Take the version from the git tag instead of project.pbxproj

.github/scripts/resolve-version.py

@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+#
+# Works out which version a release run is building, and refuses the runs that
+# cannot sensibly build one.
+#
+# There is no real version number in the repository: project.pbxproj holds
+# 0.0.0, and the version that ships is the git tag, handed to fastlane as
+# ODR_VERSION and from there to xcodebuild as MARKETING_VERSION. A number
+# committed on main describes either a release that already went out or a guess
+# at the next one, so it is wrong almost all of the time.
+#
+# What is left to decide is which string fastlane is handed, and that is only
+# interesting when the run has no tag to read:
+#
+#   tag push                   the tag, and the version input has to agree with
+#                              it or stay empty - building anything else would
+#                              put a version on the store that no tag names
+#   dispatched off a branch    the version input, which is how a release whose
+#                              upload half failed gets finished off the branch
+#                              it was cut from
+#   neither                    only a dry run, on the 0.0.0 in project.pbxproj.
+#                              uploading that would mean uploading a version
+#                              App Store Connect refuses, twenty minutes into
+#                              the run
+#
+# The shape is checked here rather than left to xcodebuild, which never checks
+# it at all: MARKETING_VERSION is a free-form string to the build, and a typo
+# only surfaces when App Store Connect rejects the upload at the very end.
+#
+# Unlike the android side there is no version code to derive - CFBundleVersion
+# is the build number, which fastlane takes from what TestFlight already has.
+# The store does insist the version climbs, so the tag has to be above whatever
+# is live; that is left to App Store Connect, which is the only thing that knows.
+#
+# Prints the resolved version and writes it to GITHUB_OUTPUT as `version`, empty
+# when there is none. Run it by hand to see what a dispatch would build.
+
+import argparse
+import os
+import re
+import sys
+
+# what CFBundleShortVersionString accepts: one to three numeric parts. A leading
+# v is allowed here because tags are often written that way, and stripped below -
+# "v1.36" as a marketing version would be rejected by the store
+VERSION = re.compile(r"^v?[0-9]{1,3}(\.[0-9]{1,3}){0,2}$")
+
+
+def fail(message):
+    if os.environ.get("GITHUB_ACTIONS"):
+        # shown in the log the same way, and additionally as an annotation on the
+        # run itself rather than only somewhere in the middle of a step
+        print(f"::error::{message}")
+    else:
+        print(message, file=sys.stderr)
+    return 1
+
+
+def boolean(value):
+    """A workflow input as it reaches a shell: the string "true" or "false"."""
+    if value.strip().lower() in ("true", "1"):
+        return True
+    if value.strip().lower() in ("false", "0", ""):
+        return False
+    raise ValueError(f"'{value}' is not true or false")
+
+
+def resolve(tag, given, dry_run, log=print):
+    """The version to build, or "" for none. Raises ValueError with the reason."""
+    tag, given = tag.strip(), given.strip()
+
+    if tag and given and given.removeprefix("v") != tag.removeprefix("v"):
+        raise ValueError(
+            f"the version input ({given}) is not the tag this ran on ({tag}). "
+            "leave it blank to build the tag."
+        )
+
+    version = tag or given
+    if not version:
+        if not dry_run:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "nothing to take a version from. push this as a tag, dispatch it "
+                "on one, or fill in the version input."
+            )
+        log("no version given - building the 0.0.0 in project.pbxproj")
+        return ""
+
+    if not VERSION.match(version):
+        raise ValueError(
+            f"'{version}' is not a version: expected up to three numbers, like 1.36 or 1.36.1"
+        )
+    version = version.removeprefix("v")
+    log(f"building {version}")
+    return version
+
+
+def main(argv=None):
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+        description="Resolve the version a release run builds."
+    )
+    parser.add_argument("--tag", default="", help="tag the run was triggered by, if any")
+    parser.add_argument("--input", default="", help="version input of a dispatched run")
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--dry-run",
+        default="false",
+        help="whether the run publishes nothing; only a dry run may go without a version",
+    )
+    args = parser.parse_args(argv)
+
+    try:
+        version = resolve(args.tag, args.input, boolean(args.dry_run))
+    except ValueError as reason:
+        return fail(str(reason))
+
+    output = os.environ.get("GITHUB_OUTPUT")
+    if output:
+        with open(output, "a") as out:
+            out.write(f"version={version}\n")
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    sys.exit(main())

