Generate unstable changelogs using towncrier (#1340)

Replace the current stack of hugo templates with a towncrier invocation. The main advantage of this is that it means that the "Changes since last release" section is consistent with the changelogs for the actual releases.

This also changes the release process so that the changelog is generated before tagging, which means that the thing tagged v1.5 is actually the v1.5 spec.

Fixes #908.

.github/workflows/main.yml

@@ -99,10 +99,32 @@ jobs:
           name: openapi-artifact
           path: openapi.tar.gz
 
+  generate-changelog:
+    name: "📢 Run towncrier for changelog"
+    # skip for builds of git tags
+    if: "!startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')"
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: "📥 Source checkout"
+        uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - name: "➕ Setup Python"
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+      - name: "➕ Install towncrier"
+        run: "pip install 'towncrier'"
+      - name: "Generate changelog"
+        run: ./scripts/generate-changelog.sh vUNSTABLE
+      - name: "📤 Artifact upload"
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
+        with:
+          name: changelog-artifact
+          path: content/changelog/vUNSTABLE.md
+
   build-spec:
     name: "📖 Build the spec"
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    needs: [calculate-baseurl, build-openapi]
+    needs: [calculate-baseurl, build-openapi, generate-changelog]
+    # run even if generate-changelog was skipped
+    if: ${{ always() }}
     steps:
       - name: "➕ Setup Node"
         uses: actions/setup-node@v2
@@ -119,9 +141,14 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           npm i
           npm run get-proposals
+      - name: "📥 Download generated changelog"
+        if: "needs.generate-changelog.result == 'success'"
+        uses: actions/download-artifact@v3
+        with:
+          name: changelog-artifact
+          path: content/changelog
       - name: "⚙️ hugo"
         run: hugo --baseURL "${{ needs.calculate-baseurl.outputs.baseURL }}" -d "spec"
-
       # We manually unpack the spec OpenAPI definition JSON to the website tree
       # to make it available to the world in a canonical place:
       # https://spec.matrix.org/latest/client-server-api/api.json

changelogs/internal/newsfragments/1340.clarification

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Generate the unstable changelogs with towncrier, for consistency.

content/changelog/index.md

@@ -6,13 +6,7 @@ weight: 1000
 
 {{% changelog/changelog-description %}}
 
-{{% changelog/changelog-changes %}}
+{{% changelog/changelogs %}}
-
-<!-- DO NOT REMOVE OR CHANGE - Release script puts next release here -->
-{{% changelog/changelog-rendered p="changelogs/v1.4.md" %}}
-{{% changelog/changelog-rendered p="changelogs/v1.3.md" %}}
-{{% changelog/changelog-rendered p="changelogs/v1.2.md" %}}
-{{% changelog/changelog-rendered p="changelogs/v1.1.md" %}}
 
 <h2 id="historical-versions" class="no-numbers">Historical versions</h2>
 

content/changelog/v1.1.md

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+---
+date: 2021-11-09T00:00:00+0000
+---
 <!--
 This is a header file for the generated changelog.
 

content/changelog/v1.2.md

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+---
+date: 2022-02-02T00:00:00+0000
+---
 <!--
 This is a header file for the generated changelog.
 

content/changelog/v1.3.md

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+---
+date: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+0100
+---
 <!--
 This is a header file for the generated changelog.
 

content/changelog/v1.4.md

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+---
+date: 2022-09-29T00:00:00+0100
+---
 <!--
 This is a header file for the generated changelog.
 

