grunt-changelog

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.0

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-changelog --save-dev

One the plugin has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-changelog');

The "changelog" task

Overview

In your project's Gruntfile, add a section named changelog to the data object passed into grunt.initConfig(). The task, by default, will go through the last 7 days of commit messages, looking for issues that were closed or fixed. It will then generate a template-based changelog with those changes and write them to a destination file.

grunt.initConfig({
  changelog: {
    sample: {
      options: {
        // Task-specific options go here.
      }
    }
  },
})

NEW:

  - Feature 1
  - Feature 2
  - Feature 3

FIXES:

  - Fix 1
  - Fix 2

Options

options.after

Type: String Default value: 7 days ago

A date string, commit SHA, or tag that the git log will start at.

options.before

Type: String Default value: now

A date string, commit SHA, or tag that the git log will end at. The type must match what was used for after (e.g. you cannot use a date string for after and a commit SHA for before).

options.featureRegex

Type: RegEx Default value: /^(.*)closes #\d+:?(.*)$/gim

The regular expression used to match feature changes.

options.fixRegex

Type: RegEx Default value: /^(.*)fixes #\d+:?(.*)$/gim

The regular expression used to match bug fix changes.

options.log

Type: String Default value: undefined

The log file to parse for changes. If nothing is set, a git log command will be run.

options.dest

Type: String Default value: changelog

The file path to write the changelog to.

options.template

Type: String Default value: {{> features}}{{> fixes}}

The Handlebars template used for creating the changelog.

options.partials.features

Type: String Default value: 'NEW:\n\n{{#if features}}{{#each features}}{{> feature}}{{/each}}{{else}}{{> empty}}{{/if}}\n'

The Handlebars partial used for the list of features.

options.partials.feature

Type: String Default value: ' - {{this}}\n'

The Handlebars partial used for each individual feature.

options.partials.fixes

Type: String Default value: 'FIXES:\n\n{{#if fixes}}{{#each fixes}}{{> fix}}{{/each}}{{else}}{{> empty}}{{/if}}'

The Handlebars partial used for the list of fixes.

options.partials.fix

Type: String Default value: ' - {{this}}\n'

The Handlebars partial used for each individual fix.

options.partials.empty

Type: String Default value: ' (none)\n'

The Handlebars partial used by features or fixes when there are no changes.

Usage Examples

Default Options

In this example, the default options are used to create the changelog. A git log command will run for logs starting 7 days ago until now and the changelog will be generated matching commit messages with fixes and closes.

grunt.initConfig({
  changelog: {
    sample: {
      options: {}
    }
  },
})

changelog.txt

NEW:

  - Feature 1
  - Feature 2
  - Feature 3

FIXES:

  - Fix 1
  - Fix 2

Custom Range

In this example, a custom date range is used to only show changes between March 1st and March 14th.

grunt.initConfig({
  changelog: {
    sample: {
      options: {
        after: '2013-03-01',
        before: '2013-03-14'
      }
    }
  },
})

You can also pass values for after and before directly.

From 1/12/2014 to today

$ grunt changelog:sample:1/12/2014

From commit dffcc01 to 6408ff7

$ grunt changelog:sample:dffcc01:6408ff7

From tag 0.9.8 to HEAD

$ grunt changelog:sample:0.9.8

Custom Destination

In this example, a custom destination is used to write the changelog to a different location.

grunt.initConfig({
  changelog: {
    sample: {
      options: {
        dest: 'release-notes/<%= package.version %>.txt'
      }
    }
  },
})

Custom Formatting

In these examples, custom formatting is used to create a simple changelog with the list of features and fixes.

grunt.initConfig({
  changelog: {
    sample: {
      options: {
        dest: 'release-notes/<%= package.version %>.txt',
        template: '{{date}}\n\n{{> features}}{{> fixes}}'
      }
    }
  },
})

release-notes/1.0.0.txt

2013-05-01

NEW:

  - Feature 1
  - Feature 2
  - Feature 3

FIXES:

  - Fix 1
  - Fix 2

grunt.initConfig({
  changelog: {
    sample: {
      options: {
        dest: 'release-notes/<%= package.version %>.txt',
        partials: {
          features: '{{#each features}}{{> feature}}{{/each}}',
          feature: '[NEW] {{this}}\n',
          fixes: '{{#each fixes}}{{> fix}}{{/each}}',
          fix: '[FIX] {{this}}\n'
        }
      }
    }
  },
})