Add binary distribution to github's download link

Question

Github has this download link on the repositories. How can I add binary distributions to this list?

I cannot find any info on help.github, so a link to some document

Answer 1

On Dec 11, 2012 "Upload Releases" functionality aka "Downloads" was deprecated.

https://github.com/blog/1302-goodbye-uploads

Update: On July 2, 2013 GitHub team announced a new "Releases" feature as a replacement for "Downloads"

https://github.com/blog/1547-release-your-software

Answer 2

How to add files to the release

Simply follow the "releases" link within your github project.

Given this example:

• user: thoughtbot
• repo: neat

Final link would be: https://github.com/thoughtbot/neat/releases

Then click "Add new release" or "Edit release" to get into the upload page and at the bottom of that page you will see a legend:

Attach binaries for this release by dropping them here.

Some notes regarding size limits:

Github release feature is awesome! Just consider it is designed to host files under 50mb without a warning and a hard-limit of 100mb. Also, please no more than 1GB per account!

For large binary files they recommend using a third-party service like Dropbox but if you are open source or on a tight budget i recommend you use sourceforge.net.

Sourceforge is for open source, is free, and holds large files (up to 5GB per file) without regret. I managed to share an entire VirtualBox image of 1.1gb!! The amount of files you can upload is not clearly limited so assume unlimited

Bintray is nice but possess a 30mb limit per file and 500mb per account so you may stick with github if your files are under those limits.

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated nor do i work for any of the mentioned companies.

Answer 3

The download link is first meant for git archive.
As Holger Just point out in his answer (upvoted), you can add "a new download".

See the blog post "Nodeload2: Downloads Reloaded" for considering all the troubles they have with providing that one service:

Nodeload is what prepares git repository contents into zip and tarballs.
Essentially, we have too many requests flowing through the single nodeload server. These requests were spawning git archive processes, which spawn ssh processes to communicate with the file servers.

Answer 4

There is a new kid in town: https://bintray.com/

* I am not affiliated

Answer 5

You can create releases and attach binary downloads to each release. This replaced a similar feature called the downloads page that was removed in late 2012.