layouts/shortcodes/changelog/changelog-changes.html

@@ -1,90 +0,0 @@
-{{/*
-
-  This template is used to render the set of changes in the changelog page.
-
-  It expects to find a directory "changelogs" containing a subdirectory for
-  each of the 5 APIs in the specification. Inside each of these directories
-  it expects to find newsfragments describing changes to that API.
-
-  If the `version.status` setting in config.toml is anything other than
-  "unstable", then it also expects to find additional settings under
-  `version` in config.toml:
-  - `major`: the major version number of the release
-  - `minor`: the minor version number of the release
-  - `release_date`: the date of the release
-
-  The release tag is calculated as `v<major>.<minor>`; for example `v1.5`.
-
-  It then renders this into a table displayed before the list of changes.
-
-*/}}
-
-{{ $path := path.Join "changelogs" }}
-{{ $status := .Site.Params.version.status }}
-{{ $release_tag := delimit (slice "v" .Site.Params.version.major "." .Site.Params.version.minor) "" }}
-
-{{ if ne $status "unstable" }}
-<table class="release-info">
-<tr><th>Git commit</th><td><a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/tree/{{ $release_tag }}">https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/tree/{{ $release_tag }}</a></td>
-<tr><th>Release date</th><td>{{ .Site.Params.version.release_date }}</td>
-</table>
-{{ end }}
-
-<h2 id=api-changes>Changes since last release</h2>
-{{ partial "render-api-changes" (dict "title" "Client-Server API" "id" "client-server-api" "path" (path.Join $path "client_server")) }}
-{{ partial "render-api-changes" (dict "title" "Server-Server API" "id" "server-server-api" "path" (path.Join $path "server_server")) }}
-{{ partial "render-api-changes" (dict "title" "Application Service API" "id" "application-service-api" "path" (path.Join $path "application_service")) }}
-{{ partial "render-api-changes" (dict "title" "Identity Service API" "id" "identity-service-api" "path" (path.Join $path "identity_service")) }}
-{{ partial "render-api-changes" (dict "title" "Push Gateway API" "id" "push-gateway-api" "path" (path.Join $path "push_gateway")) }}
-{{ partial "render-api-changes" (dict "title" "Room Versions" "id" "room-versions" "path" (path.Join $path "room_versions")) }}
-{{ partial "render-api-changes" (dict "title" "Appendices" "id" "appendices" "path" (path.Join $path "appendices")) }}
-{{ partial "render-api-changes" (dict "title" "Internal Changes/Tooling" "id" "internal" "path" (path.Join $path "internal")) }}
-
-{{ define "partials/render-api-changes" }}
-<h3 id="{{.id}}">{{ .title }}</h3>
-    {{ $api_path := .path }}
-    {{ $config_file := path.Join $api_path ".." "pyproject.toml" }}
-    {{ $config := readFile $config_file | transform.Unmarshal }}
-    {{ $news_path := path.Join $api_path "newsfragments" }}
-    {{ partial "render-newsfragments"  (dict "config" $config "news_path" $news_path )}}
-{{ end }}
-
-{{ define "partials/render-newsfragments" }}
-{{ $config := .config }}
-{{ $news_path := .news_path }}
-
-{{ $types := dict }}
-{{ range $config.tool.towncrier.type }}
-    {{ $types = merge $types (dict .directory (slice)) }}
-{{ end }}
-
-{{ range (readDir $news_path) }}
-
-    {{ $pieces := split .Name "." }}
-
-    {{ $ticket := index $pieces 0 }}
-    {{ $description := readFile (path.Join $news_path .Name ) }}
-    {{ $change_info := (dict "ticket" $ticket "description" $description )}}
-
-    {{ $type := index $pieces 1 }}
-    {{ $instances := index $types $type }}
-    {{ $instances = $instances | append $change_info }}
-    {{ $types = merge $types (dict $type $instances) }}
-
-{{ end }}
-
-<ul>
-{{ range $config.tool.towncrier.type }}
-    {{ $changes_of_type := (index $types .directory) }}
-    {{ if $changes_of_type }}
-<li>{{.name | safeHTML}}
-<p><ul>
-        {{ range $changes_of_type }}
-<li><a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/issues/{{.ticket}}"><strong>{{ .ticket }}: </strong></a>{{ .description | markdownify }}</li>
-        {{ end }}
-</ul></p>
-</li>
-    {{ end }}
-{{ end }}
-</ul>
-{{ end }}

layouts/shortcodes/changelog/changelog-rendered.html

@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-{{ $partial := .Params.p }}
-{{ partial $partial . }}

layouts/shortcodes/changelog/changelogs.html

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{{/*
+   This template is used to render all of the changelog sections under
+   "content/changelogs"
+*/}}
+
+{{ with .Page.Resources.Match "*.md" }}
+{{ range ((sort . "Params.date" "desc")) }}
+{{ .Content }}
+{{ end }}
+{{ end }}

