Date-Time Commit Release

A GitHub Action that creates releases with tags based on commit date and SHA. Create tags like:

• 20240426-143045-e4f36cb - Timestamp with commit SHA
• 2024.4.26 - Semver-compatible (year.month.day)
• v2024.04.26-e4f36cb - Version-style with SHA
• release-202404261430 - Compact timestamp format

Why Use This Action?

This action solves the problem of creating unique, chronological release tags without manual versioning. It's particularly useful for:

• Continuous deployment workflows
• Automatic releases on commit
• Time-based release tracking
• Avoiding version number conflicts

Features

• Generates unique tags based on commit timestamp and SHA
• Customizable tag format with date/time/SHA tokens
• Automatically creates GitHub releases
• Generates release notes from commits
• Prevents duplicate releases for the same commit
• No manual version management needed
• Supports semver-compatible tag formats

Usage

name: Release

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      commit:
        description: "Commit to release"
        required: false
        default: "main"

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Create release
        uses: igorgatis/date-time-commit-release@v2
        with:
          commit: ${{ inputs.commit }}

Permissions

The workflow needs contents: write permission to create releases:

permissions:
  contents: write

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
commit	Commit reference (branch, tag, or hash)	Yes	-
github-token	GitHub token for API access	No	${{ github.token }}
tag-format	Tag format template (see tokens below)	No	{YYYY}{MM}{DD}-{HH}{mm}{ss}-{sha:7}
release-name	Release name template (use {tag} placeholder)	No	Release {tag}

Outputs

Output	Description
tag	The generated release tag
iso-date	The commit date in ISO 8601 format (UTC)
short-sha	The short commit SHA (7 characters)
long-sha	The full commit SHA

Tag Format

Customize the tag format using the tag-format input with these tokens:

Token	Description	Example
{YYYY}	4-digit year	2025
{YY}	2-digit year	25
{MM}	2-digit month with leading zero	01, 11
{M}	Month without leading zero	1, 11
{DD}	2-digit day with leading zero	05, 12
{D}	Day without leading zero	5, 12
{HH}	2-digit hour with leading zero	08, 15
{H}	Hour without leading zero	8, 15
{mm}	2-digit minute with leading zero	04, 30
{m}	Minute without leading zero	4, 30
{ss}	2-digit second with leading zero	01, 45
{s}	Second without leading zero	1, 45
{sha}	Full commit SHA	e4f36cb1e382e2779d3609c1336bdbe7cfb0902c
{sha:N}	First N characters of SHA	{sha:7} → e4f36cb

All timestamps are in UTC timezone, regardless of the commit's original timezone.

Example

Given this git log output:

$ git log -1 --format=fuller main
commit e4f36cb1e382e2779d3609c1336bdbe7cfb0902c
Author:     John Doe <john@example.com>
AuthorDate: Fri Apr 26 09:30:45 2024 -0400
Commit:     Jane Smith <jane@example.com>
CommitDate: Fri Apr 26 14:30:45 2024 +0000

    Add new feature

The action uses the CommitDate (2024-04-26T14:30:45Z) and commit SHA to generate tags:

Format	Result
{YYYY}{MM}{DD}-{HH}{mm}{ss}-{sha:7} (default)	20240426-143045-e4f36cb
v{YYYY}.{M}.{D}	v2024.4.26
{YY}.{MM}.{DD}-{sha:7}	24.04.26-e4f36cb
release-{YYYY}{MM}{DD}{HH}{mm}	release-202404261430

Examples

Basic Usage with Custom Tag Format

- name: Create release with custom tag format
  uses: igorgatis/date-time-commit-release@v2
  with:
    commit: main
    tag-format: "v{YYYY}.{MM}.{DD}-{sha:7}"

Semver-Compatible Format

This example creates tags compatible with Semantic Versioning. You can verify the format using the semver checker.

- name: Create semver-compatible release
  uses: igorgatis/date-time-commit-release@v2
  with:
    commit: main
    tag-format: "{YYYY}.{M}.{D}"

This generates tags like 2024.4.26, which are valid semver versions where:

• Major version = year (e.g., 2024)
• Minor version = month (e.g., 4)
• Patch version = day (e.g., 26)

Compact Format

- name: Create release with compact format
  uses: igorgatis/date-time-commit-release@v2
  with:
    commit: main
    tag-format: "{YY}{MM}{DD}-{HH}{mm}-{sha:6}"
    release-name: "Build {tag}"

This generates tags like 240426-1430-e4f36c for more compact identifiers.

Example: Custom Release Name and Using Outputs in Another Job

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      tag: ${{ steps.create-release.outputs.tag }}
      iso-date: ${{ steps.create-release.outputs.iso-date }}
      short-sha: ${{ steps.create-release.outputs.short-sha }}
      long-sha: ${{ steps.create-release.outputs.long-sha }}
    steps:
      - name: Create release
        id: create-release
        uses: igorgatis/date-time-commit-release@v2
        with:
          commit: main
          release-name: "Production Release {tag}"

  deploy:
    needs: release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Deploy release
        run: |
          echo "Deploying ${{ needs.release.outputs.tag }}"
          echo "Commit date: ${{ needs.release.outputs.iso-date }}"
          echo "Short SHA: ${{ needs.release.outputs.short-sha }}"
          echo "Full SHA: ${{ needs.release.outputs.long-sha }}"

How It Works

1. Fetches the commit information for the specified reference
2. Extracts the commit date (uses commit date, not author date, in UTC) and SHA
3. Generates a tag by replacing format tokens with the extracted values
4. Checks if a release with this tag already exists (fails if it does)
5. Generates release notes from commits (since last tag or all commits if no previous tags)
6. Creates a new GitHub release with the generated tag

Note: Release notes are automatically truncated to 125KB if they exceed this size.

Error Handling

The action will fail if:

• The commit reference doesn't exist
• A release with the generated tag already exists
• The GitHub token doesn't have sufficient permissions

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details