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -1,20 +1,51 @@
 name: release
 
-# Manual only. Releasing stays a deliberate act, this just moves it off
-# whoever's laptop happened to have the Apple ID signed in.
+# Releasing stays a deliberate act - this just moves it off whoever's laptop
+# happened to have the Apple ID signed in. It runs on a version tag, or by hand.
+#
+# The version is the tag and nothing else. project.pbxproj holds 0.0.0, and the
+# tag reaches xcodebuild as MARKETING_VERSION by way of fastlane's ODR_VERSION,
+# so cutting a release needs no commit and leaves no working tree dirty. A
+# dispatched run has no tag to read, so it fills in the version input instead.
+# The build number is not in the repository either: fastlane derives it from
+# what TestFlight already has.
 on:
   workflow_dispatch:
     inputs:
       flavor:
-        description: which app to upload
-        required: true
+        description: which app to build
         type: choice
+        default: both
         options:
           - pro
           - lite
           - both
+      # a tag push needs nothing here: the tag is the version. this is for
+      # dispatched runs, which have no tag to read - finishing a release whose
+      # upload failed off the branch it was cut from, or putting a real version
+      # on a dry run
+      version:
+        description: version to build, e.g. 1.36 - defaults to the tag
+        type: string
+      # the dry run: build, sign and archive the ipa, upload nothing. the only
+      # way to exercise the signing path without putting a build on TestFlight
+      dry_run:
+        description: build and archive only, do not upload
+        type: boolean
+        default: false
+  push:
+    # the tags this repo has always used are bare numbers; a v prefix is
+    # accepted too and stripped by the version script
+    tags:
+      - '[0-9]*'
+      - 'v[0-9]*'
 
 concurrency:
+  # every release run, not merely the ones on the same ref. The build number is a
+  # live query of what TestFlight already has, so two overlapping runs would read
+  # the same number and hand the second upload a version/build pair App Store
+  # Connect has already taken. The android side can key this by ref because its
+  # version code is derived from the tag, with nothing to race against
   group: ${{ github.workflow }}
   cancel-in-progress: false
 
@@ -23,6 +54,8 @@ permissions:
 
 env:
   xcode_version: "26.5"
+  # a tag push builds both flavors and uploads them, the way a release always has
+  dry_run: ${{ inputs.dry_run || false }}
 
 jobs:
   upload:
@@ -31,8 +64,12 @@ jobs:
       fail-fast: true
       max-parallel: 1
       matrix:
-        flavor: ${{ inputs.flavor == 'both' && fromJSON('["pro","lite"]') || fromJSON(format('["{0}"]', inputs.flavor)) }}
+        # the env context is not available here, so the tag push fallback is
+        # spelled out rather than read from env.flavor
+        flavor: ${{ (!inputs.flavor || inputs.flavor == 'both') && fromJSON('["pro","lite"]') || fromJSON(format('["{0}"]', inputs.flavor)) }}
     steps:
+      # signing is needed for a dry run too - it builds and signs everything a
+      # real release does, it just keeps the result
       - name: check secrets
         env:
           ASC_KEY_ID: ${{ secrets.ASC_KEY_ID }}
@@ -53,6 +90,21 @@ jobs:
       - name: checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v7
 
+      # the version is not in the checkout - it is the tag. The script says which
+      # runs can build which version, and why; it is here, right behind the
+      # checkout it needs, because a run that cannot name a version should end
+      # before the twenty minutes of setup and building, not after
+      - name: resolve version
+        id: version
+        # through the environment rather than interpolated into the command: a
+        # tag name and a dispatch input are both strings from outside the
+        # workflow, and a run: line is the one place where that would be a shell
+        # injection
+        env:
+          tag: ${{ github.ref_type == 'tag' && github.ref_name || '' }}
+          given: ${{ inputs.version }}
+        run: .github/scripts/resolve-version.py --tag "$tag" --input "$given" --dry-run "$dry_run"
+
       - uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
         with:
           bundler-cache: true
@@ -91,11 +143,19 @@ jobs:
           security set-key-partition-list -S apple-tool:,apple: -k "$password" "$keychain" > /dev/null
           security list-keychain -d user -s "$keychain" login.keychain-db
 
