feat: add git.getLatestTagFromAllRefs config item to use all refs to …

…determine latest version, not just reachable commits.

config/release-it.json

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
     "tagExclude": null,
     "tagName": null,
     "tagMatch": null,
+    "getLatestTagFromAllRefs": false,
     "tagAnnotation": "Release ${version}",
     "tagArgs": [],
     "push": true,

docs/git.md

@@ -58,12 +58,14 @@ Example: `git.tagMatch: "[0-9][0-9].[0-1][0-9].[0-9]*"`
 
 ## Tag Exclude
 
-Use `git.tagExclude` to override the normal behavior to find the latest tag. For example whendoing a major release and
+Use `git.tagExclude` to override the normal behavior to find the latest tag. For example when doing a major release and
 you want to exclude any sort of pre-releases, use `*[-]*`, as this would exclude everything with a hyphen, which is
 normally used exclusively in pre-releases.
 
 Example: `git.tagExclude: *[-]*`
 
+:bulb: N.b. `git.tagExclude` has no effect when `git.getLatestTagFromAllRefs: true` (see '[use all refs to determine latest tag](#use-all-refs-to-determine-latest-tag)').
+
 ## Extra arguments
 
 In case extra arguments should be provided to Git, these options are available:
@@ -96,6 +98,16 @@ Use e.g. `git.tag: false` or `--no-git.tag` to skip a single step.
 By default, untracked files are not added to the release commit. Use `git.addUntrackedFiles: true` to override this
 behavior.
 
+## Use all refs to determine latest tag
+
+By default, Git determines the latest tag using [`git describe`](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-describe), which finds the most recent tag _that is reachable from a commit._ If you wish to consider all tags, e.g. to include tags that point to sibling commits on different branches, then set `git.getLatestTagFromAllRefs: true` (the default is `false`).
+
+![Determine latest tag from all refs](assets/git-version-from-all-refs.svg)
+
+In the above illustration, releasing from `develop` and incrementing the semver `rc` modifier, when `git.getLatestTagFromAllRefs: false` (the default), the latest tag is `v1.1.0-rc1`, because that is the most recent tag reachable from the current commit (the red circle on `develop`). The version to release will therefore be `v1.1.0-rc2`.
+
+Setting `git.getLatestTagFromAllRefs: true` considers all tags (sorting them by version), whether directly reachable or not. In which case, the latest tag is `v1.1.0` from `main`, and the new version to release is `v1.2.0-rc1`.
+
 ## Prerequisite checks
 
 ### Required branch

lib/plugin/GitBase.js

@@ -94,10 +94,20 @@ class GitBase extends Plugin {
     const context = Object.assign({}, this.config.getContext(), { version: '*' });
     const match = format(this.options.tagMatch || this.options.tagName || '${version}', context);
     const exclude = this.options.tagExclude ? ` --exclude=${format(this.options.tagExclude, context)}` : '';
-    return this.exec(`git describe --tags --match=${match} --abbrev=0${exclude}`, { options }).then(
-      stdout => stdout || null,
-      () => null
-    );
+    if (this.options.getLatestTagFromAllRefs) {
+      return this.exec(
+        `git -c "versionsort.suffix=-" for-each-ref --count=1 --sort=-v:refname --format="%(refname:short)" refs/tags/${match}`,
+        { options }
+      ).then(
+        stdout => stdout || null,
+        () => null
+      );
+    } else {
+      return this.exec(`git describe --tags --match=${match} --abbrev=0${exclude}`, { options }).then(
+        stdout => stdout || null,
+        () => null
+      );
+    }
   }
 
   async getSecondLatestTagName(latestTag) {

lib/plugin/GitRelease.js

@@ -12,7 +12,14 @@ class GitRelease extends GitBase {
   getInitialOptions(options) {
     const baseOptions = super.getInitialOptions(...arguments);
     const git = options.git || defaultConfig.git;
-    const gitOptions = _.pick(git, ['tagExclude', 'tagName', 'tagMatch', 'pushRepo', 'changelog']);
+    const gitOptions = _.pick(git, [
+      'tagExclude',
+      'tagName',
+      'tagMatch',
+      'getLatestTagFromAllRefs',
+      'pushRepo',
+      'changelog'
+    ]);
     return _.defaults(baseOptions, gitOptions);
   }