Release action

A github action to produce a release. This project was created in frustration with the existing release actions in the wild. The main goal was to release based entirely off files that are checked in to version control, following the "configuration as code" philosophy.

This action uses two files:

• VERSION - A file containing the current version of the project
• ChangeLog - A file containing changes for each release

To create a release, simply update VERSION and ChangeLog, and this action will create a new github release accordingly. Release artefacts can be added as well via the releaseFiles parameter.

Basic usage

1. Create a file called VERSION, containing the semantic version e.g. v1.2.3. Versions containing a prerelease postfix will be marked as such on the projects releases page.

2. Create a file called ChangeLog with a entry for this version. This file doubles as a historical record of all change logs and has the following format:

Version 0.2.0
---------------
    * Fix bug with coffee machine # 4
    * Implement the flux conduit engine #3
    * Cross pollinated the transient energy matrix #2


Version 0.1.0
---------------
    * Implemented proof of concept transient matter densifier #1

3. Add a step to your .github/workflows/X.yaml:

name: X
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/master'
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: build
        run: ...
      - name: Release
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        uses: thought-machine/[email protected]
        with:
          release-files: out/package # A directory containing all the files to release
          # version-file: VERSION
          # change-log-file: ChangeLog

Multiple releases

Sometimes there are multiple components or "modules" in a repo that should be released independently. To facilitate this, this action can be repeated, specifying a different prefix for each component:

name: X
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/master'
    steps:
      ...
      - name: Release tools
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        uses: thought-machine/[email protected]
        with:
          release-files: out/tools # A directory containing all the files to release
          version-file: tools/VERSION
          change-log-file: tools/ChangeLog
          release-prefix: tools
      - name: Release
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        uses: thought-machine/[email protected]

This will result in tags like tools-vX.X.X from the Release tools step, and vX.X.X for the main Release step.