Dry-run in CI environment from pull request branch

[XC-]

Hi,

I have been trying to do a semantic-release simulation as a part of the pull request workflow, but bump into issues with the configuration. The configuration for the repository has the following branches configuration:
"branches": ["main"]

Then in the workflow job, I am running semantic-release with the following command:
npx semantic-release --dry-run --no-ci --branches $GITHUB_REF
in hope that it would do the dry-run from the pull request branch github action has checked out. However, I run into the following error:
[4:05:39 PM] [semantic-release] › ✖ ERELEASEBRANCHES The release branches are invalid in the branches` configuration.
A minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 release branches are required in the branches configuration (https://github.com/semantic-release/semantic-release/blob/master/docs/usage/configuration.md#branches).

This may occur if your repository does not have a release branch, such as master.

Your configuration for the problematic branches is [].`

What am I missing or configuring wrong?

[latipun7]

Hey, this is what I'm trying to do too, haha 😅 I want to test the semantic-release simulation in the pull request workflow.

I was trying to do npx semantic-release --no-ci --branches "$GITHUB_HEAD_REF" --dry-run instead, but the error is, well, it's not an error, but the test is skipped with this message:

[12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Running semantic-release version 18.0.0
➤ YN0000: [12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "verifyConditions" from "@semantic-release/changelog"
➤ YN0000: [12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "verifyConditions" from "@semantic-release/npm"
➤ YN0000: [12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "verifyConditions" from "@semantic-release/git"
➤ YN0000: [12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "verifyConditions" from "@semantic-release/github"
➤ YN0000: [12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "prepare" from "@semantic-release/changelog"
➤ YN0000: [12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "prepare" from "@semantic-release/npm"
➤ YN0000: [12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "prepare" from "@semantic-release/git"
➤ YN0000: [12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "publish" from "@semantic-release/npm"
➤ YN0000: [12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "publish" from "@semantic-release/github"
➤ YN0000: [12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "addChannel" from "@semantic-release/npm"
➤ YN0000: [12:49:46 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "addChannel" from "@semantic-release/github"
➤ YN0000: [12:49:48 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  This test run was triggered on the branch refs/pull/375/merge, while semantic-release is configured to only publish from upgrade, therefore a new version won’t be published.

from that message, refs/pull/375/merge is the $GITHUB_REF, while upgrade is $GITHUB_HEAD_REF.

Then I tried to do switch the branch first:

git switch "$GITHUB_HEAD_REF"
npx semantic-release  --no-ci --branches "$GITHUB_HEAD_REF" --dry-run

but the ref still persist to refs/pull/375/merge, maybe the refs is always persisted to refs/pull/:prNumber/merge no matter what I do based on the github actions documentation.

I hope there's some workaround. 🤔

[seedy]

In case you're still looking for a workaround, here's what I did with github actions:

Hey folks, I found a workaround to go forward on the subject 🚀

I'm still struggling with the dry run output, though. I still don't know how to output it inside my PRs to make it useful...

To summarize:

1. I added a branch name in my release branches list, which is dedicated to dry-run
2. I am creating that branch on my repository only for the duration of my workflow, then deleting it (I took whatever github action I found for this 🤷 )
3. I run the command proposed by @guilhermetod to ignore GH actions data

Here's my package.json part containing my branches:

  "branches": [
      "main",
      "next",
      "dry"
    ],

...aaaaaaaaand, here's my workflow (I removed sensitive data):

name: Pull Request


on:
  pull_request:

jobs:
  test-semantic-release:
    name: Release dry-run
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Create dry branch
        uses: peterjgrainger/action-create-branch@v2.0.1
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ SECRET }}
        with:
          branch: 'dry'

      - name: Checkout dry branch
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          ref: dry
      
      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v2
        with:
          node-version: 'lts/*'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Dry run
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ SECRET }}
          NPM_TOKEN: ${{ SECRET }}
        run: unset GITHUB_ACTIONS && npx semantic-release --dry-run --no-ci
      
      - name: Back to code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
      
      - name: Clear dry branch
        uses: dawidd6/action-delete-branch@v3
        with:
          github_token: ${{SECRET}}
          branches: dry

Last missing steps:

• I'd like to output the result of the dry-run to my PR, I'm thinking about adding a comment to the PR through actions/github-script@v6

I commented on this issue

[bigbrozer]

Hi ! That's what I'm doing for PR dry-run (using Azure DevOps but others may be similar):

# Bash tricks to substitute part of a string...
--branches "${SOURCE_BRANCH#refs/heads/}"

I'm removing the refs/heads/ part in the branch name. It appears, semantic-release is looking at the branch name on the remote (similar to your local git branch). It works but looks like a workaround ;-)

[armand-sauzay]

Hi! Any luck on this using github actions with pull_request trigger? I can't seem to find the way to get the dry run to work on pull_request only trigger

[armand-sauzay]

Not sure if it's ideal but got it to work with the following script. Curious if anyone has a better solution!

name: Scratch

on:
  pull_request:
      branches:
          - main

jobs:
    build:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
        with :
          fetch-depth: 0
          ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}
      - name: Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3          
      - name: Semantic Release dry run
        id: dry-release
        run: |
          OUTPUT="$(bash -c "unset GITHUB_ACTIONS && npx semantic-release --dry-run --no-ci --branches '${HEAD_REF}'")"
          NEW_RELEASE_VERSION=$(echo "$OUTPUT" | grep -oP 'The next release version is \K(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)')
          echo "new-release-version=$NEW_RELEASE_VERSION" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          HEAD_REF: ${{ github.head_ref }}
      - name: Use the version
        run: echo "The version is ${{ steps.dry-release.outputs.new-release-version }}"

[diogokiss]

The following snippet did the trick for me.

