Previous git notes are being overwritten rather than merged

[ncrmro]

Current behavior

Given the following branching strategy.

staging (default branch, channel: beta) -> main (channel: RC) -> LTS

1. Merge main into staging to resolve conflicts with commit message release: merging main -> staging , hash is xyz
2. Commit xyz in staging has a release and beta tag/release created
3. Checkout main git merge --ff-only staging, rc tag/release created
4. Merge squashed PR commit into staging, semantic-release errors with tag already exists
   • Showing the notes for that commit git notes --ref semantic-release show xyz | cat results in {"channels":["rc"]} which should be {"channels":["rc", "beta"]}

Expected behavior

Subsequent commits into staging do not cause a duplicate tag error.

semantic-release version

21.1.1

CI environment

Github Actions

Plugins used

These are documented in in the config below.

semantic-release configuration

{
  "branches": [
    {
      "name": "1.x",
      "range": "1.x",
      "channel": "1.x"
    },
    {
      "name": "main",
      "channel": "rc",
      "prerelease": "rc"
    },
    {
      "name": "staging",
      "channel": "beta",
      "prerelease": "beta"
    },
    "lts"
  ],
  "ci": false,
  "plugins": [
    [
      "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
      {
        "preset": "conventionalcommits",
        "releaseRules": [
          {
            "scope": "norelease",
            "release": false
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
    [
      "@semantic-release/changelog",
      {
        "changelogFile": "http://CHANGELOG.md "
      }
    ],
    "@semantic-release/npm",
    "@semantic-release/github",
    [
      "semantic-release-slack-bot",
      {
        "packageName": "unsupervised",
        "notifyOnSuccess": false,
        "notifyOnFail": false,
        "slackWebhook": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/REDACTED/REDACTED",
        "markdownReleaseNotes": true,
        "branchesConfig": [
          {
            "pattern": "main",
            "notifyOnSuccess": true,
            "notifyOnFail": false
          },
          {
            "pattern": "lts",
            "notifyOnSuccess": true,
            "notifyOnFail": false
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  ]
}

CI logs

Show notes before action

Run git fetch origin +refs/notes/semantic-release:refs/notes/semantic-release
From https://github.com/REDACTED
 * [new ref]           refs/notes/semantic-release -> refs/notes/semantic-release
{"channels":["beta"]}

[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Running semantic-release version 21.1.1
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "verifyConditions" from "@semantic-release/changelog"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "verifyConditions" from "@semantic-release/npm"
[4:01:[21](https://github.com/REDACTED/actions/runs/7130713663/job/19417722801#step:4:22) PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "verifyConditions" from "@semantic-release/github"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "verifyConditions" from "semantic-release-slack-bot"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "analyzeCommits" from "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "generateNotes" from "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "prepare" from "@semantic-release/changelog"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "prepare" from "@semantic-release/npm"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "publish" from "@semantic-release/npm"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "publish" from "@semantic-release/github"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "addChannel" from "@semantic-release/npm"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "addChannel" from "@semantic-release/github"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "success" from "@semantic-release/github"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "success" from "semantic-release-slack-bot"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "fail" from "@semantic-release/github"
[4:01:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Loaded plugin "fail" from "semantic-release-slack-bot"
[4:02:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Run automated release from branch main on repository https://github.com/REDACTED
[4:02:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Allowed to push to the Git repository
[4:02:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Start step "verifyConditions" of plugin "@semantic-release/changelog"
[4:02:[22](https://github.com/REDACTED) PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Completed step "verifyConditions" of plugin "@semantic-release/changelog"
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Start step "verifyConditions" of plugin "@semantic-release/npm"
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Completed step "verifyConditions" of plugin "@semantic-release/npm"
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Start step "verifyConditions" of plugin "@semantic-release/github"
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] [@semantic-release/github] › ℹ  Verify GitHub authentication (https://api.github.com/)
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Completed step "verifyConditions" of plugin "@semantic-release/github"
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Start step "verifyConditions" of plugin "semantic-release-slack-bot"
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Completed step "verifyConditions" of plugin "semantic-release-slack-bot"
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Found git tag v3.0.0-rc.13 associated with version 3.0.0-rc.13 on branch main
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Found 11 commits since last release
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Start step "analyzeCommits" of plugin "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer"

REDACTED_COMMIT_MESSAGES

[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] [@semantic-release/commit-analyzer] › ℹ  The release type for the commit is patch
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] [@semantic-release/commit-analyzer] › ℹ  Analysis of 11 commits complete: minor release
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Completed step "analyzeCommits" of plugin "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer"
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  The next release version is 3.0.0-rc.14
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Start step "generateNotes" of plugin "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator"
[4:02:22 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Completed step "generateNotes" of plugin "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator"

REDACTED

[4:02:52 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Completed step "success" of plugin "@semantic-release/github"
[4:02:52 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Start step "success" of plugin "semantic-release-slack-bot"
[4:02:52 PM] [semantic-release] [semantic-release-slack-bot] › ℹ  Sending slack notification on success
[4:02:52 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Completed step "success" of plugin "semantic-release-slack-bot"
[4:02:52 PM] [semantic-release] › ✔  Published release 3.0.0-rc.14 on rc channel

Show notes after action

Run git notes --ref semantic-release show 3efe5bd538cac2039a4f80700d25146b224edba9 | cat
{"channels":["rc"]}

[travi]

by using a squash merge, you are rewriting history in a way that is losing the details you are describing. dont squash your release branches.

to recover: https://semantic-release.gitbook.io/semantic-release/support/troubleshooting#release-not-found-release-branch-after-git-push-force

[ncrmro]

@travi we only squash the PR's into staging (default branch). PR's into main and LTS are not squashed.

[hakalb]

It happens to us as well when we fast-forward merge a higher branch (e.g. develop) into a pre-release branch, hence a backmerge. The pre-release branch release job overwrites channel info created by previous develop release job.

In get-release-to-add.js it looks like pre-release branches are ignored, which cause the channel overwrite instead of adding to the current content.

const higherChannels = branches
  // Consider only releases of higher branches
  .slice(branches.findIndex(({ name }) => name === branch.name) + 1)
  // Exclude prerelease branches
  .filter(({ type }) => type !== "prerelease")
  .map(({ channel }) => channel || null);

Is it intentional to work like this?

Update:
Just read release notes for v23 and noticed that there is one note reference per tag. We are using v21 with a single reference.
Shouldn't this change prevent channel overwrite?