gitversion/execute Azure DevOps Task - Always falling back to last Tag?

[Kevinf63]

Hi Folks,

Hope I can explain myself clearly enough as to how I've configured and use GitVersion within our organization. We use a Short-Lived Feature Branches workflow akin to GitHub Flow described in the documentation through Azure DevOps. Given we don't continuously deploy into production everyday, we felt the default Continuous Delivery mode was the right approach for us as we merge into main through PRs and our main branch is protected by branch policies that prevent direct pushes or merges.

Our gitversion.yml is fairly standard apart from MergeMessageOnly incrementing and a minor aesthetic tag choice.

mode: ContinuousDelivery
continuous-delivery-fallback-tag: CI
major-version-bump-message: '\+semver:\s?(breaking|major)'
minor-version-bump-message: '\+semver:\s?(feature|minor)'
patch-version-bump-message: '\+semver:\s?(fix|patch|bug)'
no-bump-message: '\+semver:\s?(none|skip)'
commit-message-incrementing: MergeMessageOnly
branches: {}
ignore:
  sha: []
merge-message-formats: {}

The problem I've experienced is that despite explicit PR merge messages like +semver: feature, I can't seem to get the version to increment without using a git tag or next-version in the gitversion.yml. At first I thought this stemmed from not practicing what we preach; we deployed a hotfix (v1.1.1-beta.1) branch up to production essentially treating it like a long-living (I believe GitVersion docs would define this as "mainline") branch, while new features where being worked on in main (v1.1.1) concurrently.

After scanning the GitVersion documentation, I found it is configured by default where main/master and support/* branches are defined as mainline and therefore I performed the following:

• Created new support/v1.1.x branch based on v1.1.0 tagged commit (last prod release).
• Merged hotfix/fix-special-characters-error-1707 branch into support/v1.1.x branch.
• Promoted v1.1.1 build up to production stage/environment using support/v1.1.x branch.
• Git tagged latest commit (v1.34.0) in main branch by manually counting the features/hotfixes (our commits are titled clearly).
• Promoted v1.34.0 build to dev and test stages/environments using main branch.

Unfortunately this has just pushed the same issue forward to v1.34.1. Looking through the gitversion task's logs, the following warnings seem to be relevant to understanding why:

Skipping fetching, if GitVersion does not calculate your version as expected you might need to allow fetching or use dynamic repositories

The git fetching seems like an important part for getting the latest tags, commits and potentially pruning?

Found multiple base versions which will produce the same SemVer (1.34.1), taking oldest source for commit counting (Git tag 'v1.34.0')

This is what confuses me most, I'm not sure what exactly is causing it to have multiple base versions that can produce v1.34.1? Is it the following 2 commits since v1.34.0?

2 commits found between d2ab2ab Merged PR 546: [REDACTED] and c078809 Merged PR 551: Feature - [REDACTED]

Here you can see the divergence in the commits. At one point when it was stuck at v1.1.1, there was about 30-40 commits found between the last tagged commit and the latest commit.

This is more than likely that the issue exists between the computer and the chair but if anyone can help it would be great!