-      - name: upload to App Store Connect
+      # one step for both, because a dry run has to build exactly what a release
+      # builds to be worth anything - the lane only stops short of the upload
+      - name: build and upload to App Store Connect
         env:
           ASC_KEY_ID: ${{ secrets.ASC_KEY_ID }}
           ASC_ISSUER_ID: ${{ secrets.ASC_ISSUER_ID }}
           ASC_KEY_CONTENT: ${{ secrets.ASC_KEY_CONTENT }}
+          # empty on a dry run with no version, which leaves the 0.0.0 that is
+          # checked in. passed as an environment variable rather than a lane
+          # option: fastlane hands lane options through as strings, so a false
+          # would arrive as the string "false" and read as true
+          ODR_VERSION: ${{ steps.version.outputs.version }}
+          ODR_DRY_RUN: ${{ env.dry_run }}
         run: bundle exec fastlane ${{ matrix.flavor == 'pro' && 'deployPro' || 'deployLite' }}
 
       - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v7

OpenDocumentReader.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj

@@ -565,7 +565,7 @@
 				CLANG_CXX_LANGUAGE_STANDARD = "gnu++20";
 				CLANG_ENABLE_MODULES = YES;
 				CODE_SIGN_STYLE = Automatic;
-				CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION = 42;
+				CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION = 1;
 				DEBUG_INFORMATION_FORMAT = "dwarf-with-dsym";
 				DEFINES_MODULE = YES;
 				DEVELOPMENT_ASSET_PATHS = "conan-assets";
@@ -580,7 +580,7 @@
 					"$(inherited)",
 					"@executable_path/Frameworks",
 				);
-				MARKETING_VERSION = 1.35;
+				MARKETING_VERSION = 0.0.0;
 				MODULE_VERIFIER_SUPPORTED_LANGUAGE_STANDARDS = "gnu17 gnu++20";
 				ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH = YES;
 				PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER = at.tomtasche.reader.lite1;
@@ -662,7 +662,7 @@
 				CLANG_CXX_LANGUAGE_STANDARD = "gnu++20";
 				CLANG_ENABLE_MODULES = YES;
 				CODE_SIGN_STYLE = Automatic;
-				CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION = 42;
+				CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION = 1;
 				DEFINES_MODULE = YES;
 				DEVELOPMENT_ASSET_PATHS = "conan-assets";
 				ENABLE_BITCODE = NO;
@@ -676,7 +676,7 @@
 					"$(inherited)",
 					"@executable_path/Frameworks",
 				);
-				MARKETING_VERSION = 1.35;
+				MARKETING_VERSION = 0.0.0;
 				MODULE_VERIFIER_SUPPORTED_LANGUAGE_STANDARDS = "gnu17 gnu++20";
 				PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER = at.tomtasche.reader.lite1;
 				PRODUCT_NAME = "$(BUNDLE_DISPLAY_NAME)";
@@ -898,7 +898,7 @@
 				CLANG_CXX_LANGUAGE_STANDARD = "gnu++20";
 				CLANG_ENABLE_MODULES = YES;
 				CODE_SIGN_STYLE = Automatic;
-				CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION = 42;
+				CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION = 1;
 				DEBUG_INFORMATION_FORMAT = "dwarf-with-dsym";
 				DEFINES_MODULE = YES;
 				DEVELOPMENT_ASSET_PATHS = "conan-assets";
@@ -913,7 +913,7 @@
 					"$(inherited)",
 					"@executable_path/Frameworks",
 				);
-				MARKETING_VERSION = 1.35;
+				MARKETING_VERSION = 0.0.0;
 				MODULE_VERIFIER_SUPPORTED_LANGUAGE_STANDARDS = "gnu17 gnu++20";
 				ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH = YES;
 				PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER = "at.tomtasche.reader$(BUNDLE_ID_SUFFIX)";
@@ -937,7 +937,7 @@
 				CLANG_CXX_LANGUAGE_STANDARD = "gnu++20";
 				CLANG_ENABLE_MODULES = YES;
 				CODE_SIGN_STYLE = Automatic;
-				CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION = 42;
+				CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION = 1;
 				DEFINES_MODULE = YES;
 				DEVELOPMENT_ASSET_PATHS = "conan-assets";
 				ENABLE_BITCODE = NO;
@@ -951,7 +951,7 @@
 					"$(inherited)",
 					"@executable_path/Frameworks",
 				);
-				MARKETING_VERSION = 1.35;
+				MARKETING_VERSION = 0.0.0;
 				MODULE_VERIFIER_SUPPORTED_LANGUAGE_STANDARDS = "gnu17 gnu++20";
 				PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER = "at.tomtasche.reader$(BUNDLE_ID_SUFFIX)";
 				PRODUCT_NAME = "$(BUNDLE_DISPLAY_NAME)";

