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Using the nbgv .NET Core CLI tool

Perform a one-time install of the nbgv tool using the following dotnet CLI command:

dotnet tool install -g nbgv

You may then use the nbgv tool to install Nerdbank.GitVersioning into your repos, as well as query and update version information for your repos and projects.

Install Nerdbank.GitVersioning into your repo using this command from within your repo:

nbgv install

This will create your initial version.json file. It will also add/modify your Directory.Build.props file in the root of your repo to add the PackageReference to the latest Nerdbank.GitVersioning package available on nuget.org.

CI Builds

If scripting for running in a CI build where global impact from installing a tool is undesirable, you can localize the tool installation:

dotnet tool install --tool-path my/path nbgv

Ensure your custom path is outside of your git repository, as the nbgv tool doesn't support uncommited changes

At this point you can launch the tool using ./nbgv in your build script.

Preparing a release

The prepare-release command automates the task of branching off the main development branch to stabilize for an upcoming release. It is optimized for the following workflow:

  • There is a branch (typically master ) where main development happens. This branch typically builds with some -prerelease tag. It may be a "public release" for early prereleases.
  • To stabilize for and/or ship a release, a branch named after the version to be shipped is created. This branch may include a -prerelease tag, typically a more advanced tag than any found in master. For example, if master builds -alpha then the stabilization branch would build -beta or -rc.
  • Each release branch may be periodically merged into the next newer release branch or master so that hot fixes also ship in the next major release.

The prepare-release command supports this working model by taking care of creating the release branch and updating version.json on both branches.

To prepare a release, first ensure there is no uncommited changes in your repository then run:

nbgv prepare-release

This will:

  1. Read version.json to ascertain the version under development, and the naming convention of release branches.
  2. Create a new release branch for that version. If the version on the current branch is 1.2-beta and the release branch naming convention is release/v{version}, a release branch named release/v1.2 will be created.
  3. Remove the prerelease tag from version.json on the release branch. Optionally (if an argument is passed to the command) a new prerelease tag is used to replace the old one.
  4. Back on the original branch, increment the version as specified in version.json. By default, prepare-release will increment the minor version and set the prerelease tag to alpha. If the version has multiple prerelease tags (separated by '.'), only the first tag will be updated. In the above example, the version on the main branch would be set to 1.3-alpha.
  5. Merge the release branch back to the main branch, resolving the conflict in version.json. This avoids having to resolve the conflict when merging the branch at a later time.

You can optionally include a prerelease tag on the release branch, e.g. when you want to do some stabilization first. This can be achieved by passing a tag to the command, e.g.:

nbgv prepare-release rc

Note: When the current branch is already the release branch for the current version, no new branch will be created. Instead the tool will just update the version in the current branch by replacing or removing the prerelease tag.

Customizing the next version

By default, the next version of the main branch is determined from the current version and the versionIncrement setting in version.json. To customize this behaviour, you can either explicitly set the next version or override the version increment setting.

To explicitly set the next version, run:

nbgv prepare-release --nextVersion 2.0

To override the versionIncrement setting from version.json, run:

nbgv prepare-release --versionIncrement Major

Note: The parameters nextVersion and versionIncrement cannot be combined.

Customizing the behaviour of prepare-release

The behaviour of the prepare-release command can be customized in version.json:

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "release": {
    "branchName" : "release/v{version}",
    "versionIncrement" : "minor",
    "firstUnstableTag" : "alpha"
  }
}
Property Default value Description
branchName v{version} Defines the format of release branch names. The value must include a {version} placeholder.
versionIncrement minor Specifies which part of the version on the current branch is incremented when preparing a release. Allowed values are major, minor and build.
firstUnstableTag alpha Specified the unstable tag to use for the main branch.

Customizing the prepare-release output format

By default, the prepare-release command writes information about created and updated branches to the console as text. Alternatively the information can be written to the output as json. The output format to use can be set using the --format command line parameter.

For example, running the following command on master

nbgv prepare-release --format json

will generate output similar to this:

{
  "CurrentBranch": {
    "Name": "master",
    "Commit": "5a7487098ac1be1ceb4dbf72d862539cf0b0c27a",
    "Version": "1.7-alpha"
  },
  "NewBranch": {
    "Name": "v1.7",
    "Commit": "b2f164675ffe891b66b601c00efc4343581fc8a5",
    "Version": "1.7"
  }
}

The JSON object has two properties:

  • CurrentBranch provides information about the branch that prepare-release was started on (typically master)
  • NewBranch provides information about the new branch created by the command.

For each branch, the following properties are provided:

  • Name: The name of the branch
  • Commit: The id of the latest commit on that branch
  • Version: The version configured in that branch's version.json

Note: When the current branch is already the release branch for the current version, no new branch will be created. In that case, the NewBranch property will be null.

Customizing the prepare-release commit message

By default, the prepare-release command generates a commit message with the format "Set version to {version}". A switch allows you to customize the commit message, using {0} as a placeholder for the version.

For example, running the following command:

nbgv prepare-release --commit-message-pattern "Custom commit message pattern - {0} custom message"

So your commit message is going to be this:

Custom commit message pattern - 1.0 custom message

Creating a version tag

The tag command automates the task of tagging a commit with a version.

To create a version tag, run:

nbgv tag

This will:

  1. Read version.json to ascertain the version under development, and the naming convention of tag names.
  2. Create a new tag for that version.

You can optionally include a version or commit id to create a new tag for an older version/commit, e.g.:

nbgv tag 1.0.0

Customizing the behaviour of tag

The behaviour of the tag command can be customized in version.json:

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "release": {
    "tagName" : "v{version}"
  }
}
Property Default value Description
tagName v{version} Defines the format of tag names. Format must include a placeholder '{version}' for the version.

Learn more

There are several more sub-commands and switches to each to help you build and maintain your projects, find a commit that built a particular version later on, create tags, etc.

Use the --help switch on the nbgv command or one of its sub-commands to learn about the sub-commands available and how to use them. For example, this is the basic usage help text:

nbgv --help
usage: nbgv <command> [<args>]

    install          Prepares a project to have version stamps applied
                     using Nerdbank.GitVersioning.
    get-version      Gets the version information for a project.
    set-version      Updates the version stamp that is applied to a
                     project.
    tag              Creates a git tag to mark a version.
    get-commits      Gets the commit(s) that match a given version.
    cloud            Communicates with the ambient cloud build to set the
                     build number and/or other cloud build variables.
    prepare-release  Prepares a release by creating a release branch for
                     the current version and adjusting the version on the
                     current branch.