autotag/README.md

Autotag

This action will auto-generate a Github tag whenever a new version is detected. The following "detection strategies" are available:

1. package: Monitor a package.json for new versions.
2. docker: Monitor a Dockerfile for a LABEL version=x.x.x value.
3. regex: Use a JavaScript regular expression with any file for your own custom extraction.

When a version is detected, it is compared to the current list of tags in the Github repository. If a tag does not exist, it will be created.

This action works well in combination with:

• actions/create-release (Auto-release)
• author/action-publish (Auto-publish JavaScript/Node modules)
• author/action-rollback (Auto-rollback releases on failures)
• author/template-cross-runtime (a cross-runtime JavaScript repo template)

Usage

The following is an example .github/workflows/main.yml that will execute when a push to the master branch occurs.

name: Create Tag

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - uses: butlerlogic/action-autotag@stable
      with:
        GITHUB_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"

To make this work, the workflow must have the checkout action before the autotag action.

This order is important!

- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- uses: butlerlogic/action-autotag@stable

If the repository is not checked out first, the autotagger cannot find the package.json file.

Configuration

The GITHUB_TOKEN must be provided. Without this, it is not possible to create a new tag. Make sure the autotag action looks like the following example:

- uses: butlerlogic/action-autotag@stable
  with:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"

The action will automatically extract the token at runtime. DO NOT MANUALLY ENTER YOUR TOKEN. If you put the actual token in your workflow file, you'll make it accessible (in plaintext) to anyone who ever views the repository (it will be in your git history).

Optional Configurations

There are several options to customize how the tag is created.

strategy

This is the strategy used to identify the version number/tag from within the code base.

1. package: Monitor a package.json for new versions. Use this for JavaScript projects based on Node modules (npm, yarn, etc).
2. docker: Monitor a Dockerfile for a LABEL version=x.x.x value. USe this for container projects.
3. regex*: Use a JavaScript regular expression with any file for your own custom extraction.

*An example "

root (required)

Formerly package_root

By default, autotag will look for the package.json file in the project root. If the file is located in a subdirectory, this option can be used to point to the correct file.

- uses: butlerlogic/action-autotag@1.0.0
  with:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
    root: "/path/to/subdirectory"

EXCEPTION: This property is not required if the regex_pattern property is defined. In that case, this property is assumed to be "regex".

tag_prefix

By default, semantic versioning is used, such as 1.0.0. A prefix can be used to add text before the tag name. For example, if tag_prefix is set to v, then the tag would be labeled as v1.0.0.

- uses: butlerlogic/action-autotag@1.0.0
  with:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
    tag_prefix: "v"

tag_suffix

Text can be applied to the end of the tag by setting tag_suffix. For example, if tag_suffix is (beta), the tag would be 1.0.0 (beta). Please note this example violates semantic versioning and is merely here to illustrate how to add text to the end of a tag name if you really want to.

- uses: butlerlogic/action-autotag@1.0.0
  with:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
    tag_suffix: " (beta)"

tag_message

This is the annotated commit message associated with the tag. By default, a changelog will be generated from the commits between the latest tag and the current reference (HEAD). Setting this option will override the message.

- uses: butlerlogic/action-autotag@1.0.0
  with:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
    tag_message: "Custom message goes here."

commit_message_template

By default, a changelog is generated, containing the commit messages since the last release. The message is generated by applying a commit message template to each commit's data attributes.

- uses: butlerlogic/action-autotag@1.0.0
  with:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
    commit_message_template: "({{sha}} by {{author}}) {{message}}"

Optional data points:

1. number The commit number (relevant to the overall list)
2. message The commit message.
3. author The author of the commit.
4. sha The SHA value representing the commit.

The default is {{number}}) {{message}} ({{author}})\nSHA: {{sha}}\n.

version

Explicitly set the version instead of using automatic detection.

Useful for projects where the version number may be output by a previous action.

- uses: butlerlogic/action-autotag@1.0.0
  with:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
    version: "${{ steps.previous_step.outputs.version }}"

regex_pattern

An optional attribute containing the regular expression used to extract the version number.

- uses: butlerlogic/action-autotag@1.0.0
  with:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
    regex_pattern: "version=([0-9\.]+)"

This attribute is used as the first argument of a RegExp object. The first "group" (i.e. what's in parenthesis) will be used as the version number. For an example, see this working example.

Developer Notes

If you are building an action that runs after this one, be aware this action produces several outputs:

1. tagname will be empty if no tag was created, or it will be the value of the new tag.
2. tagsha: The SHA of the new tag.
3. taguri: The URI/URL of the new tag reference.
4. tagmessage: The messge applied to the tag reference (this is what shows up on the tag screen on Github).
5. tagcreated: yes or no.
6. tagrequested: The name of the requested tag. This will be populated even if the tag is not created. This will usually be the same as tagname and/or version for successful executions.
7. version will be the version attribute found in the package.json file.

---

Credits

This action was written and is primarily maintained by Corey Butler.

This project has had some great contributions from these folks. Thanks go to Jaliborc, who came up with the idea and original implementation for a pattern-based tag extraction.

Our Ask...

If you use this or find value in it, please consider contributing in one or more of the following ways:

1. Click the "Sponsor" button at the top of the page and make a contribution.
2. Star it!
3. Tweet about it!
4. Fix an issue.
5. Add a feature (post a proposal in an issue first!).

Copyright © 2020 Butler Logic, Corey Butler, and Contributors.