Question about Version control with KiBot : updating the KiCAD version/revision from KiBOT or script

[Strooom]

Hi, for my firmware development I use a standard semver approach where the CI workflow automatically increments the version. (eg https://github.com/Strooom/MuMo-v2-Node-SW)

Now I would like to do a similar thing for my HW/KiCad designs where (depending on the commit message/title) the workflow increments the version and then puts this new version into the design. So this means I would like to update the version fields in the KiCAD project files from KiBOT. Would that be possible somehow, or do I need an external script manipulate the KiCAD files for that ?

Thank you.

[set-soft]

You can use the set_text_variables preflight.

https://kibot.readthedocs.io/en/master/configuration/preflights/set_text_variables.html

I usually define the variable in KiCad with a value like WIP, then you can distinguish easily something generated from KiCad manually from something generated by a workflow.

The deprecated preflights contains some ideas about what to use as command.

https://kibot.readthedocs.io/en/master/configuration/preflights/PCB_ReplaceOptions.html#pcb-replaceoptions

[Strooom]

Perfect. Thanks

[Strooom]

So my github action workflow contains some section that determines the version we are building/releasing. But I need to get those parameters into the KiBOT yaml file.
I could have the workflow generate a .yaml file, which is then imported into the main KiBOT yaml file.

But maybe there is a simpler solution ? Can they be passed in the KiBOT github action as 'additional_args' :?

[set-soft]

KiBot can run any command you specify, you can use git tags and then run the git command to retrieve the tag.
You can also put the value in a file and then just use echo FILE as command.
You can also use environment variables, using the env section of your workflow (consult the GitHub docs)

[Strooom]

Ok, I was able to get a bit further but am still stuck on some syntax problems:

• in the github action I prepare a version.yaml file containing some 'definitions'

definition:
  majorVersionDigit: 0
  minorVersionDigit: 3

• I then include this file in the main config file for KiBOT

import:
  - version.yaml

• in preflight, I use

preflight:
  set_text_variables:
    - variable: "majorVersion"
      text: "@majorVersionDigit@" 
    - variable: "minorVersion"
      text: "@minorVersionDigit@"

and in KiCAD I can then use ${majorVersion} and ${minorVersion} to put the version on the silkscreen..

But the substitution in "@majorVersionDigit@" is not working, ie. the variable is getting the value "@majorVersionDigit@" instead of "0".
I've tried without enclosing quotes @majorVersionDigit@ but this results in a yaml error as a key value cannot start with '@'.

Any hints on how to get this working ?

[set-soft]

This doesn't look well.

1. The keyword is definitions, not definition and used for a very different stuff, read the docs.
2. I don't know from where comes the values you assign to majorVersionDigit by I strongly recommend to get them from the current tag in the repo using the git command (i.e. git describe --tags --abbrev=0). Or from a file in the repo. Avoid substitutions when you can. So use the command not text.

[Strooom]

Yes, those numbers are derived from the latest tag in the repo, but in order to determine what will be the next version, there is more logic involved, eg. what branch are we on, is this a major or minor new release....
Here is the part of the action to extract data

run: |
          echo "extract branch name from github_ref '${{ github.ref }}'"
          declare branchname=$(echo "${{ github.ref }}" | cut -d'/' -f 3-)
          echo "clean branch name = $branchname"
          echo "extract commit short hash : $(git rev-parse --short HEAD)"
          declare commithash=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
          echo "extract build timestamp"
          declare buildtimestamp=$(date +"%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y")
          echo "buildtimestamp = $buildtimestamp"
          declare -i buildEpoch=$(date "+%s")

          declare fulltag=$(git describe --tag $(git rev-parse --verify refs/remotes/origin/main))
          echo "fulltag = [$fulltag]"
          declare versiontag=$(echo $fulltag | cut -d'-' -f1)
          echo "extract SemVer numbers from version tag [$versiontag]"
          declare -i lastmajordigit=$(echo $versiontag | cut -c 2- | cut -d'.' -f1)
          echo "lastmajordigit = $lastmajordigit"
          declare -i lastminordigit=$(echo $versiontag | cut -c 2- | cut -d'.' -f2)
          echo "lastminordigit = $lastminordigit"
          declare lastversion="v$lastmajordigit.$lastminordigit"
          echo "output variables to GitHub Actions"
          echo "branchname=$branchname" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "lastmajordigit=$lastmajordigit" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "lastminordigit=$lastminordigit" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "commithash=$commithash" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "buildtimestamp=$buildtimestamp" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "buildEpoch=$buildEpoch" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "lastversion=$lastversion" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

Then, after extracting what is the properties of the last release, here is the code to derive the next release..

       run: |
          echo "Triggered from Branch : ${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.branchname }}"
          echo "Commit hash           : ${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.commithash }}"
          echo "Last version          : ${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.lastversion }}"
          echo "  Major               : ${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.lastmajordigit }}"
          echo "  Minor               : ${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.lastminordigit }}"
          if [ "${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.branchname }}" == "main" ]; then
            echo "Triggered from merge on main branch with commit title : ${{ github.event.head_commit.message }}"
            if [[ "${{ github.event.head_commit.message }}" == *"major"* ]]; then
              echo "Incrementing Major versionDigit"
              declare -i nextmajordigit=${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.lastmajordigit }}+1
              declare -i nextminordigit=0
              declare buildversion="v$nextmajordigit.$nextminordigit"
            else
              echo "Incrementing Minor versionDigit"
              declare -i nextmajordigit=${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.lastmajordigit }}
              declare -i nextminordigit=${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.lastminordigit }}+1
              declare buildversion="v$nextmajordigit.$nextminordigit"
            fi
          else
            echo "Not on main branch -> development version"
            declare -i nextmajordigit=${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.lastmajordigit }}
            declare -i nextminordigit=${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.lastminordigit }}
            declare buildversion="v$nextmajordigit.$nextminordigit-${{ steps.versioninfo.outputs.commithash }}"
          fi
          echo "Building Version : $buildversion"
          echo "  Major          : $nextmajordigit"
          echo "  Minor          : $nextminordigit"
          echo "output variables to GitHub Actions"
          echo "nextmajordigit=$nextmajordigit" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "nextminordigit=$nextminordigit" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "buildversion=$buildversion" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

Then, to have a simple checkpoint, I write all this to a file, in this case version.yaml
So what is the best way to get the info from this file into KiCAD variables ?

[set-soft]

You can simply write each number to a separated file and use something like cat FILE as command for the set_text_variables, or even use environment variables, you can run anything you want to get the value for the variable.

[Strooom]

Ok, using environment variables I got it working : setting them in the github action workflow like

      - name: Save info in environment variables
        run: |
          echo "MAJORVERSIONDIGIT=${{ steps.selectversion.outputs.nextmajordigit }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo "MINORVERSIONDIGIT=${{ steps.selectversion.outputs.nextminordigit }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV

Then using them in KiBOT like this

preflight:
  set_text_variables:
    - variable: "majorVersion"
      command: "echo $MAJORVERSIONDIGIT" 
    - variable: "minorVersion"
      command: "echo $MINORVERSIONDIGIT" 

Thank you for your support !