Feature Request: support fetching release-please-config.json from the file system

[zepeng811]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
We are using shared workflow as an wrapper for the workflow for easy maintenance and upgrade. Back in v3 of the workflow, we can provide inputs with default values to the shared workflow, then the inputs can be modified per repository when necessary. Basically, we have a shared config with default settings and the option to modify during runtime:

- uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v3
   id: release
   with:
       default-branch: ${{ inputs.master_branch }}
       release-type: ${{ inputs.release_type }}
       package-name: ${{ github.event.repository.name }}
       include-v-in-tag: ${{ inputs.include_v_in_tag }}
       pull-request-title-pattern: ${{ inputs.pull_request_title_template }}
       path: ${{ inputs.path }}
       monorepo-tags: ${{ inputs.monorepo-tags }}

In v4, since all advanced configurations now require a config file, we are trying to dynamically generate the config file during runtime, with the above configurations roughly converted to:

     - name: Prepare release-please-config.json
        id: prepare-config
        run: |
          cat > release-please-config.json <<EOL
          {
            "\$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json",
            "release-type": "${{ inputs.release_type }}",
            "pull-request-title-pattern": "${{ inputs.pull_request_title_template) }}",
            "include-v-in-tag": ${{ inputs.include_v_in_tag }},
            "include-component-in-tag": ${{ inputs.monorepo-tags }},
            "packages": {
              "${{ inputs.path }}": {
                "package-name": "${{ github.event.repository.name }}"
              }
            }
          }
          EOL

      - uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v4
         id: release
         with:
           target-branch: ${{ inputs.master_branch }}
           config-file: release-please-config.json

However, this does not work for v4, because the action is always trying to fetch the release-please-config.json file from the source repository and branch. The file in the file system will get ignored.

Run googleapis/release-please-action@v4
Running release-please version: 16.12.0
❯ Fetching release-please-config.json from branch release-please
❯ Fetching .release-please-manifest.json from branch release-please

(GitHub Actions logs showing the action is trying to fetch the .json files from the git repository and branch)

Describe the solution you'd like
the config file can be fetched from the file system or the git source

Describe alternatives you've considered
The only alternative is to add release-please-config.json to each repository we use the action, this will cause duplicate code and make the configurations difficult to maintain.

[kellervater]

➕ 1️⃣ on this issue.
We have a similar use-case, where we want to avoid configuration duplication.
In our case we define additional "releasable units" in the config-file to also enable different prefixes than "fix" and "feat" to trigger releases. This is then the same for about 20 repository configs which we don't want to maintain separately if possible.

[onderceylan]

We've hit the same issue where we create a hotfix configuration on the fly, with a dynamic release-as variable. Since v4 upgrade, this option cannot be used anymore.

I'm afraid this issue cannot be fixed in the action itself. The upstream package release-please needs a fundamental change, because it fetches the config files with GitHub APIs from a branch of a repo. Even if we create a file on the fly, it needs to be committed to a branch.

Since all the configuration has moved to the config and manifest files, it would be a great option to be able to load them from the filesystem.

[isarns]

Any update on this?

[OleksandrKrupko]

+1, so frustrating that there is no ability to create this dynamically.

This is a must for shared workflows. We have a shared config that's used in 200+ repos, in v3 - it just worked. Having to go over 200 repos to just add the same file because there is no way to just pass params is ridiculous. What was the reasoning for just disabling the ability to set "advanced" params at runtime as before is a mystery to me ... was so convenient

Please at least add a way to read this file from the current file system

[yafanasiev]

@zepeng811 @kellervater @onderceylan @isarns @OleksandrKrupko alas, release-please SDK itself does not have an option to load configuration from filesystem, and mocking that will make things very brittle. There is already logic in place to override some of the settings, and a few PR's adding new ones (#1121, #1041). If you are interested, we can review what options are most requested by the community and add them in the maintained fork of this action https://github.com/release-please-oss/release-please-action

[OleksandrKrupko]

Ah, @yafanasiev, wasn't expecting to see you here 😄 . That sounds awesome! In my case - the only option that I really need is "versioning": "always-bump-minor", all the other ones - we found workarounds.

[yafanasiev]

This is now resolved via release-please-oss/release-please-action#14

[onderceylan]

This is simple and effective @yafanasiev, thanks for addressing it!