2022-09-12T10:28:36.5123423Z ##[section]Starting: gitversion/execute
2022-09-12T10:28:36.5393024Z ==============================================================================
2022-09-12T10:28:36.5393435Z Task         : Execute GitVersion Task
2022-09-12T10:28:36.5393773Z Description  : Easy Semantic Versioning (http://semver.org) for projects using Git
2022-09-12T10:28:36.5394068Z Version      : 0.9.13
2022-09-12T10:28:36.5394303Z Author       : GitTools Contributors
2022-09-12T10:28:36.5394645Z Help         : See the [documentation](https://gitversion.net/docs/) for help
2022-09-12T10:28:36.5395026Z ==============================================================================
2022-09-12T10:28:36.8660380Z Command: dotnet-gitversion D:/devOpsAgent/_work/30/s /output json /output buildserver /config [REDACTED]\GitVersion.yml /updateassemblyinfo [REDACTED]\AssemblyInfo.cs
2022-09-12T10:28:36.8835035Z [command]D:\devOpsAgent\_work\_tool\GitVersion.Tool\5.10.3\x64\dotnet-gitversion.exe D:/devOpsAgent/_work/30/s /output json /output buildserver /config "[REDACTED]\GitVersion.yml" /updateassemblyinfo "[REDACTED]\AssemblyInfo.cs"
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4370259Z INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:31] Working directory: D:/devOpsAgent/_work/30/s
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4376528Z INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:36] Project root is: D:\devOpsAgent\_work\30\s\
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4380219Z INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:36] DotGit directory is: D:\devOpsAgent\_work\30\s\.git
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4381284Z INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:36] Branch from build environment: refs/heads/main
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4383422Z INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:36] Begin: Normalizing git directory for branch 'refs/heads/main'
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4385065Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:41] One remote found (origin -> '[REDACTED]').
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4400935Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:41] Skipping fetching, if GitVersion does not calculate your version as expected you might need to allow fetching or use dynamic repositories
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4402744Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:42] Creating local branch main
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4404793Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:59] Creating local branch from remote tracking 'refs/remotes/origin/feature/Lock-Site-Collection-1592'.
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4406272Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:61] Creating local branch from remote tracking 'refs/remotes/origin/feature/view-edit-provisioningitem-1887'.
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4409441Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:62] Creating local branch from remote tracking 'refs/remotes/origin/feature/view-edit-provisioningitem-[REDACTED]-1887'.
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4424260Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:63] Creating local branch from remote tracking 'refs/remotes/origin/support/v1.1.x'.
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4425376Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:65] HEAD points at branch 'refs/heads/main'.
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4426522Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:66] End: Normalizing git directory for branch 'refs/heads/main' (Took: 291.99ms)
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4427596Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:69] Begin: Loading version variables from disk cache
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4432754Z     INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:69] Cache file D:\devOpsAgent\_work\30\s\.git\gitversion_cache\73045390E8483DA3C16FAD56B17CD2AA9BB692F0.yml not found.
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4434071Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:69] End: Loading version variables from disk cache (Took: 1.41ms)
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4435025Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:69] Using latest commit on specified branch
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4441688Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:97] Running against branch: main (c078809 Merged PR 551: Feature - [REDACTED])
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4443009Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:37:98] Begin: Calculating base versions
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4444194Z     INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:00] Fallback base version: 0.1.0 with commit count source 367a51b7c699b5fe4378e6b0a702bdde1ae0ef75
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4448911Z     INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:04] Git tag 'v1.34.0': 1.34.0 with commit count source d2ab2ab215a2264fee74dd6ecdd6c88f85c5757d
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4450173Z     INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:04] Git tag 'v1.1.0': 1.1.0 with commit count source d4da801fa58852fb02533c5414b08418af933965
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4455557Z     INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:09] Found multiple base versions which will produce the same SemVer (1.34.1), taking oldest source for commit counting (Git tag 'v1.34.0')
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4463088Z     INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:09] Base version used: Git tag 'v1.34.0': 1.34.0 with commit count source d2ab2ab215a2264fee74dd6ecdd6c88f85c5757d
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4464328Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:09] End: Calculating base versions (Took: 107.27ms)
