content/wiki/other/releases.md

On this page, you will find information about MatterLinux release cycle and version numbering.

Release cycle

The release cycle is pretty simple, if there are enough package updates and changes, then you get a new release. So its expected to have a release or once a month.

Package updates

MatterLinux follows a slow rolling release cycle for all the packages. Packages update every once in a while, generally to fix security issues. Packages get tested on a development pool, next.matterlinux.xyz before they get pushed into the main pools. This way we can maintain a stable experience.

ISOs and release archives

With each release, project releases two new files, an ISO and a Release Archive:

• ISO: A bootable disk image
• Release Archive: An archive used during the installation of a release

With new release, a new ISO and a release archive will be published. This way the packages in these ISO and archive files will always be up-to-date.

Learn the version you are using

You can learn the MatterLinux release version you are using by printing out the /etc/os-release file:

# cat /etc/os-release

Version numbering

MatterLinux and all it's projects are version numbered after the year. For example MatterLinux release for the year 2024 is versioned "MatterLinux 24".

Minor numbers may be added for other releases. For example the 2nd release of the MatterLinux 24 ISO would be named "MatterLinux 24.01".

Similarly 15th release of the MatterLinux package manager for the year 2024 is versioned "24.14".

Building releases

You can build an up-to-date ISO and a release archives using mtsc. mtsc can be found the in the base pool, and can be installed using the package manager.

Important

You should be on a MatterLinux system for a proper build!

Building the release archive

To build a release archive, you can use the matter-base tool. This tool will create a temporary directory, install all the required base packages into it and then it will archive it all up for the final archive.

All you need to do is to specify a name for the archive, for example:

# matter-base matterlinux_example-build

Building the ISOs

Official ISOs are built using the matter-iso tool. By providing a release archive and a configuration directory to this tool, you can create an ISO image.

Note

ISO image is created using grub-mkrescue, so you should install libisoburn before proceeding.

As the configuration directory, you can clone the official ISO configuration. Or you can use your own custom configuration.

To build the ISO with the release archive that we created on the previous example, using the configuration directory located at ./iso:

# matter-iso matterlinux_example-build.tar.gz iso

The final ISO should be available at ./iso/dist/<name_version>.iso after the build.