Autotag

This action will read a package.json file and compare the version attribute to the project's known tags. If a corresponding tag does not exist, it will be created.

This tag 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 passed in. 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.

1. 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 }}"
       package_root: "/path/to/subdirectory"
   

2. tag_prefix

   By default, package.json uses semantic versioning, 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"
   

3. tag_suffix

   Text can also 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)"
   

4. 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 new tag (HEAD). Setting this option will override it witha custom message.

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

5. version

   Explicitly set the version instead of automatically detecting from package.json. Useful for non-JavaScript projects where version 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 }}"
   

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. version will be the version attribute found in the package.json file.

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Credits

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

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.
2. Star it!
3. Tweet about it!
4. Fix an issue.
5. Add a feature (post a proposal in an issue first!).

Copyright © 2019 ButlerLogic, Corey Butler, and Contributors.