Build Number Generator GitHub Action

This GitHub Action generates and increments build numbers based on a unique identifier. The build numbers are stored in a JSON file within a specified branch of your repository, allowing you to track independent build numbers for different projects or components.

Features

• Unique Build Numbers: Generates unique build numbers for each identifier, ensuring different projects or components can maintain independent versioning.
• Branch Customization: Allows specifying the branch where the build numbers are stored.
• Thread Safety: Implements file locking to prevent race conditions when multiple instances of the action run concurrently.

Inputs

• token (required): A GitHub token with write access to the repository.
• branch (optional): The branch where the build numbers are stored. Defaults to build-numbers if not specified.
• identifier (required): A unique identifier for the build number. Each identifier maintains its own sequence of build numbers.
• increment (optional): A boolean flag to control whether the build number should be incremented or just retrieved. Defaults to true.

Outputs

• build-number: The newly generated build number for the specified identifier.

Environment Variables

• BUILD_NUMBER: The newly generated build number is also set as an environment variable, making it easy to access in later steps.

Usage Example

Here's an example of how to use the action in a workflow:

name: Generate Build Number

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Generate Build Number
        uses: BetonQuest/build-number-generator@main
        id: generate
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          identifier: 'projectA'

      - name: Output Build Number (Output)
        run: |
          echo "Build Number: ${{ steps.generate.outputs.build-number }}"
      - name: Output Build Number (Environment)
        run: |
          echo "Build Number: ${{ env.BUILD_NUMBER }}"

Detailed Configuration:

      - name: Generate Build Number
        uses: BetonQuest/build-number-generator@main
        id: generate
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          branch: 'build-numbers' 
          identifier: 'projectA'
          increment: true

Detailed Explanation

1. File Locking for Concurrency

This action uses proper-lockfile to ensure that the build_numbers.json file is not accessed by multiple processes simultaneously. This prevents race conditions when the action runs concurrently.

2. Branch Handling

The action checks out the specified branch (and build-numbers by default). If the branch does not exist, it is created and set to track the remote branch.

3. JSON File Structure

The build_numbers.json file is structured as follows:

{
  "identifier1": 123,
  "identifier2": 45,
  "projectA": 10
}

Each key corresponds to an identifier, and the value is the current build number.

Considerations

• GitHub Token: Ensure that the GitHub token used has sufficient permissions to push to the specified branch.
• Checkout Action: The action requires the actions/checkout to fetch all branches with the fetch-depth: 0 option.
• File Locking: The file locking mechanism is critical for ensuring that build numbers are not corrupted by concurrent writes.

Contributing

Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests for improvements and bug fixes.

License

This project is licensed under the GPL3 License. See the LICENSE file for details.