📦 :octocat:
action gh-release
A GitHub Action for creating GitHub Releases on Linux, Windows, and macOS virtual environments
- [🤸 Usage](#-usage)
- [🚥 Limit releases to pushes to tags](#-limit-releases-to-pushes-to-tags)
- [⬆️ Uploading release assets](#️-uploading-release-assets)
- [📝 External release notes](#-external-release-notes)
- [💅 Customizing](#-customizing)
- [inputs](#inputs)
- [outputs](#outputs)
- [environment variables](#environment-variables)
- [Permissions](#permissions)
## 🤸 Usage
### 🚥 Limit releases to pushes to tags
Typically usage of this action involves adding a step to a build that
is gated pushes to git tags. You may find `step.if` field helpful in accomplishing this
as it maximizes the reuse value of your workflow for non-tag pushes.
Below is a simple example of `step.if` tag gating
```yaml
name: Main
on: push
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Release
uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
```
You can also use push config tag filter
```yaml
name: Main
on:
push:
tags:
- "v*.*.*"
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Release
uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
```
### ⬆️ Uploading release assets
You can configure a number of options for your
GitHub release and all are optional.
A common case for GitHub releases is to upload your binary after its been validated and packaged.
Use the `with.files` input to declare a newline-delimited list of glob expressions matching the files
you wish to upload to GitHub releases. If you'd like you can just list the files by name directly.
If a tag already has a GitHub release, the existing release will be updated with the release assets.
Below is an example of uploading a single asset named `Release.txt`
```yaml
name: Main
on: push
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Build
run: echo ${{ github.sha }} > Release.txt
- name: Test
run: cat Release.txt
- name: Release
uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
with:
files: Release.txt
```
Below is an example of uploading more than one asset with a GitHub release
```yaml
name: Main
on: push
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Build
run: echo ${{ github.sha }} > Release.txt
- name: Test
run: cat Release.txt
- name: Release
uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
with:
files: |
Release.txt
LICENSE
```
> **⚠️ Note:** Notice the `|` in the yaml syntax above ☝️. That lets you effectively declare a multi-line yaml string. You can learn more about multi-line yaml syntax [here](https://yaml-multiline.info)
> **⚠️ Note for Windows:** Paths must use `/` as a separator, not `\`, as `\` is used to escape characters with special meaning in the pattern; for example, instead of specifying `D:\Foo.txt`, you must specify `D:/Foo.txt`. If you're using PowerShell, you can do this with `$Path = $Path -replace '\\','/'`
### 📝 External release notes
Many systems exist that can help generate release notes for you. This action supports
loading release notes from a path in your repository's build to allow for the flexibility
of using any changelog generator for your releases, including a human 👩💻
```yaml
name: Main
on: push
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Generate Changelog
run: echo "# Good things have arrived" > ${{ github.workspace }}-CHANGELOG.txt
- name: Release
uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
with:
body_path: ${{ github.workspace }}-CHANGELOG.txt
repository: my_gh_org/my_gh_repo
# note you'll typically need to create a personal access token
# with permissions to create releases in the other repo
token: ${{ secrets.CUSTOM_GITHUB_TOKEN }}
```
### 💅 Customizing
#### inputs
The following are optional as `step.with` keys
| Name | Type | Description |
| -------------------------- | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `body` | String | Text communicating notable changes in this release |
| `body_path` | String | Path to load text communicating notable changes in this release |
| `draft` | Boolean | Indicator of whether or not this release is a draft |
| `prerelease` | Boolean | Indicator of whether or not is a prerelease |
| `preserve_order` | Boolean | Indicator of whether order of files should be preserved when uploading assets |
| `files` | String | Newline-delimited globs of paths to assets to upload for release |
| `name` | String | Name of the release. defaults to tag name |
| `tag_name` | String | Name of a tag. defaults to `github.ref` |
| `fail_on_unmatched_files` | Boolean | Indicator of whether to fail if any of the `files` globs match nothing |
| `repository` | String | Name of a target repository in `/` format. Defaults to GITHUB_REPOSITORY env variable |
| `target_commitish` | String | Commitish value that determines where the Git tag is created from. Can be any branch or commit SHA. Defaults to repository default branch. |
| `token` | String | Secret GitHub Personal Access Token. Defaults to `${{ github.token }}` |
| `discussion_category_name` | String | If specified, a discussion of the specified category is created and linked to the release. The value must be a category that already exists in the repository. For more information, see ["Managing categories for discussions in your repository."](https://docs.github.com/en/discussions/managing-discussions-for-your-community/managing-categories-for-discussions-in-your-repository) |
| `generate_release_notes` | Boolean | Whether to automatically generate the name and body for this release. If name is specified, the specified name will be used; otherwise, a name will be automatically generated. If body is specified, the body will be pre-pended to the automatically generated notes. See the [GitHub docs for this feature](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/releasing-projects-on-github/automatically-generated-release-notes) for more information |
| `append_body` | Boolean | Append to existing body instead of overwriting it |
| `make_latest` | String | Specifies whether this release should be set as the latest release for the repository. Drafts and prereleases cannot be set as latest. Can be `true`, `false`, or `legacy`. Uses GitHub api defaults if not provided |
💡 When providing a `body` and `body_path` at the same time, `body_path` will be
attempted first, then falling back on `body` if the path can not be read from.
💡 When the release info keys (such as `name`, `body`, `draft`, `prerelease`, etc.)
are not explicitly set and there is already an existing release for the tag, the
release will retain its original info.
#### outputs
The following outputs can be accessed via `${{ steps..outputs }}` from this action
| Name | Type | Description |
| ------------ | ------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `url` | String | Github.com URL for the release |
| `id` | String | Release ID |
| `upload_url` | String | URL for uploading assets to the release |
| `assets` | String | JSON array containing information about each uploaded asset, in the format given [here](https://docs.github.com/en/rest/releases/assets#get-a-release-asset) (minus the `uploader` field) |
As an example, you can use `${{ fromJSON(steps..outputs.assets)[0].browser_download_url }}` to get the download URL of the first asset.
#### environment variables
The following `step.env` keys are allowed as a fallback but deprecated in favor of using inputs.
| Name | Description |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `GITHUB_TOKEN` | GITHUB_TOKEN as provided by `secrets` |
| `GITHUB_REPOSITORY` | Name of a target repository in `/` format. defaults to the current repository |
> **⚠️ Note:** This action was previously implemented as a Docker container, limiting its use to GitHub Actions Linux virtual environments only. With recent releases, we now support cross platform usage. You'll need to remove the `docker://` prefix in these versions
### Permissions
This Action requires the following permissions on the GitHub integration token:
```yaml
permissions:
contents: write
```
When used with `discussion_category_name`, additional permission is needed:
```yaml
permissions:
contents: write
discussions: write
```
[GitHub token permissions](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/security-guides/automatic-token-authentication#permissions-for-the-github_token) can be set for an individual job, workflow, or for Actions as a whole.
Note that if you intend to run workflows on the release event (`on: { release: { types: [published] } }`), you need to use
a personal access token for this action, as the [default `secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN` does not trigger another workflow](https://github.com/actions/create-release/issues/71).
Doug Tangren (softprops) 2019