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4465821Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:09] 2 commits found between d2ab2ab Merged PR 546: [REDACTED] and c078809 Merged PR 551: Feature - [REDACTED]
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4472215Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:09] 2 commits found between d2ab2ab Merged PR 546: [REDACTED] and c078809 Merged PR 551: Feature - [REDACTED]
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4484724Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:10] Begin: Creating dictionary
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4485549Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:11] End: Creating dictionary (Took: 6.03ms)
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4486644Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:11] Begin: Storing version variables to cache file D:\devOpsAgent\_work\30\s\.git\gitversion_cache\73045390E8483DA3C16FAD56B17CD2AA9BB692F0.yml
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4488197Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:15] End: Storing version variables to cache file D:\devOpsAgent\_work\30\s\.git\gitversion_cache\73045390E8483DA3C16FAD56B17CD2AA9BB692F0.yml (Took: 47.32ms)
2022-09-12T10:28:38.4493175Z Executing GenerateSetVersionMessage for 'AzurePipelines'.
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5404674Z Executing GenerateBuildLogOutput for 'AzurePipelines'.
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5506896Z {
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5507547Z   "Major": 1,
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5507996Z   "Minor": 34,
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5508410Z   "Patch": 1,
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5508902Z   "PreReleaseTag": "",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5509454Z   "PreReleaseTagWithDash": "",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5509967Z   "PreReleaseLabel": "",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5510515Z   "PreReleaseLabelWithDash": "",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5511259Z   "PreReleaseNumber": null,
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5511627Z   "WeightedPreReleaseNumber": 60000,
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5511952Z   "BuildMetaData": 2,
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5512328Z   "BuildMetaDataPadded": "0002",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5512768Z   "FullBuildMetaData": "2.Branch.main.Sha.c078809880d858c2136cdb3e65b51c06cdca662b",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5513183Z   "MajorMinorPatch": "1.34.1",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5513555Z   "SemVer": "1.34.1",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5514222Z   "LegacySemVer": "1.34.1",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5514847Z   "LegacySemVerPadded": "1.34.1",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5515441Z   "AssemblySemVer": "1.34.1.0",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5516019Z   "AssemblySemFileVer": "1.34.1.0",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5516540Z   "FullSemVer": "1.34.1+2",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5517443Z   "InformationalVersion": "1.34.1+2.Branch.main.Sha.c078809880d858c2136cdb3e65b51c06cdca662b",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5518281Z   "BranchName": "main",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5518811Z   "EscapedBranchName": "main",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5519419Z   "Sha": "c078809880d858c2136cdb3e65b51c06cdca662b",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5520167Z   "ShortSha": "c078809",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5520501Z   "NuGetVersionV2": "1.34.1",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5520791Z   "NuGetVersion": "1.34.1",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5521099Z   "NuGetPreReleaseTagV2": "",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5521382Z   "NuGetPreReleaseTag": "",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5521749Z   "VersionSourceSha": "d2ab2ab215a2264fee74dd6ecdd6c88f85c5757d",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5522147Z   "CommitsSinceVersionSource": 2,
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5523922Z   "CommitsSinceVersionSourcePadded": "0002",
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5524268Z   "UncommittedChanges": 0,
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5524555Z   "CommitDate": "2022-09-12"
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5524978Z }
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5525765Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:31] Updating assembly info files
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5526462Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:31] Found 24 files
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5527609Z   INFO [09/12/22 11:28:38:41] Done writing 
2022-09-12T10:28:38.5678477Z ##[section]Async Command Start: Update Build Number
2022-09-12T10:28:38.7833369Z Update build number to v1.34.1 for build 3885
2022-09-12T10:28:38.7833810Z ##[section]Async Command End: Update Build Number
2022-09-12T10:28:38.7836962Z ##[section]Finishing: gitversion/execute

[asbjornu]

It may be that mode: Mainline is more suitable to your use-case. Remove next-version if you have it, change mode to Mainline and let me know how you fare.

[Kevinf63]

@asbjornu thanks so much for responding so quickly. To be clear, I don't have the next-version flag set right now in my gitversion.yml, but noticed that it does help "force" a version bump.

Stumbled upon this bit of the GitVersion Continuous Delivery mode documentation and was hoping you could clarify if this is why you think Mainline would be a better choice?...

...GitVersion will build the same semantic version until that version is deployed. For instance:

1.1.0+5
1.1.0+6
1.1.0+7 <-- This is the artifact we release, tag the commit which created this version
1.1.1+0

Tags are required in this mode to communicate when the release is done as it's an external manual process.

[asbjornu]

I believe Mainline is a better mode to use when you want to use commit message incrementing.