Gem Version Build Status

GitHub Changelog Generator

Changelog generation has never been so easy.

Fully automate changelog generation - This gem generate change log file based on tags, issues and merged pull requests from Github issue tracker. This generator complies all change log format guidelines.

Installation

[sudo] gem install github_changelog_generator

Output example

1.3.10

09/01/15

  • Merged pull-request: add header file to public #115 (skywinder)

  • Merged pull-request: Fix bad interaction with Git submodules. #112 (JimDabell)

  • Implemented enhancement: Should have minimum/maximum date property exposed #97

1.3.9

11/12/14

  • Closed issue: Bad interaction with submodules #111

  • Closed issue: No "cancel" button #122

Usage

It's really simple:

  • If your git remote origin refer to your GitHub repo, then just go to your project folder and run:

    github_changelog_generator

  • or from anywhere:

    github_changelog_generator -u github_username -p github_project

As output you will get CHANGELOG.md file with pretty Markdown-formatted changelog.

Params

Type github_changelog_generator --help for detailed usage.

Usage: changelog_generator [options]
-u, --user [USER]                Username of the owner of target GitHub repo
-p, --project [PROJECT]          Name of project on GitHub
-t, --token [TOKEN]              To make more than 50 requests per hour your GitHub token required. You can generate it here: https://github.com/settings/tokens/new
-f, --date-format [FORMAT]       Date format. Default is %d/%m/%y
-o, --output [NAME]              Output file. Default is CHANGELOG.md
    --[no-]verbose               Run verbosely. Default is true
    --[no-]issues                Include closed issues to changelog. Default is true
    --[no-]issues-wo-labels      Include closed issues without labels to changelog. Default is true
    --[no-]pr-wo-labels          Include pull requests without labels to changelog. Default is true
    --[no-]pull-requests         Include pull-requests to changelog. Default is true
    --[no-]filter-by-milestone   Use milestone to detect when issue was resolved. Default is true
    --[no-]author                Add author of pull-request in the end. Default is true
    --unreleased-only            Generate log from unreleased closed issues only.
    --[no-]unreleased            Add to log unreleased closed issues. Default is true
    --[no-]compare-link          Include compare link between older version and newer version. Default is true
    --include-labels  x,y,z      Issues only with that labels will be included to changelog. Default is 'bug,enhancement'
    --exclude-labels  x,y,z      Issues with that labels will be always excluded from changelog. Default is 'duplicate,question,invalid,wontfix'
    --github-site [URL]          The Enterprise Github site on which your project is hosted.
    --github-api [URL]           The enterprise endpoint to use for your Github API.
-v, --version                    Print version number
-h, --help                       Displays Help

GitHub token

Since GitHub allow to make only 50 requests without authentication it's recommended to run this script with token

You can easily generate it here.

And:

  • Run with key -t [your-16-digit-token]

  • Or set environment variable CHANGELOG_GITHUB_TOKEN and specify there your token.

    i.e. add to your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshrc or any other place to load ENV variables string :

    export CHANGELOG_GITHUB_TOKEN="your-40-digit-github-token"

So, if you got error like this:

! /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/github_api-0.12.2/lib/github_api/response/raise_error.rb:14:in `on_complete'

It's time to create this token or wait for 1 hour before GitHub reset the counter for your IP.

Features and advantages of this project

  • Generate canonical change log file, followed by keepachangelog.com guidlines
  • Simply add links for all closed issues and merged pull requests
  • Possible to generate Unreleased changes (closed issues that have not released yet)
  • Flexible format customisation:
    • Customize issues, that should be added to changelog
    • Custom date format supported
    • Ability to manually specify in which version issue was fixed (in case, when closed date is not match) by setting milestone of issue the same name as tag of required version
    • Ability to exclude specific issues from change log (by labels)
      • Automatically exclude "questions" - issues marked as question labels (and other issues, that shouldn't be in change log file: with duplicate invalid wontfix labels)
  • Distinguish bug fixes, enchantments, and closed issues according labels.
    • Issues (closed issues w/o any labels)
    • Merged pull-requests (all merged pull-requests)
    • Bug-fixes (by label bug in issue)
    • Enhancements (by label enhancement in issue)

Alternatives

Here is a wikipage list of alternatives, that I found. But no one was satisfy my requirements.

If you know other projects - feel free to edit this Wiki page!

Projects using this library

Wikipage with list of projects

If you are using github_changelog_generator for generation change log in your project or know of project that uses it, please add it to this list.

Am I missed some essential feature?

Nothing is impossible!

Open an issue and let's make generator better together!

Bug reports, feature requests, patches, well-wishes are always welcome!

Contributing

  1. Create an issue to discuss about your idea
  2. Fork it
  3. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  4. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
  5. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  6. Create a new Pull Request

License

Github Changelog Generator is released under the MIT License.