gh_release_checker

ghReleaseChecker is a small CLI utility that uses the Github API to
periodically check a list of projects for new releases.

Installation

Pre-built binaries of the command line utility are available from the
Release page.

It can also be built from source and installed with the usual command:

go get -u github.com/McKael/ghreleasechecker

Builds are tested with Travis for Go versions 1.7+.

Usage

By default, ghReleaseChecker outputs the new versions to stdout, which might be
suitable for a cron job, but it is possible to use a simple (Go) template or a
JSON/YAML format that can be used for automation.

A YAML configuration file is required; you can find a sample in the repository
root directory.

ghReleaseChecker uses a JSON state file, which path should be defined in the
configuration file.

Here’s a sample use case:

% ghreleasechecker --config ./ghreleasechecker.yaml -o plain
New release for kubernetes/kubernetes: v1.10.0
  Tag: v1.10.0
  Date: 2018-03-27 01:57:17 +0200 CEST
New release for BurntSushi/ripgrep: 0.8.1
  Tag: 0.8.1
  Date: 2018-02-21 03:11:44 +0100 CET
New release for restic/restic: restic 0.8.3
  Tag: v0.8.3
  Date: 2018-02-26 21:41:52 +0100 CET

The output can be customized with templates, here’s an example with the
default configuration file:

% ghreleasechecker --config ghreleasechecker.yaml
McKael/ghreleasechecker ghReleaseChecker 0.0.1 -- Initial release v0.0.1 2018-04-02 00:06:03 +0200 CEST
kubernetes/kubernetes v1.10.0 v1.10.0 2018-03-27 01:57:17 +0200 CEST
BurntSushi/ripgrep 0.8.1 0.8.1 2018-02-21 03:11:44 +0100 CET
restic/restic restic 0.8.3 v0.8.3 2018-02-26 21:41:52 +0100 CET

Colors can be used on terminals supporting ANSI sequences.

Screenshot

Please check the commented YAML sample configuration file
provided with the source code for the details and the online help for CLI usage,
available with the --help flag:

% ghreleasechecker --help
ghReleaseChecker is a release watcher for Github projects.
(...)
Usage:
  ghreleasechecker [flags]
Flags:
      --color string      Color mode (auto|on|off; for output=template)
      --config string     config file (default is $HOME/.config/ghreleasechecker/ghreleasechecker.yaml)
      --debug             Display debugging details
  -h, --help              help for ghreleasechecker
  -o, --output string     Output handler (default: plain)
      --read-only         Do not update the state file
      --show-body         Display release body (for output=plain)
      --template string   Go template (for output=template)
  -t, --token string      Github API user token
      --version           Display version
      --wait              Wait when rate limit is exceeded