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+---
+title: "CmdStan Tarball Builder"
+author: "Stan Development Team"
+date: 2-22-2020
+output:
+  html_document: default
+  pdf_document: default
+---
+
+## Introduction
+
+The CmdStan tarball builder Github Action can be used to automatically build a
+portable (MacOS/Linux/Windows) CmdStan tarball from a combination of `cmdstan`,
+`stanc`, `stanc3`, and `math` Github branches. The goal of this Github Action is
+to make it easier to share experimental Stan work.
+
+The two basic steps to use the CmdStan tarball builder are building and
+distributing. The Github action will handle the building part. Github releases
+are useful for the distributing part, and make it so that the custom CmdStan
+can be used directly in [cmdstanr](https://mc-stan.org/cmdstanr/).
+
+## Building the CmdStan tarball
+
+To use the CmdStan tarball builder Github Action,
+
+1. Fork a copy of the [CmdStan repository](https://github.com/stan-dev/cmdstan).
+The **Fork** button is in the upper right hand corner of the page. If you already
+have a fork of cmdstan, make sure your cmdstan fork is up to date with the
+latest `stan-dev/cmdstan` develop branch.
+
+    ![](make_fork.png)
+
+2. Navigate to the Github Actions page. The **Actions** button is at the top of
+the page below the repository title
+
+    ![](select_actions.png)
+
+3. Select the **CmdStan tarball builder** Github action from the workflows on the
+left hand side of the page.
+
+    ![](select_tarball_builder.png)
+
+4. Click the **Run workflow** dropdown button on the right hand side of the page.
+
+    ![](run_workflow.png)
+
+5. Fill in a name for the custom CmdStan you are building along with the Github
+repository names and branches from which you want to build it. There should be
+a **Run Workflow** button at the bottom of this form that will start the build.
+
+Github should forward you to a status page for the action. It may take an hour
+or so to build the binaries, but once they are finished there should be an
+appropriately named artifact available to download.
+
+## Distributing the CmdStan Tarball
+
+The two drawbacks to the Github Actions artifact outputs are that the output is
+not easily downloaded (the artifact download link does not work when it is
+copy-pasted), and the tarball is compressed in a zip file (which is slightly
+inconvenient).
+
+Github releases are useful for overcoming these difficulties. To do a Github
+release of your development CmdStan,
+
+1. Download the CmdStan artifact and unzip it.
+
+2. Create a new Github release. There should be a link for this on the right
+hand side of the page under **Releases**
+
+    ![](create_release.png)
+    
+3. Specify a tag, name your release, and add a description of what makes your
+CmdStan special. There should be a link at the bottom to upload a file. Upload
+the unzipped tarball from the first step (leave it as a `.tar.gz` file -- don't
+untar it to a folder).
+
+    ![](attach_file.png)
+
+4. Once the file finishes uploading click **Publish release**. You should be
+redirected to the release page which will have a shareable link to the uploaded
+tarball.
+
+## Sharing Installation Instructions
+
+With the Github release, it should be possible for CmdStan users to download
+the tarball directly from the release page and use it. R users can use the
+`cmdstanr::install_cmdstan` command with a custom `release_url` to use the
+custom CmdStan.
+
+For instance, if the final release url is `https://github.com/stan-dev/cmdstan/releases/download/v2.26.1/cmdstan-2.26.1.tar.gz`,
+then a `cmdstanr` user can install it with:
+
+```
+cmdstanr::install_cmdstan(release_url = "https://github.com/stan-dev/cmdstan/releases/download/v2.26.1/cmdstan-2.26.1.tar.gz")
+```
+
+It may also be useful to build a custom `cmdstanr` (if the custom CmdStan has
+different arguments). This can be done by pointing `devtools::install_github` at
+the appropriate repository and branch:
+
+```
+devtools::install_github("stan-dev/cmdstanr@develop")
+```
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