meta/releasing.md

@@ -37,21 +37,21 @@ release.
    release_date = "October 01, 2021"
    ```
 3. Commit the changes.
-4. Tag the branch with the spec release with a format of `v1.2` (if releasing Matrix 1.2).
+4. Generate the changelog.
-5. Push the release branch and the tag.
-6. GitHub Actions will run its build steps. Wait until these are successful. If fixes
-   need to be made to repair the pipeline or spec build, delete and re-tag the release.
-7. Check out and fast-forward `main` to the release branch.
-8. Generate the changelog. This is done *after* the tagging to ensure the rendered
-   changelog makes sense.
    1. Activate your python virtual environment.
    2. Run `./scripts/generate-changelog.sh v1.2 "October 01, 2021"` (using the correct
       version number and same `release_date` format from the hugo config).
    3. Commit the result.
+5. Tag the branch with the spec release with a format of `v1.2` (if releasing Matrix 1.2).
+6. Push the release branch and the tag.
+7. GitHub Actions will run its build steps. Wait until these are successful. If fixes
+   need to be made to repair the pipeline or spec build, delete and re-tag the release.
+   You may need to fix up the changelog file by hand in this case.
+8. Check out and fast-forward `main` to the release branch.
 9. Create a new release on GitHub from the newly created tag.
    * The title should be just "v1.2" (for example).
    * The description should be a copy/paste of the changelog. The generated changelog
-     will be at `content/partials/changelogs/v1.2.md` - copy/paste verbatim.
+     will be at `content/changelog/v1.2.md` - copy/paste verbatim.
    * Upload the artifacts of the GitHub Actions build for the release to the GitHub
      release as artifacts themselves. This should be the tarball that will be deployed
      to spec.matrix.org.

scripts/generate-changelog.sh

@@ -1,15 +1,17 @@
 # /bin/bash
 
-# Usage: ./generate.sh v1.2 "April 01, 2021"
+# Usage: ./scripts/generate-changelog.sh v1.2 "April 01, 2021"
+# or: ./scripts/generate-changelog.sh vUNSTABLE
 
 set -e
 
-MAGIC_STRING="<!-- DO NOT REMOVE OR CHANGE - Release script puts next release here -->"
+VERSION="$1"
+DATE="$2"
 
-cd changelogs
+cd `dirname $0`/../changelogs
 
 # Pre-cleanup just in case it wasn't done on the last run
-rm -f rendered.*
+rm -f rendered.md
 
 # Reversed order so that room versions ends up on the bottom
 towncrier --name "Internal Changes/Tooling" --dir "./internal" --config "./pyproject.toml" --yes
@@ -21,18 +23,24 @@ towncrier --name "Application Service API" --dir "./application_service" --confi
 towncrier --name "Server-Server API" --dir "./server_server" --config "./pyproject.toml" --yes
 towncrier --name "Client-Server API" --dir "./client_server" --config "./pyproject.toml" --yes
 
-# Prepare the header
+{
-cp header.md rendered.header.md
+    # Prepare the header
-sed -i "s/VERSION/$1/g" rendered.header.md
+    # We include the generation date in the front matter so that we can use it
-sed -i "s/DATE/$2/g" rendered.header.md
+    # to sort the changelogs at build time.
-cat rendered.header.md rendered.md > rendered.final.md
+    cat <<EOF
-
+---
-# Remove trailing whitespace (such as our intentionally blank RST headings)
+date: $(date -Iseconds)
-sed -i "s/[ ]*$//" rendered.final.md
+---
-
+EOF
-# Put the changelog in place
+    if [ "$VERSION" = "vUNSTABLE" ]; then
-mv rendered.final.md ../layouts/partials/changelogs/$1.md
+        echo "## Changes since last release"
-sed -i "s/$MAGIC_STRING/$MAGIC_STRING\n{{% changelog\\/changelog-rendered p=\"changelogs\\/$1.md\" %}}/" ../content/changelog.md
+    else
+        sed -e "s/VERSION/$1/g" -e "s/DATE/$2/g" header.md
+    fi
+
+    # Remove trailing whitespace (such as our intentionally blank RST headings)
+    sed -e "s/[ ]*$//" rendered.md
+} > ../content/changelog/$VERSION.md
 
 # Cleanup
-rm -v rendered.*
+rm -v rendered.md