android: restore computing versionCode at built time - #838
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This computes a monotonic, time-based versionCode for each release build instead of stamping it into build.gradle. We use the same base versionCode for phone and Android TV builds, reserving the last digit for the platform. versionCode was originally generated by the release build rather than stored in the repo. We switched to computing versionCode in #807 so that fdroid and Play Store builds would produce the same value, then switched to a literal versionCode in #823 because fdroid's update checking needed the versionCode to be grepable. The literal versionCode approach required bumposs/tag_release to update and commit for fdroid to discover the generated versionCode. This moves versionCode generation back to build time, using a time-based base code so that versionCodes remain globally increasing even when stable releases are cut after higher numbered unstables. fdroid discovery will be handled by android_publisher - when a stable apk is published to pkgs, it will publish a version.txt with the versionCode and versionName extracted from the apk manifest. fdroid will use that file for http update checks, so the versionCode no longer needs to be committed to build.gradle Updates tailscale/tailscale#18969 Signed-off-by: kari-ts <kari@tailscale.com>
willh-ts
approved these changes
Aug 12, 2026
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This computes a monotonic, time-based versionCode for each release build instead of stamping it into build.gradle. We use the same base versionCode for phone and Android TV builds, reserving the last digit for the platform.
versionCode was originally generated by the release build rather than stored in the repo. We switched to computing versionCode in #807 so that fdroid and Play Store builds would produce the same value, then switched to a literal versionCode in #823 because fdroid's update checking needed the versionCode to be grepable. The literal versionCode approach required bumposs/tag_release to update and commit for fdroid to discover the generated versionCode. This moves versionCode generation back to build time, using a time-based base code so that versionCodes remain globally increasing even when stable releases are cut after higher numbered unstables. fdroid discovery will be handled by android_publisher - when a stable apk is published to pkgs, it will publish a version.txt with the versionCode and versionName extracted from the apk manifest. fdroid will use that file for http update checks, so the versionCode no longer needs to be committed to build.gradle
Updates tailscale/tailscale#18969