Automatic tagging of releases

I wrote this to help with updating tags incrementally e.g. 1.0.1 to 1.0.2 etc.

2020 update: I have posted an improved version beneath/here. (Also worth seeing @Geoffrey's answer below for some comments on branching).

#!/bin/bash

#get highest tag number
VERSION=`git describe --abbrev=0 --tags`

#replace . with space so can split into an array
VERSION_BITS=(${VERSION//./ })

#get number parts and increase last one by 1
VNUM1=${VERSION_BITS[0]}
VNUM2=${VERSION_BITS[1]}
VNUM3=${VERSION_BITS[2]}
VNUM3=$((VNUM3+1))

#create new tag
NEW_TAG="$VNUM1.$VNUM2.$VNUM3"

echo "Updating $VERSION to $NEW_TAG"

#get current hash and see if it already has a tag
GIT_COMMIT=`git rev-parse HEAD`
NEEDS_TAG=`git describe --contains $GIT_COMMIT 2>/dev/null`

#only tag if no tag already
if [ -z "$NEEDS_TAG" ]; then
    git tag $NEW_TAG
    echo "Tagged with $NEW_TAG"
    git push --tags
else
    echo "Already a tag on this commit"
fi

I revisit this 6 years later needing to write a similar script for uploading to npm. Code below or here, comments and suggestions appreciated and welcome:

#!/bin/bash

# https://github.com/unegma/bash-functions/blob/main/update.sh

VERSION=""

#get parameters
while getopts v: flag
do
  case "${flag}" in
    v) VERSION=${OPTARG};;
  esac
done

#get highest tag number, and add 1.0.0 if doesn't exist
CURRENT_VERSION=`git describe --abbrev=0 --tags 2>/dev/null`

if [[ $CURRENT_VERSION == '' ]]
then
  CURRENT_VERSION='1.0.0'
fi
echo "Current Version: $CURRENT_VERSION"


#replace . with space so can split into an array
CURRENT_VERSION_PARTS=(${CURRENT_VERSION//./ })

#get number parts
VNUM1=${CURRENT_VERSION_PARTS[0]}
VNUM2=${CURRENT_VERSION_PARTS[1]}
VNUM3=${CURRENT_VERSION_PARTS[2]}

if [[ $VERSION == 'major' ]]
then
  VNUM1=$((VNUM1+1))
elif [[ $VERSION == 'minor' ]]
then
  VNUM2=$((VNUM2+1))
elif [[ $VERSION == 'patch' ]]
then
  VNUM3=$((VNUM3+1))
else
  echo "No version type (https://semver.org/) or incorrect type specified, try: -v [major, minor, patch]"
  exit 1
fi


#create new tag
NEW_TAG="$VNUM1.$VNUM2.$VNUM3"
echo "($VERSION) updating $CURRENT_VERSION to $NEW_TAG"

#get current hash and see if it already has a tag
GIT_COMMIT=`git rev-parse HEAD`
NEEDS_TAG=`git describe --contains $GIT_COMMIT 2>/dev/null`

#only tag if no tag already
#to publish, need to be logged in to npm, and with clean working directory: `npm login; git stash`
if [ -z "$NEEDS_TAG" ]; then
  npm version $NEW_TAG
  npm publish --access public
  echo "Tagged with $NEW_TAG"
  git push --tags
  git push
else
  echo "Already a tag on this commit"
fi

exit 0

Subnote: this won't work with zsh as (for one), zsh doesn't use 0 indexed arrays.


In case if you will need Posix version, almost the same as above answer

#!/bin/sh

#Get the highest tag number
VERSION=`git describe --abbrev=0 --tags`
VERSION=${VERSION:-'0.0.0'}

#Get number parts
MAJOR="${VERSION%%.*}"; VERSION="${VERSION#*.}"
MINOR="${VERSION%%.*}"; VERSION="${VERSION#*.}"
PATCH="${VERSION%%.*}"; VERSION="${VERSION#*.}"

#Increase version
PATCH=$((PATCH+1))

#Get current hash and see if it already has a tag
GIT_COMMIT=`git rev-parse HEAD`
NEEDS_TAG=`git describe --contains $GIT_COMMIT`

#Create new tag
NEW_TAG="$MAJOR.$MINOR.$PATCH"
echo "Updating to $NEW_TAG"

#Only tag if no tag already (would be better if the git describe command above could have a silent option)
if [ -z "$NEEDS_TAG" ]; then
    echo "Tagged with $NEW_TAG (Ignoring fatal:cannot describe - this means commit is untagged) "
    git tag $NEW_TAG
else
    echo "Already a tag on this commit"
fi

What you are talking about is more akin to a technical revision number like the one a git describe would generate.

That is different from a true application version, which you should still manage independently from Hudson since it depends on a versioning policy.