Scroll to navigation

GIT-BUMP(1) GIT-BUMP(1)

NAME

git-bump - create Git release commits and tags with changelogs

SYNOPSIS

git bump [major | minor | point | VERSION]

git bump log

git bump next

git bump redo

git bump show [VERSION]

git bump help [COMMAND]

DESCRIPTION

git bump automates the best practices for doing releases for code bases stored in Git:

  • Update version-related minutiae in the code base.
  • Commit with a message like projectname 1.2.3.
  • Create a signed, annotated tag with the same message with a name like v1.2.3.
  • Include release notes in the release commit.

COMMANDS

git bump [--force|-f] [major | minor | point | VERSION]

Bump the version according to the argument:
  • major: bump the first number in the previous version, and reset everything afterwards to zero
  • minor: bump the second number in the previous version, and reset everything afterwards to zero
  • point: bump the third number in the previous version, and reset everything afterwards to zero
  • VERSION: bump to the exact version VERSION
  • no argument: bump the rightmost number in the previous version. For example, 1.2.3-rc4 becomes 1.2.3-rc5, while 6.7 becomes 6.8

Use --force to re-tag the release.

If there are no changes staged, changes from the previous release commit will be replayed, replacing the appropriate version numbers.

The commit message body will be pre-populated with a bulleted list of commit messages since the previous release.

See "USAGE" for more details.

git bump log [...]

Show the Git log since the last release. Any arguments are passed to git log.

git bump next

Show the version number that would be released without performing any actual changes.

git bump redo

Amend the previous release and re-tag. Can only be used directly at the previous release commit.

git bump show [--version-only] [VERSION]

Show the most recent or given release. By default, prints the commit message. Use --version-only to print the version number instead.

git bump help [COMMAND]

Print a short usage notice.

USAGE

Initial release

Stage the changes needed to create the release (this could be the entire repository if it's an initial commit), and run git bump <version>, where <version> is the version you want to release (try 1.0.0). You'll be greeted with a familiar sight:

    spline-reticulator 1.0.0
    
    # Please enter the commit message for your changes. Lines starting
    # with '#' will be ignored, and an empty message aborts the commit.

Adjust the project name if necessary, and save and quit the editor. Your commit and tag will be created, and you'll be shown instructions for pushing once you're sure everything is okay.

Second release

This is where the fun begins. Stage the changes necessary for release, and run git bump.

The commit message body will be pre-populated with a bulleted list of commit messages since the previous release. A good practice is to heavily edit this into a higher level list of changes by discarding worthless messages like typo fixes and making related commits into a single bullet point. If you aren't interested in this practice, delete the body and git bump won't bother you with it again.

Subsequent releases

On subsequent releases, if no changes are staged, git bump will replay the previous release commit, replacing the appropriate version numbers. This works fine as long as your version numbers are committed as literal strings. If you're doing something more clever like "MAJOR = 1" and "MINOR = 2", you'll have to do the edit by hand and stage it.

Existing projects

You'll need to create one existing release commit and tag in the proper format by hand, if your project doesn't already have one. After that you can use git bump normally.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2014, 2015 Tim Pope <code@tpope.net>

License: MIT/Expat

This manual page is based on the README document by Tim Pope. It was reformatted and adapted by Andrej Shadura <andrewsh@debian.org> for the Debian project, and is distributed under the same license as the original project.

2022-01-03