What is the right way to have GitVersion report versioning from a different branch pointer?

[hotchkj]

I'm implementing some more advanced versioning reasoning in a build for pull requests. I want to know the version in the PR, and the version in the PR target branch.

Example: in Jenkins, I can have CHANGE_TARGET=master, while the actual code is checked out on the PR merge branch PR-1234. I'd like GitVersion to calculate version for the master HEAD as well as the PR-1234 HEAD.

What is the best/right way to do this? Are there missing features that would make this easier? I came across #3954 which suggests that I can't just temporarily override GIT_BRANCH.

I could probably just check out said branch and re-run GitVersion, but that's going to yield a lot of expensive churn in the repo. I am curious if there's a less brute-force approach.

Thanks for assistance!

[asbjornu]

We are discussing similar use of Git_Branch in #4212 (comment). I believe that if implemented, it would cover your use-case as well.

[HHobeck]

I'm implementing some more advanced versioning reasoning in a build for pull requests. I want to know the version in the PR, and the version in the PR target branch.

What do you mean you want to know the version in the PR target branch!? Can you give an example? What is the motivation behind?

[hotchkj]

Exactly as written. A pull request is by definition version A merging into version B. I want to be able to calculate both, for example for API compatibility checks.

From a Git perspective, this is examining the version history from the perspective of two different branches, PR-1234 or target, usually master. A calculation of latest PR might be v1.2.3-pullrequest0003, merging into what is currently v1.2.2.

As the above alludes to, if GIT_BRANCH were authoritative, the GitVersion algorithm could just be re-run with different GIT_BRANCH settings. That would seem to do it.

Another way to think about this as a feature is 'I want to run GitVersion and specify the branch used to calculate the resulting version rather than have GitVersion guess that for me'.

[HHobeck]

Thank you for clarification. That means the solution for your scenario is to use the Git_Branch environment variable right? For me it would make no sense to calculate it twice by default. The only thing which I can think of is to have a output variable which indicates whether it is a none, patch, minor or major increment.

May I ask you to resolve or to close this discussion?

Have a nice day.