Revert "Use official github tool for creating release"

[spoorcc]

Reverts #912

gh releases ci is not where it should be, the uploading of artifacts is too strict and the orginal problem i was tryig to solve was a non-problem

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Chores
  • Updated GitHub Actions workflows to use a dedicated release management action, replacing shell-based commands for improved consistency and reliability in the release automation pipeline.

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[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

Two GitHub Actions workflow files are refactored to replace shell-based GitHub CLI commands (gh release upload and gh release create --draft) with the softprops/action-gh-release action for unified release artifact and draft release management. The release.yml workflow gains an explicit actions/checkout step.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)

Summary

Release Workflow Refactoring .github/workflows/build.yml, .github/workflows/release.yml

Both files transition from manual gh CLI commands to softprops/action-gh-release action for release operations. In build.yml, two installer and artifact upload steps now use the action instead of inline shell gh release upload calls. In release.yml, the draft release creation workflow is replaced with the action-based approach, and an actions/checkout step is prepended before setup-python. Configuration moved to action inputs (tag_name, files, draft, preserve_order, body_path).

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• Use official github tool for creating release #912: Modifies same release-related workflow steps to switch between gh CLI and softprops/action-gh-release
• Automate release & uploading artifacts #904: Similar CI workflow refactoring to replace manual gh commands with the same release action

Suggested labels

development, github_actions

Suggested reviewers

• ben-edna

Pre-merge checks

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main change: reverting a previous commit that switched to official GitHub tools for release creation, which is confirmed by the file changes restoring previous shell-based release mechanisms.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

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📜 Recent review details

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 942039e and 8972196.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• .github/workflows/build.yml
• .github/workflows/release.yml

🧰 Additional context used

🧠 Learnings (1)

📚 Learning: 2025-12-25T23:53:05.742Z

Learnt from: spoorcc
Repo: dfetch-org/dfetch PR: 861
File: .github/workflows/build.yml:120-125
Timestamp: 2025-12-25T23:53:05.742Z
Learning: When building macOS PKG installers with fpm in CI, account for the known issue (fpm #1996) where --prefix can be duplicated (e.g., /opt/dfetch becomes /opt/dfetch/opt/dfetch). In the workflow at .github/workflows/build.yml, verify install paths and PATH entries do not assume a single-prefix layout. Adjust packaging scripts or fpm arguments to normalize the final install location and update PATH references accordingly. Add a test step to validate the expected runtime paths after installation.

Applied to files:

• .github/workflows/release.yml
• .github/workflows/build.yml

⏰ Context from checks skipped due to timeout of 90000ms. You can increase the timeout in your CodeRabbit configuration to a maximum of 15 minutes (900000ms). (16)

• GitHub Check: build / build (ubuntu-latest)
• GitHub Check: build / build (windows-latest)
• GitHub Check: build / build (macos-latest)
• GitHub Check: Codacy Static Code Analysis
• GitHub Check: run / run (ubuntu-latest, 3.12)
• GitHub Check: run / run (windows-latest, 3.9)
• GitHub Check: run / run (windows-latest, 3.10)
• GitHub Check: run / run (windows-latest, 3.11)
• GitHub Check: run / run (windows-latest, 3.13)
• GitHub Check: run / run (windows-latest, 3.14)
• GitHub Check: run / run (macos-latest, 3.9)
• GitHub Check: run / run (macos-latest, 3.11)
• GitHub Check: run / run (windows-latest, 3.12)
• GitHub Check: run / test-cygwin
• GitHub Check: test / test
• GitHub Check: DevContainer Build & Test

🔇 Additional comments (4)

.github/workflows/release.yml (2)

78-86: LGTM - Release creation looks correct.

The switch to softprops/action-gh-release properly configures the draft release with tag name, description from generated notes, and the LICENSE file. The action version is appropriately pinned with SHA for security.

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27-27: No changes needed to the checkout action.

The script/create_release_notes.py script only reads the CHANGELOG.rst file to extract the latest release section and write it to release_notes.txt. It performs no git operations, accesses no git history or tags, and does not use GitPython or subprocess calls to git. The default fetch-depth: 1 from the checkout action is sufficient for this workflow.

Likely an incorrect or invalid review comment.

.github/workflows/build.yml (2)

216-223: LGTM - Python artifact upload configured correctly.

The Python wheel and source distribution upload is properly configured with the same pattern as the installer uploads. The needs: build-whl dependency ensures the artifacts are built before upload, and preserve_order: true maintains file ordering.

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105-119: This revert addresses a critical issue with untagged releases.

The previous commit (8378580) attempted to switch from gh release create to softprops/action-gh-release, but the action creates untagged releases, breaking the asset attachment mechanism. The concurrent upload pattern (three matrix jobs uploading to a single draft release via release_id) depends on properly tagged releases for the assets to be associated correctly. While softprops/action-gh-release is designed to handle concurrent uploads, the untagged release bug prevents assets from being attached to the intended release tag, which is why the revert was necessary.

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