Tagging npm versions as git releases

[RichardLitt]

I never release my npm modules or GitHub code as releases, and I've no real idea why I should. According to Yoshua, this would help me in a few ways: "Ideally you'd also keep a changelog, list of commits and contributors. Also npm creates git tags which GitHub reads as releases." But I'm not really sure what this means.

Unanswered questions

• How is a codebase improved by having a changelog and/or list of contributors in a release?
• What is the benefit of a git tag from npm?
• What are the benefits of releases, in general?
• Should I changelog everything?
• Should I be adding contributor lists to everything?

[hackergrrl]

How are pushing new versions now? Are you manually editing package.json or using the npm version command?

How is a codebase improved by having a changelog and/or list of contributors in a release?

Good reading: http://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/

What is the benefit of a git tag from npm?

Sometimes it's useful to be able to type git checkout v2.3.0 and work with the code at that version.

What are the benefits of releases, in general?

I think they're useful for applications, but less so for modules or npm install --global programs.

[RichardLitt]

I use geopkg:

## For using normal npm
function npmv () {
  geopkg version "$1"
}

Sometimes it's useful to be able to type git checkout v2.3.0 and work with the code at that version.

This makes sense!

I think they're useful for applications, but less so for modules or npm install --global programs.

Agreed. Ok. I am going to not worry about them for my own modules, then. This was my primary thinking.

[hackergrrl]

Weird: when I look at https://github.com/RichardLitt/generator-standard-readme I don't see any tags for it. What happens when you run git push --tags?

[RichardLitt]

🐕  git push --tags
Total 0 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To [email protected]:RichardLitt/generator-standard-readme.git
 * [new tag]         v0.0.1 -> v0.0.1
 * [new tag]         v0.0.2 -> v0.0.2
 * [new tag]         v0.0.4 -> v0.0.4
 * [new tag]         v0.0.5 -> v0.0.5
 * [new tag]         v0.0.6 -> v0.0.6
 * [new tag]         v0.0.9 -> v0.0.9
 * [new tag]         v0.1.0 -> v0.1.0
 * [new tag]         v0.1.2 -> v0.1.2
 * [new tag]         v0.1.3 -> v0.1.3
 * [new tag]         v0.1.4 -> v0.1.4
 * [new tag]         v0.2.0 -> v0.2.0
 * [new tag]         v1.0.1 -> v1.0.1
 * [new tag]         v1.0.2 -> v1.0.2
 * [new tag]         v1.0.3 -> v1.0.3

... Why weren't these pushed before? Do you need to explicitly push them?

[hackergrrl]

Yes, the default is to explicitly push them.

I use this handy little shell alias for pushing, so I don't forget about tags:

alias npp='npm test && git p && git p --tags && npm publish'