git-utilities/RELEASE.md

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Release

NOTE: This command is DEPRECATED.

release is a command line utility to make working with releases easier. Releases are built and managed using branches and tags.

Official release versions are tagged using a simplified Semantic Versioning format. The tags start with the letter v followed by MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.

Before a release is tagged with a version, a release candidate branch can be created and used for development. The intent of the release candidate branch is to be short-term support for multiple developers and deployment to test environments. They are prefixed by rc.

Usage

release create version
release finish
release help
release join version
release leave
release list
release start (major|minor|patch) from version [using master]
release tab [pattern]
release trash local-branch-confirmation

Create

Create an official release tag.

release create version

You must be on the master branch. The latest code will be pulled from master and a tag created for the last commit. For example, the following command will create a v1.0.0 tag.

git checkout master
release create 1.0.0

Start

Create a shared, release candidate branch.

release start (major|minor|patch) from version [using master]

The version specified must be an existing official release version. The major, minor, and patch options will increment the new version number accordingly. For example, to create a patch update, the following command will create a rc1.0.1 release candidate branch. If the optional using master is not specified, the release candiate branch will be created from the version tag (e.g. v1.0.0). Otherwise, the release candiate branch will be created from master. Also, if the repository contains a package.json file, the version property will automatically be set and committed.

git checkout master
release start patch from 1.0.0

or

git checkout master
release start patch from 1.0.0 from master

Once the shared release candidate branch has been created, use feature to create and manage personal feature branches.

Join

Join in on using a shared, release candidate branch that someone else has previously created using the start command.

release join version

The version specified must be an existing release candidate branch version. A local tracking branch will be created. For example, the following command will create rc1.0.1 as a local tracking branch.

git checkout master
release join 1.0.1

Once you have joined the shared release candidate branch, use feature to create and manage personal feature branches.

Leave

Stop using a shared, release candidate branch but leave it intact for others to continue using.

release leave

Your local tracking branch will be forcibly removed. If there are any local changes on the branch, they will be lost. For example, the following command will remove rc1.0.1 as a local tracking branch.

git checkout rc1.0.1
release leave

Finish

Finish the release candidate and create an official release.

release finish

The latest code from the release candidate branch will be pulled and a tag created. The shared release candidate branch will then be removed. For example, the following command will create v1.0.1 version tag and removed rc1.0.1 branch.

git checkout rc1.0.1
release finish

List

Display a listing of the current version tags and release candidate branches.

release list

Trash

Throw away the release candidate.

release trash local-branch-confirmation

The shared release candidate branch will be forcibly removed and no version tag will be created. The release candidate branch must be checked out and entered as the local-branch-confirmation. For example, the following command will remove the rc1.0.1 release candidate branch.

git checkout rc1.0.1
release trash rc1.0.1

Tab

Support bash tab completion.

release tab [pattern]

In your .bashrc, include the following function.

function get_release_commands()
{
  if [ -z $2 ] ; then
    COMPREPLY=(`release tab`)
  else
    COMPREPLY=(`release tab $2`)
  fi
}

In your .bashrc, associate your function with the release command.

complete -F get_release_commands release

Of course, this has already been done for you if, in your .bashrc, you include the following:

source ~/GitHub/rkiel/git-utilities/dotfiles/bashrc