      - name: Generate release notes
        id: release-notes-preview
        run: |
          # Trick semantic-release into thinking we're not in a CI environment
          unset GITHUB_ACTIONS
          unset GITHUB_EVENT_NAME

          semantic-release --dry-run --no-ci --branches $GITHUB_HEAD_REF

I based this solution on the library that semantic-release uses to detect CI environments: env-ci.
https://github.com/semantic-release/env-ci/blob/master/services/github.js#L39-L62

[tinyroy]

Like the above workarounds, I tricked semantic versioning into thinking it is running against a regular branch, "dryrun" but it is actually the pull request reference "refs/pull/${prNumber}/merge".

The code below creates the "dryrun" branch, tricks semantic-release by setting GITHUB_REF and finally deletes the branch.

Make sure "dryrun" branch is in your .releaserc configuration.

      - name: Create Dryrun Branch
        run: |
          git checkout -b dryrun
          git push --set-upstream origin dryrun -f

      - name: Dryrun Release
        run: GITHUB_REF=dryrun npx semantic-release --dry-run --no-ci
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: Delete Dryrun Branch
        run: |
          git push --delete origin dryrun

[Avivbens]

Hi all 👋

I've created a nice GitHub action workflow, with no additional configuration needed 👍

Here are the workflow results for chore commit:

Once you committed additional stuff, it will remove the last report and create a new one. Here are the results for fix commit:

The workflow:

name: Semantic Release Check 📝
on:
    pull_request:
        branches:
            - master

permissions: write-all

jobs:
    PR-checks:
        runs-on: self-hosted
        name: Semantic Release Check 📝
        steps:
            - name: 📀 Checkout
              uses: actions/checkout@v3
              with:
                  fetch-depth: 0

            - name: 🖥️ Setup Node
              uses: actions/setup-node@v3
              with:
                  node-version: 20

            - name: 🔗 Install Dependencies
              shell: bash
              run: |
                  npm ci --no-fund --no-audit --ignore-scripts

            - name: 🔬 Check semantic versioning
              id: semantic-release
              run: |
                  GITHUB_REF=${{ github.head_ref }}
                  npx semantic-release --no-ci --dry-run --plugins @semantic-release/commit-analyzer,@semantic-release/release-notes-generator --branches ${{ github.head_ref }} > output.txt
                  OUTPUT=$(cat output.txt | base64 -w 0)
                  echo "::set-output name=releaseNote::$OUTPUT"

            - name: 📝 Report semantic versioning
              uses: actions/github-script@v3
              if: ${{ steps.semantic-release.outputs.releaseNote != '' }}
              with:
                  github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
                  script: |
                      // build release note
                      const semanticReleaseOutput = Buffer.from('${{ steps.semantic-release.outputs.releaseNote }}', 'base64').toString('utf8');
                      const semanticReleaseLogMatch = /^[[0-9:\sAMPM]+\]\s\[semantic-release\].*$/;
                      const lines = semanticReleaseOutput.split('\n');
                      const lastSemanticReleaseLogIndex = [...lines]
                          .reverse()
                          .findIndex((line) => line.match(semanticReleaseLogMatch));

                      const releaseNoteIndex = lines.length - lastSemanticReleaseLogIndex;
                      const releaseNote = lines.slice(releaseNoteIndex);

                      let res = releaseNote.join('\n');
                      if (!releaseNote.length || !res) {
                          res = '### No release note would be generated.';
                      }

                      const SEMANTIC_RELEASE_BODY_HEADER = '## 📝 Semantic Release Report';
                      const body = [SEMANTIC_RELEASE_BODY_HEADER, res].join('\n');

                      // get last comment
                      const comments = await github.issues.listComments({
                          issue_number: context.issue.number,
                          owner: context.repo.owner,
                          repo: context.repo.repo
                      });

                      // find comments to delete
                      const commentsToDelete = comments.data.filter((comment) =>
                          comment.body.startsWith(SEMANTIC_RELEASE_BODY_HEADER)
                      );

                      // delete comments
                      const prms = commentsToDelete.map((comment) =>
                          github.issues.deleteComment({
                              comment_id: comment.id,
                              owner: context.repo.owner,
                              repo: context.repo.repo
                          })
                      );

                      await Promise.all(prms);

                      // create new comment for release note
                      github.issues.createComment({
                          issue_number: context.issue.number,
                          owner: context.repo.owner,
                          repo: context.repo.repo,
                          body
                      });

Enjoy 🥳

CC: @XC- @bigbrozer @diogokiss @seedy @tinyroy

[boris-ning-usds]

Thank you for this. I'm totally robbing the last two steps.

[Avivbens]

@boris-ning-usds

Yeah, loved that report 🎉

Have a similar one for Nx projects, so you can see the affected changes before merge 🤞