Create a GitHub Release for a Node package


Keywords
changelog, github, release, semver, tag, node
License
ISC
Install
npm install gh-release@7.0.2

Documentation

rocket

gh-release

Create a GitHub Release for a Node package.

npm build downloads

Features

  • Uses the Github Releases API to create a new GitHub release.
  • Defaults to using information from package.json and CHANGELOG.md.
  • Supports uploading release assets.

Install

$ npm install gh-release

Usage

Command-line interface

$ gh-release
Your GitHub username: ungoldman
Your GitHub password: ✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔

creating release v1.0.9 for ungoldman/gh-release-test

name:               v1.0.9
tag_name:           v1.0.9
target_commitish:   3b06705e43be83363f063966f36ede3990a2842a
endpoint:           https://api.github.com
body:

### Maintenance
* test: testing latest CLI output
* deps: gh-release@6
* pkg: set package to private
* pkg: update repo URLS
* misc: ignore package-lock.json

? publish release to github? Yes
https://github.com/ungoldman/gh-release-test/releases/tag/v1.0.9

Should be run at the root of the project to be released.

Expects a package.json and CHANGELOG.md in the working directory.

Prints release URL to stdout on success.

Uses ghauth for authentication with Github. A Github API OAuth token is saved to the gh-release config directory after the first time authenticating. Note that the config directory is determined by application-config and is OS-specific. gh-release will alternatively use the token specified in the GH_RELEASE_GITHUB_API_TOKEN environment variable if it exists. This allows it to be used in continuous deployment systems, which can inject different GitHub API tokens depending on the location of the project.

Get usage info by running with --help or -h.

$ gh-release --help
Usage: gh-release [options]

Examples:
  gh-release -n v2.0.3 -c master -d    create a draft release with title v2.0.3 tagged at HEAD of master


Options:
  -t, --tag_name          tag for this release
  -c, --target_commitish  commitish value for tag
  -n, --name              text of release title
  -b, --body              text of release body
  -o, --owner             repo owner
  -r, --repo              repo name
  -d, --draft             publish as draft                          [default: false]
  -p, --prerelease        publish as prerelease                     [default: false]
  -w, --workpath          path to working directory                 [default: current directory]
  -e, --endpoint          GitHub API endpoint URL                   [default: "https://api.github.com"]
  -a, --assets            comma-delimited list of assets to upload  [default: false]
  --dry-run               dry run (stops before release step)       [default: false]
  -y, --yes               bypass confirmation prompt for release    [default: false]
  -h, --help              Show help
  -v, --version           Show version number

Node API

var ghRelease = require('gh-release')

// all options have defaults and can be omitted
var options = {
  tag_name: 'v1.0.0',
  target_commitish: 'master',
  name: 'v1.0.0',
  body: '* init\n',
  draft: false,
  prerelease: false,
  repo: 'gh-release',
  owner: 'ungoldman',
  endpoint: 'https://api.github.com' // for GitHub enterprise, use http(s)://hostname/api/v3
}

// options can also be just an empty object
var options = {}

// auth is required
// it can be an API token...
options.auth = {
  token: 'XXXXXXXX'
}

// or it can either be a username & password
// (But only for GitHub Enterprise when endpoint is set)
options.auth = {
  username: 'ungoldman',
  password: 'XXXXXXXX'
}

ghRelease(options, function (err, result) {
  if (err) throw err
  console.log(result) // create release response: https://developer.github.com/v3/repos/releases/#response-4
})

Defaults

All default values taken from package.json unless specified otherwise.

name description default
tag_name release tag 'v' + version
target_commitish commitish value to tag HEAD of current branch
name release title 'v' + version
body release text CHANGELOG.md section matching version
owner repo owner repo owner in repository
repo repo name repo name in repository
draft publish as draft false
prerelease publish as prerelease false
assets release assets to upload false
endpoint GitHub API endpoint URL https://api.github.com

Override defaults with flags (CLI) or the options object (node).

Standards

Example

All releases of gh-release were created with gh-release.

Config location

Platform Location
OS X ~/Library/Application Support/gh-release/config.json
Linux (XDG) $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gh-release/config.json
Linux (Legacy) ~/.config/gh-release/config.json
Windows (> Vista) %LOCALAPPDATA%/gh-release/config.json
Windows (XP, 2000) %USERPROFILE%/Local Settings/Application Data/gh-release/config.json

Motivation

There are packages that already do something like this, and they're great, but I want something that does this one thing really well and nothing else, leans heavily on standards in package.json and CHANGELOG.md, and can work both as a CLI tool and programmatically in node.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please read the contributing guidelines first.

⚠️ Important Note ⚠️

This library abides by the well-established and widely adopted changelog conventions set forth in http://keepachangelog.com.

Any other conventions (autochangelog, standard-version, etc.) are not currently supported, and support will likely not be added for them in the future. This library is several years old and well into maintenance mode.

History

Please read the change log for a human-readable history of changes.

Tests

gh-release uses standard and tape for testing. You can run all tests with npm test.

See also

License

ISC

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