From 16ae079c223538db89599e047d7e8a15aa4929ec Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: CJ Horton <cjhorton@hashicorp.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2023 15:57:24 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] add documentation on Terraform's available build options

---
 BUILDING.md             | 36 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 version/VERSION         |  2 +-
 version/version_test.go |  3 +++
 3 files changed, 40 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 BUILDING.md

diff --git a/BUILDING.md b/BUILDING.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3c13268a1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/BUILDING.md
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+# Building from Source
+
+Pre-built binaries are available for download for a variety of supported platforms through the [HashiCorp Releases website](https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/). 
+
+However, if you'd like to build Terraform yourself, you can do so using the Go build toolchain and the options specified in this document.
+
+## Prerequisites
+
+1. Ensure you've installed the Go language version specified in [`.go-version`](https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/blob/main/.go-version).
+2. Clone this repository to a location of your choice.
+
+## Terraform Build Options
+
+Terraform accepts certain options passed using `ldflags` at build time which control the behavior of the resulting binary.
+
+### Dev Version Reporting
+
+Terraform will include a `-dev` flag when reporting its own version (ex: 1.5.0-dev) unless `version.dev` is set to `no`:
+
+```
+go build -ldflags "-w -s -X 'github.com/hashicorp/terraform/version.dev=no'" -o bin/ .
+```
+
+### Experimental Features
+
+Experimental features of Terraform will be disabled unless `main.experimentsAllowed` is set to `yes`:
+
+```
+go build -ldflags "-w -s -X 'main.experimentsAllowed=yes'" -o bin/ .
+```
+
+## Go Options
+
+The Terraform release process uses the Go toolchain defaults for the current operating system and processor architecture.
+
+
diff --git a/version/VERSION b/version/VERSION
index bcfbf475d5..45d114a213 100644
--- a/version/VERSION
+++ b/version/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.6.0-dev
+1.6.0-alpha1
diff --git a/version/version_test.go b/version/version_test.go
index f6db4e67dd..cd889b0ac9 100644
--- a/version/version_test.go
+++ b/version/version_test.go
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+// Copyright (c) HashiCorp, Inc.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: MPL-2.0
+
 package version
 
 import (