Node module that generates release notes based on commit messages or closed issues between tags. It also can create a full changelog or add the latest release notes to the existing changelog file.
If you want to include it in a task, you can use grunt-github-release-notes
Install github-release-notes via npm:
npm install github-release-notes -ggren can be ran through the terminal, but before you can use it, you need to set up a couple of things.
gren by default looks for your local git configuration to get the repo informations. This means you can run the command directly from the git repo folder.
Otherwise, you can run it from wherever and specify a different repo as target, with:
gren --username=[username] --repo=[repo name]To work, gren needs a github token (that can be easily generated following this link). You only need "repo" scope.
Once generated, you can run the gren command with the token as variable:
gren --token=your_token_hereOr you can add it to your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshrc) as follows:
export GREN_GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token_hereAnd you're ready to use it! Just run this command in your terminal:
grenThe module will look for the last tag, get all the issues closed in the time between that tag and the one before, and it will build release notes and draft the new release!
Following the options for the module:
--action=release|changelogThe gren action to run. Default:release(see details below for changelog generator)--tags=0.1.0|0.2.0,0.1.0A specific tag or the range of tags to build the release notes from.--time-wrap=latest|historyThe release notes you want to include in the changelog. Default:latestOnly applicable to thechangelogaction--changelog-filename=CHANGELOG.mdThe name of the changelog file. Default:CHANGELOG.md--data-source=issues|commitsThe informations you want to use to build release notes. Default:issues--draft=true|falseTo set the release as a draft. Default:false--prerelease=true|falseTo set the release as a prerelease. Default:false--prefix=vAdd a prefix to the tag versione.g. v1.0.1. Default:null--include-messages=merges|commits|allused to filter the messages added to the release notes. Default:commits--override=true|falseOverride the release notes if existing. Default:false
The ways to use gren are various.
The simple way, just looks for the last tag, gets all the issues closed between that tag and the one before and creates the new release with the generated body.
gren
Adding the flag --data-source=commits will change the source of the release notes to be the commit messages.
gren --data-source=commits
The flag --tags accepts one or two tags.
If you only give one tag, it will get the issues (or commit messages) between that tag and the one before.
If you give two tags it will generate the release notes with the issues (or commit messages) between those two tag dates.
gren --tags=2.0.0,1.0.0
If you trying to create an existing release, gren will throw an error "0.3.0 is a release, use --override flag to override an existing release! If you want then to override, simple use:
gren --override --tags=0.3.0
gren can also update generate the changelog.
The following command, will generate the release notes for the latest release, and add it to an existing file or create it in the same directory where you run the command.
gren --action=changelogThe generated release notes will be added at the top of the file, and will look like this:
[bug] This is a issue name #123
If tou want to generate the whole changelog, you need to use the --time-wrap=history. This will generate a changelog based on issues (or on commit messages if the --data-source=commits is present).
If you want to override the existing changelog, use --override.
The usage would then be:
gren --time-wrap=history --override
To see a full example of the changelog here CHANGELOG.md