changelist

Generate a simple changelog for your release based on git commit history.

 

Install

$ npm install -g changelist

 

Usage

$ changelist --help

Usage
    $ changelist

Options
    -b, --base       Specify the path of the git repo. By default, all file paths
                     are relative to process.cwd()
    -p, --preset     The preset to use for changelist export.
                     You can choose `slack` and `markdown` presets.
                     If no preset is specified, then a simple markdown changelist will be generated.
    -c, --commitish  The commit-ish from which you want to generate the changelist.
                     Default to [latest-tag]..HEAD.'
    -r, --release    The version of the upcoming release. If not specified, the cli
                     will read the version from `package.json`.
    -i, --ignore     A list of commit messages you want to mask in the changelist.
    -o, --output     Define a file to write the changelist output to (will be prepended to the file)
                     default to CHANGELOG.md
    -N, --name       Generate a random name for the release
    -V, --verbose    Output more detailed information
    -h, --help       Display this notice

Examples
    $ changelist
    $ changelist --base /home/github/changelist
    $ changelist -c 1.0.0..HEAD -r 1.0.1

 

Features

• Auto categorisation
• Custom presets
• Ignore commit with specific message
• Prepend output to file
• Generate release name

 

Commit categorisation

If you format your commit(s) using the following syntax [category]: [commit message] this will automatically group the commits under the specified category.

For example if we take the following commits:

• documentation: add options documentation
• documentation: update options examples

This will get exported like so:

---

Documentation

• Add options documentation
• Update options examples

---

 

Using different presets

If you don't want to export the changelist using markdown format you can change the preset used by using the preset command like so:

changelist -p slack

This will use a preset for Slack-compliant changelist export. Available presets:

• markdown: default markdown export
• slack: a slack friendly changelist export (using slack message formatting)

 

Remove commit with specific message or commit you are ashamed of

We are humans and sometimes we can do stuff we are not proud of. If you want/need to mask commit containing a certain message from your export, you can use the ignore option like so:

$ changelist -i 'jobs... steve jobs'

NOTE: if you need to hide several commits in the changelist (yeah sometime shit happens) it's also possible using comma separated values:

$ changelist -i 'jobs... steve jobs','gave up and used table','all sorts of things'

 

Prepend output to file

$ changelist -o TEST.md

Will prepend the output of the command to a TEST.md file (and create the file if missing).

NOTE the ouput folder will follow the exact path you entered meaning that you could do something like:

$ changelist -o ./foo/bar/TEST.md

This will create the folders recursively if missing or simply use the existing file otherwise.

 

Name generation

If you want your release to have a fancy name on top of a number simply pass the -N flag like so:

$ changelist -N

This will give you cool names like Repulsive Chirogymnast, Kernelless Reestimation or Overtrustful Japygid. Why? Because it's fun. And it's important to have fun.

 

Write output into a CHANGELOG.md file in bash/sh

If you need to prepend the result of the changelist command in a file, you can simply do:

$ echo -e "$(changelist)\n\n$(cat CHANGELOG.md)" > CHANGELOG.md

 

Todo

• Add Jira integration (update flagged ticket).
• Add tests
• Add documentation
• Add cli options for auto generate a release name (available under a -N flag)
• Add an ignore option to mask a list of commit containing specific message.
• Add option to write output directly to the CHANGELOG.md file (from Node.js)