go to GitHub → Releases → Create new release\n - Upload dist\\click-guardian-v1.0.4-windows-portable.zip

Direct Distribution

  • Share the ZIP file directly
  • Upload to your website
  • Distribute the signed executables

🔍 Testing Your Build

Check Version Information

# The GUI version doesn't show console output, but you can verify it was built correctly
# by checking the file exists and running it to see the About dialog

Verify Functionality

  1. GUI Version - Should start without console window and show the main interface
  2. About Dialog - Check "About" button to verify version info is embedded
  3. Protection - Test double-click blocking works

🐛 Simple Troubleshooting

Build Fails

# Check Go environment
go version
go env

# Clean and retry
rmdir /s /q dist
scripts\release-build.bat

No Version Info

  • Make sure build\build.conf exists with VERSION=1.0.4
  • Check that Git is installed and working

Large File Size

  • Executable is ~24MB (normal for Go with CGO and GUI)
  • Use the original scripts\build.bat for smaller builds without version info if needed

📂 Files You Might Need to Edit

For Version Changes

  • build\build.conf - Change VERSION=1.0.4 to your new version

For Build Customization

  • scripts\release-build.bat - Modify build process
  • scripts\build.bat - Your original working build script

For App Changes

  • cmd\click-guardian\main.go - Main application entry point
  • internal\version\version.go - Version handling code

🎯 Quick Reference

To release a new version:

  1. Edit build\build.conf → change VERSION
  2. Run scripts\release-build.bat
  3. Upload dist\click-guardian-v1.0.4-windows-portable.zip

Simple build (no packaging):

scripts\build.bat

Release build (with packaging):

scripts\release-build.bat

That's it! 🎉