Creates a changelog, or release notes, based on Git commits between 2 revisions.

This can also be done with a command line tool.

Usage

You can use this plugin either in a pipeline or as a post-build action.

Pipeline

The plugin is compatible with the pipeline plugin and can be configured to support many use cases. You probably want to adjust it using the Snippet Generator.

The gitChangelog step can return:

• Context - An object that contains all the information needed to create a changelog. Can be used to gather information from Git like committers, emails, issues and much more.
• String - A string that is a rendered changelog, ready to be published. Can be used to publish on build summary page, on a wiki, emailed and much more.

The template and context is documented here.

It can integrate with issue management systems to get titles of issues and links. You will probably want to avoid specifying credentials in plain text in your script. One way of doing that is using the credentials binding plugin. The supported integrations are:

• GitLab
• GitHub
• Jira

You can create a file or maby publish the changelog with:

• HTML Publisher Plugin
• Confluence Publisher Plugin
• Email Extension

You can filter out a subset of the commits by:

• Specifying specific from/to references/commits.
• Adding filter based on message.
• Adding filter based on commit time.
• Filter tags based on tag name.
• Filter commits based on commit time.
• Ignore commits that does not contain an issue.

You can make the changelog prettier by:

• Transforming tag name to something more readable.
• Changing date display format.
• Creating virtual tag, that contains all commits that does not belong to any other tag. This can be named something like Unreleased.
• Creating virtual issue, that contains all commits that does not belong to any other issue.
• Remove issue from commit message. This can be named something like Wall of shame and list all committers that did not commit on an issue.

Check the Snippet Generator to see all features!

Pipeline with context

Here is an example that clones a repo, gathers all jiras and adds a link to jira in the description of the job. The context contains much more then this and is documented here.

node {
 deleteDir()
 sh """
 git clone git@github.com:jenkinsci/git-changelog-plugin.git .
 """
    
 def changelogContext = gitChangelog returnType: 'CONTEXT',
  from: [type: 'REF', value: 'git-changelog-1.50'],
  to: [type: 'REF', value: 'master'],
  jira: [issuePattern: 'JENKINS-([0-9]+)\\b', password: '', server: '', username: '']

 Set<String> issueIdentifiers = new TreeSet<>()
 changelogContext.issues.each { issue ->
  if (issue.name == 'Jira') {
   issueIdentifiers.add(issue.issue)
  }
 }
 currentBuild.description = "http://jira.com/issues/?jql=key%20in%20%28${issueIdentifiers.join(',')}%29"
}

Pipeline with string

Here is an example that clones a repo and publishes the changelog on job page. The template and context is documented here.

node {
 deleteDir()
 sh """
 git clone git@github.com:jenkinsci/git-changelog-plugin.git .
 """
    
 def changelogString = gitChangelog returnType: 'STRING',
  from: [type: 'REF', value: 'git-changelog-1.50'],
  to: [type: 'REF', value: 'master'],
  template: """
 <h1> Git Changelog changelog </h1>

<p>
Changelog of Git Changelog.
</p>

{{#tags}}
<h2> {{name}} </h2>
 {{#issues}}
 {{#hasIssue}}
 {{#hasLink}}
<h2> {{name}} <a href="{{link}}">{{issue}}</a> {{title}} </h2>
 {{/hasLink}}
 {{^hasLink}}
<h2> {{name}} {{issue}} {{title}} </h2>
 {{/hasLink}}
 {{/hasIssue}}
 {{^hasIssue}}
<h2> {{name}} </h2>
 {{/hasIssue}}


 {{#commits}}
<a href="https://github.com/tomasbjerre/git-changelog-lib/commit/{{hash}}">{{hash}}</a> {{authorName}} <i>{{commitTime}}</i>
<p>
<h3>{{{messageTitle}}}</h3>

{{#messageBodyItems}}
 <li> {{.}}</li> 
{{/messageBodyItems}}
</p>


 {{/commits}}

 {{/issues}}
{{/tags}}
 """

 currentBuild.description = changelogString
}

Post-build action

When the plugin is installed, it will add some new post build actions in Jenkins job configuration.

• Git Changelog - Implements features from git-changelog-lib.
• Publish Git Changelog - Implements features from git-changelog.
• Publish JIRA Filter - Implements features from git-changelog.

There are duplicated features here because this plugin is a merge of 2 plugins!

Git Changelog

A couple of revisions are configured along with some other optional features. A editable template is available for the user to tweak.

The changelog is created from parsing Git and rendering the template with a context derived from the configured revisions.

Publish JIRA Filter

The following documentation explains to set up the JIRA Filter post-build action. Using the basic changelog post-build action is even easier, as it does not need any further configuration.

On any jenkins project using Git as Source Code Management, add "Publish JIRA Filter" Post-build Action. A form with a few input fields appears where you can configure the behaviour. Just below the input fields their meaning and default behaviour is explained.

If you leave the file input empty, the information will be logged into the jenkins console.

If you specify a filename, you can use other plugins like HTML Publisher Plugin to save the files as jenkins report.

Publish Git Changelog

A couple of revisions are configured and an output file will be created with the changes between them.

Using as Token Macro Replacement Provider

Having installed the Token Macro Plugin plugin (which will be the case, as it is a dependency of this plugin), following macros for replacement are provided: GITCHANGELOGJIRA and GITCHANGELOG.

The Publish Git Changelog provides macro GITCHANGELOGJIRA and Publish JIRA Filter provides macro GITCHANGELOG. The Git Changelog post-build step does not provide a macro, instead use pipelines!

If you use these macros in any plugin supporting token macro replacements, this will be replaced with either the Jira URL or the changelog.

The Email-ext plugin supports token macros, so you can include this URL in an automatically sent email.

Development

This plugin can be built and started with maven and Jenkins' hpi plugin:

./run.sh

The functionality is implemented in git-changelog and git-changelog-lib. Pull requests are welcome!