meeDamian/github-release

The sane way of creating new and updating existing Github Releases with assets.

Usage

See action.yml

Minimal

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2

- uses: meeDamian/github-release@2.0
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

token is the only always required parameter to be passed to this action. Everything else can use sane defaults in some circumstances. See arguments to learn more.

Arguments

All inputs are available as a normal Action input (set as keys of with: map):

name	required	description
token	always	Github Access token. Can be accessed using ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} in the workflow file.
tag	sometimes	If triggered by git tag push, tag is picked up automatically. Otherwise tag: has to be set.
commitish	no	Commit hash this release should point to. Unnecessary, if tag is a git tag. Otherwise, current master is used. more
name	no	Name the release, the more creative, the better. Defaults to the name of the tag used. more
body	no	Longer description of the release, ex changelog, or info about contributors. Defaults to the commit message of the reference commit. more
draft	no	Set to true to create a release, but not publish it. false by default. more
prerelease	no	Mark this release as a pre-release. false by default. more
files	no	A space-separated list of files to be uploaded. When left empty, no files are uploaded. More on files below
gzip	no	Set whether to gzip uploaded assets, or not. Available options are: true, false, and folders which uploads files unchanged, but compresses directories/folders. Defaults to true. Note: it errors if set to false, and files: argument contains path to a directory.
allow_override	no	Allow override of release, if one with the same tag already exists. Defaults to false

Using ENV vars

In a step before this action, run ex:

steps:
    ...
    - name: Set enviroment for github-release
      run: |
        echo ::set-env name=RELEASE_TAG::"v1.0.0"
        echo ::set-env name=RELEASE_NAME::"$GITHUB_WORKFLOW"

    - uses: meeDamian/github-release@2.0
      with:
        token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        tag: ${{ env.RELEASE_TAG }}
        name: ${{ env.RELEASE_NAME }}
    ...

To learn more about notation used above see this.

Files syntax

In its simplest form it takes a single file/folder to be compressed & uploaded:

with:
  …
  files: release/

Each uploaded element can also be named by prefixing the path to it with: <name>:, example:

with:
  …
  files: release-v1.0.0:release/

As of Aug 2019, Github Actions doesn't support YAML-list arguments to actions, so multiple files need to be passed as a space-separated string. YAML multiline syntax can be used to increase readability by having each file on a separate line, example:

with:
  …
  files: >
    release-v1.0.0-linux:release/linux/
    release-v1.0.0-mac:release/darwin/
    release-v1.0.0-windows:release/not-supported-notice
    checksums.txt      

Advanced example

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2

- uses: meeDamian/github-release@2.0
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    tag: ${{ env.MY_CUSTOM_TAG }}
    name: My Creative Name
    body: >
      This release actually changes the fabric of the reality, so be careful 
      while applying, as error in database migration, can irrecoverably wipe 
      some laws of physics.  
    gzip: folders
    files: >
      Dockerfile
      action.yml
     .github/
      license:LICENSE
      work-flows:.github/

Versioning

As of Aug 2019, Github Actions doesn't natively understand shortened tags in uses: directive.

To go around that and not do what git-tag-manual calls "The insane thing", a permanent git tag, following v-prefixed, semver format is created, as well as git branches following latest minor versions. See the process here.

Ex. 1.4 branch always points to the newest v1.4.x tag, etc.

In practice:

# For exact version
steps:
  uses: meeDamian/github-release@v2.0.2

Or

# For newest minor version 2.0
steps:
  uses: meeDamian/github-release@2.0

Note: It's likely branches will be deprecated once Github Actions fixes its limitation.

License

The scripts and documentation in this project are released under the MIT License