> [**git-cliff**](https://github.com/orhun/git-cliff) is a command-line tool (written in [Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/)) that provides a highly customizable way to generate changelogs from git history. It supports using [custom regular expressions](/docs/configuration#commit_parsers) to alter changelogs which are mostly based on [conventional commits](/docs/configuration#conventional_commits). With a single [configuration file](/docs/configuration), a big variety of formats can be applied for a changelog, thanks to the Jinja2/Django-inspired [template engine](/docs/category/templating). More information and examples can be found in the [GitHub repository](https://github.com/orhun/git-cliff).
Today I released the new version (0.5.0) of `git-cliff`. There are a couple of major features that I believe are interesting and they can potentially help with different use cases. Must be exciting, let's have a look!
| * 0000040 (tag: v0.2.0) feat: fourth commit on master
| * 0000030 chore: third commit on master
|/
* 0000020 (tag: v0.1.0) fix: second commit on master
* 0000010 feat: first commit on master
```
In this scenario, we can pretend that after your fifth commit on `master` you had to fix something about `v0.1.0` and check out a new branch (`fix_v1`). After that, you committed a patch and created a new tag. (`v0.1.1`)
Now let's say you decided to generate a changelog for the unreleased commits. Since previous versions of `git-cliff` sort the tags chronologically as default, you would get something like this:
```bash
$ git cliff --unreleased
# Changelog
## [unreleased]
### Features
- Fifth commit on master
## [0.2.0] - 2021-10-22
### Features
- Fourth commit on master
### Miscellaneous Tasks
- Third commit on master
```
This is because `--unreleased` flag implicitly uses a commit range such as `0000025..HEAD`, since it sorts the tags chronologically, as previously stated. This situation can now be prevented by using the `--topo-order` flag, which disables the automatic sorting and processes the tags as they appear in the git history:
```bash
$ git cliff --topo-order --unreleased
# Changelog
## [unreleased]
### Features
- Fifth commit on master
```
Now, the correct range of commits (`0000040..HEAD`) is processed. In other words, `v0.2.0` is accepted as the latest tag in the `master` branch.
`--include-path <PATTERN>... : Sets the path to include related commits`
`--exclude-path <PATTERN>... : Sets the path to exclude related commits`
Let's say you have a [monorepo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monorepo) and you want to generate a changelog that includes or excludes some commits that concern certain files/directories in the working directory. To explain it further, let's think that you have the following directory structure:
```
Cargo.toml
apps/
└── application-related files
libs/
└── library files
other/
└── miscellaneous files
```
In the previous versions of `git-cliff`, it was possible to only include commits in the changelog if the changes are against a path under e.g. "apps". This could be done by using the `--commit-path` argument. But now, functionality is extended much further and you can specify multiple paths, use glob patterns and even exclude files/directories by using the brand new `--include-path` and `--exclude-path` arguments.
```bash
# include commits related to any TOML file and also application directory
`--current: Processes the commits that belong to the current tag`
Let's suppose this situation:
1. First, `v0.10.0` is released.
2. After that, `v0.11.0` is released.
3. After that, a bug was found and `v0.10.1` is released.
The problem <s>is</s> was, when you check out to a tag and try to generate a changelog for the _latest_ tag, it always points out to the most recent tag (which is `v0.10.1` in our example). So how do you generate changelog for the currently checked out tag? Well, simple:
```bash
$ git checkout v0.11.0
# changelog is generated for v0.11.0
$ git cliff --current
# changelog is generated for v0.10.1
$ git cliff --latest
```
`--current` flag behaves the same as running the following git command:
```bash
$ git describe --tags $(git rev-parse HEAD)
```
So it is expected to always use the current tag if it exists.
A new configuration file entry makes an appearance in the `[git]` section!
```toml
[git]
ignore_tags = "v.*-beta.*"
```
The simplest explanation would be: while [`skip_tags`](/docs/configuration#skip_tags) drop commits from the changelog, `ignore_tags` include ignored commits into the next tag.
So for example if you have the following git history:
`--with-commit <MSG>... : Sets custom commit messages to include in the changelog`
In some cases, you might want to include commit messages in the changelog that yet don't exist. One example would be having "the commit message that updates the changelog" in the changelog. (🤔)
```bash
git cliff -o CHANGELOG.md
git add CHANGELOG.md
git commit -m "chore(release): update CHANGELOG.md for 1.0.0"
```
In the example above, CHANGELOG.md will not have the latest commit message since the commit is created afterward. So if you want to include custom commit messages like that in the changelog, you can use the `--with-commit` argument as follows:
```bash
# define the commit message
commit_msg="chore(release): update CHANGELOG.md for 1.0.0"
# generate changelog and pretend a commit exists as "$commit_msg"
- I'm planning to improve performance by parallelizing the _computations_ using [rayon](https://github.com/rayon-rs/rayon). There is not a tracking issue yet, but feel free to create one and share your thoughts!
- Benchmarking would be cool to reveal the performance as well as performance-related issues.
- [Why not add a manpage?](https://github.com/orhun/git-cliff/issues/35)
### Contributions
Any contribution is highly appreciated! There are [contribution guidelines](https://github.com/orhun/git-cliff/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) for getting started. Feel free to submit issues and throw ideas! 🧠
### Support
If you liked `git-cliff` and/or my other projects [on GitHub](https://github.com/orhun/), consider supporting me on [GitHub Sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors/orhun) or [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/orhunp) ☕
