Support Initial Versioning Without Requiring a Pushed Default Tag #52
Description
Problem Description
I would like to support automatic version creation even when no previous tags exist in the repository (e.g., during the first release). Currently, I work around this by creating and pushing a default tag (0.0.0). However, this approach has several drawbacks:
- Tag Persistence on Failure: If a subsequent step fails, the default tag is not deleted.
- Write Permission Requirements: The action requires write permissions to push the default tag, which might not always be desirable or possible in some setups.
Desired Behavior
It would be more elegant and secure if the action could support creating a default tag locally (without pushing it to the remote) and proceed to calculate the next version. Unfortunately, when attempting this, I encounter an error, as the action seems to require a pushed tag to function correctly.
Or even better, if it would support creation of inital version based on commit messages without the need of an already existing tag.
Question
Is this behavior supported, or is there a configuration option I might be missing to enable this? If not, would it be possible to add support for local default tags or version creation without already existing tags as an enhancement?
Current Workflow Example
Here is my current GitHub Actions workflow:
name: Release
on:
workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
release_type:
description: 'Create a release with semantic version. Either choose "conventional commit" to determine next release version automatically based on conventional commit messages or force a certain release type by selecting it manually.'
type: choice
required: true
default: 'conventional commit'
options:
- 'conventional commit'
- major
- minor
- patch
- alpha
- beta
- pre
- rc
- stable
jobs:
create_release:
if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout Code
uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
fetch-depth: 0
### determin previous version tag
- name: Get latest tag
id: previoustag
uses: "WyriHaximus/github-action-get-previous-tag@v1"
with:
fallback: 0.0.0
### conventional commit
- name: Create initial tag if no tag found
if: ${{ steps.previoustag.outputs.tag == '0.0.0' }}
run: |
OLDEST_COMMIT=$(git rev-list --max-parents=0 HEAD)
git tag 0.0.0 $OLDEST_COMMIT
git push origin 0.0.0
- name: Get Next Version based on conventional commit messages
if: ${{ inputs.release_type == 'conventional commit' }}
id: version_by_conventional_commit
uses: ietf-tools/semver-action@v1
with:
token: ${{ github.token }}
branch: main
noVersionBumpBehavior: warn
skipInvalidTags: true
fromTag: ${{ steps.previoustag.outputs.tag }}
- name: Delete temporary tag if created
if: ${{ steps.previoustag.outputs.tag == '0.0.0' }}
run: |
git tag -d 0.0.0
git push origin :0.0.0
### none conventional commit
- name: Get Next Version based on given version fragment input
if: ${{ inputs.release_type != 'conventional commit' }}
id: version_by_fragment
uses: christian-draeger/increment-semantic-version@1.2.3
with:
current-version: ${{ steps.previoustag.outputs.tag }}
version-fragment: ${{ inputs.release_type }}
### set version
- name: Hold new version
id: set_version
run: |
if [ "${{ inputs.release_type }}" = "conventional commit" ]; then
echo "::set-output name=new_version::${{ steps.version_by_conventional_commit.outputs.nextStrict }}"
else
echo "::set-output name=new_version::${{ steps.version_by_fragment.outputs.next-version }}"
fi
- name: Create dummy commit and tag new version
if: ${{ steps.previoustag.outputs.tag != steps.set_version.outputs.new_version }}
run: |
git config user.name "GitHub Actions"
git config user.email "actions@github.com"
git commit --allow-empty -m "chore(release): bump version ${{ steps.previoustag.outputs.tag }} -> ${{ steps.set_version.outputs.new_version }}"
git tag ${{ steps.set_version.outputs.new_version }}
git push origin main --tagsProposed Enhancement
Allow the action to:
- Recognize a locally created default tag without requiring it to be pushed.
- Optionally, provide a configuration option to bypass the need for a remote tag during the initial versioning step.
This would simplify the workflow, remove the need for write permissions, and ensure a cleaner setup for repositories starting from scratch.