From 9d0f6fc9956bbe773c13bc35c422879794f96572 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Cary R <cygcary@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2026 14:47:58 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] Add CREATE_BRANCH.sh script

---
 scripts/CREATE_BRANCH.sh  | 51 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 scripts/CREATE_RELEASE.sh |  2 +-
 2 files changed, 52 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 scripts/CREATE_BRANCH.sh

diff --git a/scripts/CREATE_BRANCH.sh b/scripts/CREATE_BRANCH.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c2e292810
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/CREATE_BRANCH.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# This script creates a new release branch using the major version number
+# that is passed as the only argument,
+#
+# 1. It creates a new branch with the proper name.
+#
+# 2. It then updates the version_base.h to match this version. It likely
+#    already does, but it is incorrectly marked as devel instead of stable.
+#
+# 3. It updates the default suffix in aclocal.m4 to match the branch.
+#
+# Now manually push the new branch to the master repository.
+#
+#     git push -u origin v13-branch
+#
+
+if [ $# -ne 1 ] ; then
+    echo "Usage: CREATE_BRANCH.sh <major-number>"
+    exit 1;
+fi
+case $1 in
+  *[!0-9]*) echo "Major number must be numeric"; exit 1;;
+esac
+
+major=$1
+
+branch="v${major}-branch"
+
+branch_exists=`git ls-remote --heads origin $branch`
+if [ -n "$branch_exists" ] ; then
+    echo "The branch $branch already exists. Aborting"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "Creating branch $branch"
+git checkout -b $branch
+
+echo "Updating version_base.h..."
+sed -i -E "s/(define\s+VERSION_MAJOR\s+).*/\1$major/" version_base.h
+sed -i -E "s/(define\s+VERSION_MINOR\s+).*/\10/" version_base.h
+sed -i -E "s/(define\s+VERSION_EXTRA\s+).*/\1\" \(stable\)\"/" version_base.h
+
+echo "Updating aclocal.m4..."
+sed -i -E "s/(install_suffix='-)dev/\1$major/" aclocal.m4
+
+echo "Adding updated files to the new branch..."
+git add version_base.h aclocal.m4
+git commit -m "Creating new branch $branch"
+
+echo "Done"
diff --git a/scripts/CREATE_RELEASE.sh b/scripts/CREATE_RELEASE.sh
index 7df1291dc..9bff3b652 100644
--- a/scripts/CREATE_RELEASE.sh
+++ b/scripts/CREATE_RELEASE.sh
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 #                 (Push the commits and tag to the remote repository.)
 #
 # For a major release, create and switch to the new release branch before
-# running this script.
+# running this script. See: scripts/CREATE_BRANCH.sh
 
 if [ $# -ne 2 ] ; then
     echo "Usage: CREATE_RELEASE.sh <major-number> <minor-number>"