release

name	release
description	Cut an elfctl release. Use when the user runs /release with a bump level (patch, minor, or major). Computes the next version from the latest git tag, drags the ELFCTL_VERSION macro in elfctl.c along, pushes master, and creates the v-prefixed GitHub release with an oldest-first changelog.
argument-hint	patch | minor | major

/release — cut an elfctl release

Invoked as /release <level>, where <level> is exactly patch, minor, or major. If the argument is missing or anything else, stop and ask which level.

elfctl release conventions (don't deviate)

• The git tag is the source of truth for the release number, and tags/titles are v-prefixed (v0.1.0).
• The next version is computed by bumping the latest tag, NOT the source macro — ELFCTL_VERSION in elfctl.c may already be bumped ahead of the latest tag, so trusting it would skip a number.
• The version lives in elfctl.c as #define ELFCTL_VERSION "0.1.0" — the bare number (no v), surfaced by elfctl --version. It is dragged along to match the tag.
• gh release create makes a lightweight tag; no binary/artifact is attached (the tool is make-built from source).
• gh release create creates the tag on the remote only — fetch it back afterward so the local tree has it, otherwise git describe keeps reporting the previous tag plus a commit count.
• Changelog = git log --reverse subjects (oldest first) over <latestTag>..HEAD, with the Bump version to ... bump commit filtered out.

Steps

1. Pre-flight. Stop and report if any fails:

• On master: git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD
• Clean tree: git status --porcelain is empty
• Sync tags from the remote: git fetch --tags origin — the latest tag is the source of truth, so a stale local tag list would otherwise compute a version that already exists on the remote.
• Builds clean: make clean && make exits 0 with no warnings.

2. Compute the next version from the latest tag:

level="$1"   # patch | minor | major
latest=$(git tag --list 'v*' --sort=-v:refname | head -1)   # e.g. v0.1.0
if [ -z "$latest" ]; then
  # No tags yet (first release). Default the first tag to v0.1.0 regardless
  # of level; confirm with the user before proceeding.
  next="0.1.0"; tag="v0.1.0"
  echo "(no existing tags) -> $tag"
else
  IFS=. read -r MA MI PA <<< "${latest#v}"
  case "$level" in
    major) MA=$((MA+1)); MI=0; PA=0 ;;
    minor) MI=$((MI+1)); PA=0 ;;
    patch) PA=$((PA+1)) ;;
    *) echo "bad level: $level"; exit 1 ;;
  esac
  next="$MA.$MI.$PA"        # bare, for ELFCTL_VERSION
  tag="v$next"             # v-prefixed, for the tag/release
  echo "$latest -> $tag"
fi

Sanity-check the computed tag is free (it should be, after the pre-flight fetch). If it already exists, stop — the local list was stale or $latest is wrong:

git rev-parse -q --verify "refs/tags/$tag" >/dev/null && { echo "tag $tag already exists"; exit 1; }

3. Drag the version macro along. Read the current value:

cur=$(sed -n 's/.*ELFCTL_VERSION "\(.*\)".*/\1/p' elfctl.c)

If $cur does NOT already equal $next, update the macro in elfctl.c to $next, rebuild to confirm elfctl --version prints $next, then commit exactly:

git commit -am "Bump version to $next"

If it already equals $next (it may be pre-bumped), skip this commit — don't create an empty one.

4. Preview & confirm — this step is outward-facing, so pause here. Show the user $latest -> $tag and the changelog preview:

git log --reverse --pretty='- %s' "$latest"..HEAD | grep -v '^- Bump version to '

(For the first release, with no $latest, preview the whole history: git log --reverse --pretty='- %s'.) Wait for the user's go-ahead before pushing/releasing.

5. Push & create the release:

git push origin master
notes=$(git log --reverse --pretty='- %s' "$latest"..HEAD | grep -v '^- Bump version to ')
gh release create "$tag" --target master --title "$tag" --notes "$notes"

6. Fetch the new tag back. gh release create made the tag on the remote only, so pull it down so git describe resolves to the just-cut tag (not the previous one + commit count):

git fetch --tags origin
git describe --tags    # should print exactly "$tag"

7. Report the release URL that gh prints.