Plan for GitHub Release Workflow

• Create a script bin/prepare-release.sh to update CHANGELOG.md with version and date
  • Move items from [Unreleased] to a new version section
  • Add the release date in format YYYY-MM-DD
  • Keep the unreleased section empty for future changes
  • Add proper validation for empty unreleased sections
  • Fix handling of changelogs with no released versions yet
  • Add version format validation to script
• Create a script bin/extract-release-notes.sh to extract release notes for a version
• Update .gitignore to include new scripts
• Create GitHub workflow .github/workflows/release.yml
  • Triggered manually with workflow_dispatch
  • Takes version as input parameter
  • Runs the changelog update script (with built-in validation)
  • Creates and pushes a git tag
  • Creates a GitHub release with changelog as release notes
  • Extracts release notes from the updated changelog section
  • Add error handling for duplicate tags
  • Add validation for changelog changes
  • Add usage documentation for maintainers
  • Move version validation to bash script
• Validate the workflow configuration and address code review feedback
• Run security check with CodeQL
• Ensure all scripts have proper executable permissions

Recent Changes

Addressed PR feedback:

1. Fixed prepare-release.sh to handle changelogs with no released versions (added END block in awk)
2. Moved version format validation from workflow to prepare-release.sh script for better encapsulation

Summary

This PR implements a complete GitHub workflow for creating releases. The workflow is manually triggered and automates the entire release process:

1. Scripts Created:

   • bin/prepare-release.sh: Moves unreleased changelog entries to a new version section with the current date, validates version format
   • bin/extract-release-notes.sh: Extracts release notes for a specific version from the changelog

2. Workflow Features:

   • Manual trigger via GitHub Actions UI (workflow_dispatch)
   • Version validation in script (semantic versioning format X.Y.Z)
   • Automated changelog update with proper date formatting
   • Git tag creation and push (format: vX.Y.Z)
   • GitHub release creation with changelog-based release notes
   • Comprehensive error handling (duplicate tags, empty releases, missing changes, etc.)
   • Works with changelogs that have no released versions yet

3. Usage:
   Maintainers can create a release by:

   • Going to Actions → Create Release → Run workflow
   • Entering the version number (e.g., 6.7.0)
   • The workflow will handle all the rest automatically

Security Summary

No security vulnerabilities were found by CodeQL analysis.

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