Development builds

Development Installing

Development builds

See also: Development builds/Past builds and Category:Gotham feature

Helix is the code name for the next version of XBMC, v14. These development builds, often called "pre-Helix" or "pre-release" builds, are what will eventually lead to the final Helix version. In contrast to the stable builds (v13 Gotham) you don't have to wait for the release in order to benefit from new features or fixes that made it into XBMC.

THESE BUILDS MAY BE LESS STABLE and are only for users that do not fear bugs or occasional crashes. They are mostly used for development. If you want a stable HTPC, this is not the place for you! They do help us in testing for the upcoming releases.

Nightly build

Nightly Builds are made on a daily basis and contain the most recent changes. They are also the most unstable of the development builds, until "feature freeze" where only bug fixes are made.

ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR USERDATA FOLDER WHEN USING NIGHTLY BUILDS

http://mirrors.xbmc.org/nightlies/

• Nightly builds for Android (ARM, most users)
• Nightly builds for Android (x86)
• Nightly builds for Windows
  • If you are using a Windows nightly build please also download the .pdb file with the same version from our mirrors, rename it to xbmc.pdb and place it alongside the XBMC.exe inside the installation folder. Re-download the correct file each time you are installing another nightly build. This helps us to identify possible crashes.
• Nightly builds for Mac OS X
• Nightly builds for Ubuntu
• Nightly builds for iOS - iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
• Nightly builds for iOS - Apple TV 2 (black)

Monthly build

Monthly builds are semi-stable nightly snapshots of the current development version. They are a step between (often) unstable nightly builds and stable release builds, though they can sometimes still be very unstable depending on various factors.

XBMC developers have a merge cycle every month for new features and major changes. For ten days they add new features, then for the rest of the month they fix things. The monthly is then taken from a nightly just before they start adding features again. For this reason, they are often more stable than the average nightly build.

ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR USERDATA FOLDER WHEN USING MONTHLY BUILDS

http://mirrors.xbmc.org/snapshots/

Monthly builds are now over. Please see #Betas and release candidates. Click "show" to view older monthly builds.

Cycle Month Notes Database version Download links Highlights Milestones V M Android iOS: iDevice/ATV2 Linux Mac OS X Windows 13 Alpha 1 February 2013 XBMC blog post milestones 75 32 dl iDevice ATV2 PPA normal 64 bit dl 13 Alpha 2 March 2013 XBMC blog post milestones 75 32 dl iDevice ATV2 PPA normal 64 bit dl 13 Alpha 3 April 2013 XBMC blog post Github • forum 75 33 ↑ dl iDevice ATV2 PPA normal 64 bit dl 13 Alpha 4 May 2013 milestones 75 36 ↑ dl iDevice ATV2 PPA normal 64 bit dl 13 Alpha 5 June 2013 XBMC blog post 75 37 ↑ dl iDevice ATV2 PPA normal 64 bit dl 13 Alpha 6 July 2013 milestones 75 37 dl iDevice ATV2 PPA normal 64 bit dl 13 Alpha 7 August 2013 XBMC blog post milestones 76 ↑ 37 dl iDevice ATV2 PPA normal 64 bit dl 13 Alpha 8 September 2013 XBMC blog post milestones 76 37 dl iDevice ATV2 PPA normal 64 bit dl 13 Alpha 9 October 2013 milestones 76 37 ARM x86 iDevice ATV2 PPA normal 64 bit dl 13 Alpha 10 November 2013 XBMC blog post milestones 77 ↑ 37 ARM x86 iDevice ATV2 PPA normal 64 bit dl 13 Alpha 11 December 2013 milestones 77 37 ARM x86 iDevice ATV2 PPA normal 64 bit dl 13 Alpha 12 January - February 2014 milestones 78 ↑ 45 ↑ There won't be a monthly snapshot build for Alpha 12, as only bug fixes are now being added to XBMC's code. In essence, XBMC v13 Beta 1 is the same as what an Alpha 12 snapshot would have been. See: #Betas and release candidates

Betas and release candidates

When XBMC gets close to a stable release, public betas will be released. These are similar to nightlies and monthlies in that they still contain bugs, but are more stable and are encouraged to be tried out. At the point where XBMC reaches beta, most known bugs have been fixed, and developers are now looking for bugs they might not know about.

When XBMC beta gets to a point where it seems ready for a final release a "Release Candidate", or "RC", is released to flesh out any final bugs. Depending on any issues found, there may be multiple release candidates.

After release candidates comes a final stable build that becomes XBMC v14, aka Helix.

ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR USERDATA FOLDER WHEN USING BETAS

No betas for XBMC v14 Helix have been released yet

Other test builds

Keep an eye out here for special tests that developers want users to try out.

Special notes about development builds

Bugs

As development builds are bleeding edge code you might find a bug here and there. In order to get rid of this bugs, it's important that these will be reported: HOW-TO:Submit a proper bug report.

Feature requests

If you have a feature that you think should be added to appear in the next stable version of XBMC, you can make a feature request: HOW-TO:Submit an official feature request.

See also

• Development builds/Past builds
• Jenkins
• Category:Gotham feature
• XBMC development