Append suffix to version tag

[smoia]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I'm implementing auto in a package I'm managing (issue physiopy/phys2bids#181 ) to create automatic releases with Git Tag (and update Pipy and zenodo). We're still in beta stage, and I was wondering if there is a way to append a suffix to the version tag (e.g. v1.3.0-beta) to indicate the development stage. I checked documentation and auto release help, and I didn't see it. Sorry if I missed it!

[hipstersmoothie]

The way auto supports beta release lines is with next branches. Basically you just:

• create next branch (or configure another name)
• start making PRs into that branch
• when you merge into that branch shipit runs and makes a pre-release
• merge next into master and auto publishes all the changes to latest

Docs on prereleases: https://intuit.github.io/auto/pages/generated/shipit.html#prereleases

At the top of this page we detail what type of release is made in different situations. The default workflow for auto is: run shipit at the end of every build and auto will make the appropriate release (canary, next, or latest)

There are a few other ways you could do pre-release with auto but I recommend this one.

Does that help?

[smoia]

Hello @hipstersmoothie, thank you for your reply!
Yes, I saw the possibility of maintaining more than a branch and have beta features, and the possibility of "graduating only with release label".
However, our intentions are a bit different.

We're an open development package, that wants to release and track changes even if we're still in beta stage development. For this reason, the only thing we want to point out is that we are in beta stage, even if technically it's our latest.

If I create a branch named beta and start PR to that branch, would auto release a version trailed with a suffix "-beta" or with a suffix "-next"?

[hipstersmoothie]

If I create a branch named beta and start PR to that branch

you would have to do two things:

1. create beta branch
2. add beta to prereleaseBranches in your .autorc

trailed with a suffix "-beta" or with a suffix "-next"

The suffix is based on the prerelease branch.

• run shipit from next => suffix -next
• run shipit from beta => suffix -beta

[hipstersmoothie]

Some example tags: https://github.com/intuit/auto/tags?after=v8.0.0

Releases look somewhat like: https://github.com/intuit/auto/releases?after=v8.0.0 (may have changed a little)