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• Output example
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Fully automated changelog generation - This gem generates a change log file based ontags,issues and mergedpull requests (and splits them into separate lists according to labels) from GitHub Issue Tracker.

Since you don't have to fill yourCHANGELOG.md manually now: just run the script, relax and take a cup of ☕ before your next release! 🎉

To make it easier for users and contributors to see precisely what notable changes have been made between each release (or version) of the project.

Because software tools are forpeople. "Changelogs make it easier for users andcontributors to see precisely what notable changes have been made between eachrelease (or version) of the project."

➡️http://keepachangelog.com

gem install github_changelog_generator

See also Troubleshooting.

docker run -it --rm -v "$(pwd)":/usr/local/src/your-app skywinder/github-changelog-generator

• Look atCHANGELOG.md for this project

• ActionSheetPicker-3.0/CHANGELOG.md was generated by command:

  github_changelog_generator -u skywinder -p ActionSheetPicker-3.0

• In general, it looks like this:

1.2.5 (2015-01-15)

Full Changelog

Implemented enhancements:

• Use milestone to specify in which version bug was fixed#22

Fixed bugs:

• Error when trying to generate log for repo without tags#32

Merged pull requests:

• PrettyPrint class is included using lowercase 'pp'#43 (schwing)

• support enterprise github via command line options#42 (glenlovett)

• Run this:

  github_changelog_generator -u github_username -p github_projectgithub_changelog_generator github_username/github_project

• For Github Enterprise repos, specifyboth--github-site and--github-api options:

  github_changelog_generator --github-site="https://github.yoursite.com" \                           --github-api="https://github.yoursite.com/api/v3/"

This generates aCHANGELOG.md, with pretty Markdown formatting.

Typegithub_changelog_generator --help for details.

For more details about params, read the Wiki page:Advanced change log generation examples

In your project root, you can put a params file named.github_changelog_generator to override default params:

Example:

unreleased=falsefuture-release=5.0.0since-tag=1.0.0

GitHub only allows 50 unauthenticated requests per hour.

Therefore, it's recommended to run this script with authentication by using atoken.

Here's how:

• Generate a token here - you only need "repo" scope for private repositories
• Either:
  • Run the script with--token <your-40-digit-token>;OR
  • Set theCHANGELOG_GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable to your 40 digit token

You can set an environment variable by running the following command at the prompt, or by adding it to your shell profile (e.g.,~/.bash_profile or~/.zshrc):

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

So, if you get a message like this:

API rate limit exceeded for github_username.See:https://developer.github.com/v3/#rate-limiting

It's time to create this token! (Or, wait an hour for GitHub to reset your unauthenticated request limit.)

Knowing how dedicated you are to your project, you probably haven't been waiting forgithub-changelog-generator to keep a changelog.But you probably don't want your project's open issues and PRs for all past features listed in your historic changelog, either.

That's where--base <your-manual-changelog.md> comes in handy!This option lets append your old manual changelog to the end of the generated entries.

If you have aHISTORY.md file in your project, it will automatically be picked as the static historical changelog and appended.

You loverake? We do, too! So, we've made it even easier for you:we've provided arake task library for your changelog generation.

Configure the task in yourRakefile:

require'github_changelog_generator/task'GitHubChangelogGenerator::RakeTask.new:changelogdo |config|config.since_tag='0.1.14'config.future_release='0.2.0'end

All command-line options can be passed to therake task asconfigparameters. And since you're naming therake task yourself, you can createas many as you want.

You can look for params names from theparser source code (#setup_parser). For example, to translate the bugs label to Portuguese, instead of settingconfig.bugs_label, you have to setconfig.bug_prefix, and so on.

• Generate canonical, neat change log file, followed bybasic change log guidelines 💎

• Optionally generateUnreleased changes (closed issues that have not released yet) 💫

• GitHub Enterprise support via command line options! 🏭

• Flexible formatcustomization:

  • Customize issues thatshould be added to changelog ✳️
  • Custom date formats supported (but keepISO 8601 in mind!) 📅
  • Manually specify the version that fixed an issue (for cases when the issue's Closed date doesn't match) by giving the issue'smilestone the same name as the tag of version 📌
  • Automaticallyexclude specific issues that are irrelevant to your changelog (by default, any issue labeledquestion,duplicate,invalid, orwontfix) ✂️

• Distinguish issuesby labels. 🔎

  • Merged pull requests (all merged pull-requests) 🔀
  • Bug fixes (issues labeledbug) 🪲
  • Enhancements (issues labeledenhancement) 🌟
  • Issues (closed issues with no labels) 🚱

• Manually include or exclude issues by labels 🔧

• Customize lots more! Tweak the changelog to fit your preferences 🎩(Seegithub_changelog_generator --help for details)

Here is awikipage list of alternatives that I found. But none satisfied my requirements.

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

Here's awikipage list of projects.

If you've used this project in a live app, please let me know! Nothing makes me happier than seeing someone else take my work and go wild with it.

If you are usinggithub_changelog_generator to generate your project's changelog, or know of other projects using it, pleaseadd it to this list.

• Nothing is impossible!

• Open anissue and let's make the generator better together!

• Bug reports, feature requests, patches, and well-wishes are always welcome. ❗

• I already use GitHub Releases. Why do I need this?

GitHub Releases is a very good thing. And it's very good practice to maintain it. (Not a lot of people are using it yet!) ㊗️

BTW: I would like to support GitHub Releases innext releases ;)

I'm not trying to compare the quality of handwritten and auto-generated logs. That said....

An auto-generated changelog really helps, even if you manually fill in the release notes!

For example:

When you find a closed bug, it is very useful to know which release fixed it.So that you can easily find the issue by # inCHANGELOG.md.

• it's not quite as easy to find this in handwritten releases notes
• a generated file saves you the trouble of remembering everything;sometimes people forget to add things to a handwritten file

Ultimately, I think GitHub Releases are ideal for end-users.Meanwhile,CHANGELOG.md lives right in the repository, with its detailed list of changes, which is handy for developers.Finally, there's nothing wrong with using GitHub Releases alongsideCHANGELOG.md in this combination.

• I received a warning: "GitHub API rate limit exceed" What does this mean?

GitHublimits the number of API requests you can make in an hour. You can make up to 5,000 requests per hour. For unauthenticated requests, the rate limit is only up to 60 requests per hour. Unauthenticated requests are associated with your IP address (not the user making requests).

If you're seeing this warning, please do the following:

1. Make sure you're providing an OAuth token, so you're not making requests anonymously. Using an OAuth token increases your hourly request maximum from 60 to 5000.
2. If you have a large repo with lots of issues/PRs, you can use--max-issues NUM to limit the number of issues that are pulled back. For example:--max-issues 1000

• My Ruby version is very old, can I use this?

When your Ruby is old, and you don't want to upgrade, and you want tocontrol which libraries you use, you can use Bundler.

In a Gemfile, perhaps in a non-deployed:development group, add thisgem:

group:developmentdogem'github_changelog_generator',require:falseend

Then you can keep back dependencies like rack, which currently is onlycompatible with Ruby >= 2.2.2. So, use an older version for your app byadding a line like this to the Gemfile:

gem 'rack', '~> 1.6'

This way, you can keep on using github_changelog_generator, even if youcan't get the latest version of Ruby installed.

We have collected notes on how to contribute to this project inCONTRIBUTING.md.

Github Changelog Generator is released under theMIT License.