Use a Git tag as a release trigger

The following is a quick recipe to use a Git tag as a release trigger using GitHub actions.

name: trigger
on:
  push:
    tags:        
      - release-*
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Checkout sources
      uses: actions/checkout@v2
      with:
        token: ${{ secrets.GIT_PASSWORD }}
    - name: Release from given branch with given version
      run: |
        git fetch --no-tags --prune --depth=1 origin +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
        TAG=${GITHUB_REF}
        RELEASE=${TAG%%-*}
        CANDIDATE=${TAG:${#RELEASE}+1}
        VERSION=${CANDIDATE#*-}
        BRANCH=${CANDIDATE%-*}
        echo "Releasing $VERSION from $BRANCH branch"
        git checkout $BRANCH
        git checkout -b release
        mvn -B versions:set versions:commit -DnewVersion=$VERSION
        git config --global user.email "noreply@noreply.com"
        git config --global user.name "Automated release"
        git commit -a -m "Releasing version $VERSION"
        git tag v$VERSION -f
        git push origin v$VERSION -f
        git checkout $BRANCH
        git branch -D release
        git push origin :${TAG}

        

Adjust the username and the email address in the 2 git config commands. Add the GIT_PASSWORD secret as a secret to your GitHub account (note this should be a personal access token that is allowed to push to your GitHub repository).

Now you are ready to trigger a release pipeline by pushing a tag of the following format:

  release-BRANCH-VERSION
        

Where BRANCH denotes the branch you want to release from and VERSION denotes you want to use for the release tag.

Posted June 23rd, 2021

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