Ghost FTP 0.19.0

Release cycle: 0.19.0 pre-1.0 product release

Cycle date: 27 September 2026

0.19.0 follows canonical 0.18.0. Live publication status is determined by the immutable v0.19.0 GitHub tag/release, not by this document alone.

Changes in this cycle

• Rework the canonical Windows NSIS Setup so it uses Ghost FTP branding, application/installer/uninstaller icons, branded header/sidebar artwork and the root commercial EULA.txt as the interactive licence page.
• Keep the default Windows installation current-user scoped to avoid unnecessary elevation while retaining Ghost FTP Start Menu integration and English/Croatian installer resources.
• Produce both branded NSIS (.exe) and Windows Installer (.msi) packages for Windows x64 releases, and run real silent install/uninstall smoke tests against both exact packages produced by the canonical native build.
• Add Linux package lifecycle checks for AppImage runtime metadata, DEB install/remove and RPM metadata.
• Refresh Android FTP/FTPS and SFTP libraries to maintained Maven Central releases while preserving the existing protocol API surface.
• Optimize release binaries for size with Cargo opt-level = "s" while retaining LTO, one codegen unit, panic abort and stripped symbols.
• Keep optional AppImage GStreamer/media framework bundling explicitly disabled because Ghost FTP does not require audio/video playback.
• Upload only final Windows/Linux native packages from CI instead of complete expanded staging directories.
• Enforce native artifact size budgets and publish exact artifact sizes to the build summary.
• Keep README and active documentation images release-proven against the newest published Ghost FTP tag.
• Hide updater transport/file-format implementation details from all user-facing desktop update screens and sanitize technical updater errors before display.
• Replace the mismatched update templates/schema with one Tauri-compatible desktop update contract.
• Produce signed Windows/Linux in-app updater artifacts when the production signing key is configured; otherwise keep normal release packages valid while deliberately omitting the update-service deployment bundle.
• Add detailed update-service deployment, release runbook and signing/key-rotation documentation under updates/.
• Remove the obsolete website/ application source, website QA, website release archive and active website roadmap/documentation references.
• Replace README website artwork dependencies with real release-proven native application screenshots.
• Align Android workspace navigation with desktop Files, Sites, Transfers, Settings and Help & About terminology.
• Add Android emulator click-through instrumentation for connection validation, idle recovery and guarded file actions.
• Run the Android release gate on every main push so release orchestration cannot wait for a gate that never started.
• Remove the dead desktop preview verifier whose required mock runtime no longer existed.
• Refresh EULA, commercial licence, privacy, support, security and third-party notices for the app-only repository/release model.

Publication requirements

The exact source intended for v0.19.0 must pass the current exact-head quality, protocol E2E, canonical native build, Android and Windows hardening gates. The canonical release workflow must verify the Windows portable EXE, NSIS Setup EXE, MSI installer, Linux packages, Android APK, source, documentation, native-QA and SHA-256 assets before publication.

Stable status

0.19.0 remains part of the pre-1.0 development train. Stable/FINAL promotion remains subject to target-OS lifecycle, visual, security, accessibility, signing and release acceptance.