README.md

@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ committing; CI runs `scripts/format.sh --check` and fails on any difference.
 | --- | --- |
 | `format` | `scripts/format.sh --check`, on every push and pull request |
 | `build_test` | unit tests on the simulator plus a device build of both flavors |
-| `release` | manual upload to App Store Connect, see below |
+| `release` | upload to App Store Connect on a version tag, see below |
 
 `format` needs nothing but the Xcode toolchain and reports style breakage in a
 minute, so it is kept apart from the native build. Everything that does need
@@ -76,11 +76,31 @@ dependencies with conan and caches them per Xcode version and profile.
 
 ## Releasing
 
-The `release` workflow uploads a build to App Store Connect. It is manual
-(`workflow_dispatch`) and never submits for review, so
-promoting a build stays a deliberate step in App Store Connect. Build numbers
-come from whatever TestFlight already has, so nothing needs to be committed to
-cut a release.
+The `release` workflow uploads a build to App Store Connect. It runs on a
+version tag or by hand (`workflow_dispatch`), and never submits for review, so
+promoting a build stays a deliberate step in App Store Connect.
+
+Nothing has to be committed to cut a release, and a release leaves no commit
+behind either. Both halves of the version come from outside the tree:
+
+| | where it comes from | what is checked in |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| `MARKETING_VERSION` (`CFBundleShortVersionString`) | the git tag | `0.0.0` |
+| `CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION` (`CFBundleVersion`) | latest TestFlight build + 1 | `1` |
+
+So a release is `git tag 1.36 && git push --tags`, and the version in
+`project.pbxproj` is a placeholder that only local and CI builds ever see. The
+tag has to be above what is live in the store - App Store Connect is the only
+thing that knows what that is, and it rejects the upload otherwise.
+
+`.github/scripts/resolve-version.py` decides which version a run builds and
+refuses runs that cannot name one; run it by hand to see what a dispatch would
+do. A dispatched run takes a `version` input instead of a tag, which is how a
+release whose upload failed gets finished off the branch it was cut from.
+
+The `dry_run` input builds, signs and archives the `.ipa` without uploading it -
+the only way to exercise the signing path without putting a build on TestFlight.
+It is also the only kind of run allowed to go without a version.
 
 It needs these repository secrets:
 
@@ -96,9 +116,11 @@ The certificate is imported into a temporary keychain that is discarded with the
 runner. Provisioning profiles are created on demand via
 `-allowProvisioningUpdates`.
 
-The same lanes work locally once those variables are exported:
+The same lanes work locally once those variables are exported, and take the
+version and the dry run the same way the workflow hands them over:
 
 ```bash
-bundle exec fastlane deployPro
-bundle exec fastlane deployLite
+ODR_VERSION=1.36 bundle exec fastlane deployPro
+ODR_VERSION=1.36 bundle exec fastlane deployLite
+ODR_DRY_RUN=true bundle exec fastlane deployPro   # build and sign only
 ```