Generate Pull Request (PR) Description

10x Devs: Automating PR Descriptions

This repository hosts a Bash script that generates a pull request (PR) description based on the commit history of a branch in a Git repository. The script extracts commit messages, filters them by the current Git user, and processes them to create a changelog-like PR description.

Prerequisites

• Bash (Bourne Again SHell) should be installed on your system.

Usage

1. Clone or download the repository.
2. Navigate to the repository's directory.

$ git clone https://github.com/Aternus/generate-pr-description.git
$ cd generate-pr-description

3. Make the Bash script executable.

$ chmod +x generate-pr-description.sh

4. Add the script to the $PATH environment variable to enable running it from any directory. This can be done by creating a symbolic link in a directory that is already in the $PATH.

$ ln -s "$PWD/generate-pr-description.sh" /usr/local/bin/generate-pr-description

Now you can run the script from any directory using its name.

$ generate-pr-description

How it Works

This bash script generates a neatly formatted changelog from the commit history of a Git repository, specifically targeting commits made by the user running the script. The script will not work if run outside a Git repository or if there's no master or main branch available.

Let's break down the working of the script:

1. Check for Git repository: The script first checks if the current directory is part of a Git repository.

2. Temporary File: The script creates a temporary file to store the filtered commit messages.

3. Git User Information: The script retrieves the name and email of the current Git user.

4. Main Branch Check: The script checks what is the primary branch of the repository.

5. Diverged Commit: The script determines the commit where the current branch diverged from the main branch.

6. Commit Messages: The script extracts all commit messages made by the current Git user after the divergence from the main branch.

7. Processing Commit Messages: The script then processes each commit message one by one. Merge commit messages are skipped.

8. Generate Changelog: The script generates a changelog by sorting and removing duplicates from the commit messages stored in the temporary file. The changelog groups commit messages by their prefixes and tasks, and prints them under their respective headers. Only details that are not the same as the task are printed as list items.

9. Clean Up: Finally, the script deletes the temporary file to clean up.

Please note that the script expects commit messages to follow a specific format (like prefix: task - details). If your commit messages do not follow this format, the script may not work as expected.

Example

Input

Assume we have the following commit messages in the branch since it diverged from the master:

- added a detail - then added another detail - but forgot to add prefix and task!
CHORE: added just the prefix and the task
- forgot to add the prefix and the task
did something quick via GitHub UI
FIX: another thingy - fixed an edge case that we missed last time
FEAT: something awesome - created the skeleton - created the tests

Output

When running the script, it will generate the following PR description:

# Changelog

## CHORE: added just the prefix and the task

## CHORE: other
- added a detail
- but forgot to add prefix and task!
- did something quick via GitHub UI
- forgot to add the prefix and the task
- then added another detail

## FEAT: something awesome
- created the skeleton
- created the tests

## FIX: another thingy
- fixed an edge case that we missed last time

Contributing

Contributions to this repository are welcome. Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests to suggest improvements, report bugs, or add new features.

For collaborations, please reach out via LinkedIn.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.