Changelog

Changelog is a command line utility (and module) that generates a changelog in markdown, json, or color output for Node modules in npm and any public github.com repo.

Command-line Usage

npm

$ changelog {npm module name} [options]

npm module: The module name, such as express. Works on any npm module with a github.com repo specified in the module's package.json.

github repo url

$ changelog {Github.com repo url} [options]

Github.com repo url: Urls can be any format, such as https://github.com/dylang/changelog or git@github.com:dylang/changelog.git or even just github.com/dylang/changelog.

Options

• -c, --color Output as Color (default)
• -m, --markdown Output as Github-flavored Markdown
• -j, --json Output as JSON
• -d, --debug Enable debugging
• -h, --help Display help and usage details

Install

Using npm just do:

$ npm-g install changelog

The -g installs changelog globally so you can use changelog anywhere.

Update

To make sure you have the latest version:

$ npm-g update

Examples

Node Package

$ changelog request --markdown

Upcoming / 2011-08-02
=====================

  * Merge pull request #53 from benatkin/parse-json
    Parse json: Issue #51
  * support JSON APIs that don't set the write content type
  * allow empty string
  * implement parsing json response when json is truthy
  * add failing test for issue #51
  * Clearer spacing. Slightly more consistent.
  * Style fixes. Bye Bye semi-colons. Mostly lined up with npm style.
  * Return destination stream from pipe().

2.0.1 / 2011-07-21
==================

  * Drastically improved header handling.
  * valid semver.

2.0.0 / 2011-07-21
==================

  * w00t! request 2.0
  * If the error is handled and not throw we would still process redirects.
    Fixes #34.
  * Add body property to resp when we have it as a shorthand. fixes #28
  * Adding reference to Request instance on response to make it easier on
    inline callbacks. fixes #43.

---cut for space---

Github Repo

$ changelog https://github.com/joyent/node --markdown

2011-08-01
==========

  * windows: Fix test-module-load-list
  * Remove debug code
  * child_process_uv: Handle spawn errors
  * Upgrade libuv to 023f99a

2011-07-31
==========

  * link to rpcrt4 and ole32 on win32
  * Upgrade libuv to e9bee51
  * child_process_uv: fix test/simple/test-child-process-env
  * child_process_uv: fix simple/test-child-process-cwd
  * child_process_uv: add exec, fix simple/test-child-process-exec-cwd
  * Forgot to add child_process_uv.js
  * initial pass at lib/child_process_uv.js

  ---cut for space---

Changelog API

Changelog can be easily integrated into other tools.

var Changelog = require('changelog');

Changelog.npm('request', callback);
Changelog.github('joyent/node', callback);

function callback(err, data) {

    //Check err for errors or just throw
    if (err) throw err;

    //With npm each "version" corresponds to all changes for that build pushed on npm
    //With github each "version" is one GMT day of changes
    data.versions.forEach(function(version) {
        console.log(version.version); //currently npm projects only
        console.log(version.date);    //JS Date

        //version.changes is an array of commit messages for that version
        version.changes.forEach(function(change) {
            console.log(' * ' + change);
        });
    });

    //Information about the project
    console.log(data.project);
}

How it works

• Changelog uses the Github V3 API and npmjs.org API.

Future

• Warn when there are more than 100 commits available.
• Support paging Github's API to aquire more than 100 commits.
• Additional output options: --rss --atom --html
• Option to show code diff.
• Ability to set the start and end version.
• Use Git tags to detect versions
• Add header and/or footer to the markdown output
• If the package.json does not have a propper repo link then show the author's name and email and suggest contacting the author.

Want to help?

• Work with more package managers such as brew and gem? These are beyond my expertise but I would be happy to merge in pull requests.
• Integrate into npm update?
• Integrate into git pull?

About

Dylan Greene built this because he was always curious what was changed when doing npm update. This module is inspired by but not related to TheChangelog.