GitHub Action: Version 😸

This action just reads a file from your repository to get the next release version. It will also verify that the git tag does not already exist. If the tags does exist, it will fail the step.

BUT WHY!?! To facilitate a very simple continuous delivery workflow. Every pull request should modify the file to set the expected release after merge. If you forget, this action will remind you to modify the file. This is a very simple and non-magical way to manage auto-tagging that is reviewable as part of the pull request.

This workflow may not be the best for a very busy repository that often has many pull requests open at a time due to merge conflicts.

What's with the weird name? This started out as simple bash that was mostly just VERSION=v$(cat VERSION) and naming things is hard. The more you know 🌠

Usage

For all possible inputs and outputs see the Action YAML file.

Usage: basic

Add a VERSION file in your repository. Add the following contents to the VERSION file (or whatever version you want to use):

1.0.0

If there are trailing newlines, that is OK. Then you can invoke this action in your workflow like this:

steps:
  - name: Version
    id: version
    uses: Class-Foundations/gh-action-version-cat@v1

Not very exciting. Combine it with a GitHub release, then you have continuous delivery:

steps:
  - name: Version
    id: version
    uses: Class-Foundations/gh-action-version-cat@v1

  - name: Create Release ${{ steps.version.outputs.version }}
    if: github.event_name == 'push'
    env:
      GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    run: |
      gh release create ${{ steps.version.outputs.version }} \
        --title ${{ steps.version.outputs.version }} \
        --target ${{ github.sha }}

The above would create a tag and GitHub release named v1.0.0.

Usage: workflow

Here is a full working example.

• For pull requests, all the steps will run except for the Create Release step. The Version step will validate the VERSION file and fail the build if the git tag already exists.
• For updates to main, all steps will run and, if successful, release a new version.

name: CD Workflow

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  cd:
    name: Validate and Release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Test
        run: |
          # Your tests!

      - name: Version
        id: version
        uses: Class-Foundations/gh-action-version-cat@v3

      - name: Create Release ${{ steps.version.outputs.version }}
        if: github.event_name == 'push'
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        run: |
          gh release create ${{ steps.version.outputs.version }} \
            --title ${{ steps.version.outputs.version }} \
            --target ${{ github.sha }}

Developing

To run tests locally:

make

License

Please see the LICENSE file.