[CI] Add release note generating step in the release action

[YooSunYoung]

Release note editting steps are added in the release.yml.

It's split into two jobs:

• download all the relevant commits/pr information using github API (bash script)
• generate the release note from the downloaded information (python script)

I tested in a fork https://github.com/YooSunYoung/ess/releases/tag/essnmx%2F26.6.2
but not sure if it would work as expected in the action here as well...

Manual Test

Here is the example how I ran the scripts using essnmx/26.6.0 and essnmx/26.4.0 as an example.

Prerequisites

git fetch --tags  # Or only relevant tags...

Download the commit information

The script only runs with bash since it has some syntax that sh doesn't have...

bash tools/download-release-diff-info.sh essnmx/26.6.0 essnmx/26.4.0

Generate release note.

pixi run --frozen python tools/collect-release-notes.py --cur-tag essnmx/26.6.0 --compare-tag essnmx/26.4.0

By default, the generated note will be stored under .ess_release_cache/,

so in this case, .ess_release_cache/essnmx-26.6.0-essnmx-26.4.0-releasenote.md.

Here is the example output from this test:

What's Changed

ESSnmx

• Bump essreduce to 26.6.0 by @jl-wynen in https://api.github.com/repos/scipp/ess/pulls/624
• [ESSNMX] Save TOF 1d histogram by @YooSunYoung in https://api.github.com/repos/scipp/ess/pulls/600
• ci: add lower bound and latest released nightlies by @jokasimr in https://api.github.com/repos/scipp/ess/pulls/606
• [NMX] Reference data comparison test. by @YooSunYoung in https://api.github.com/repos/scipp/ess/pulls/546
• [NMX] Allow setting output time bin unit. by @YooSunYoung in https://api.github.com/repos/scipp/ess/pulls/545
• [Essnmx] Use time bin width instead of number of bin edges. by @YooSunYoung in https://api.github.com/repos/scipp/ess/pulls/264

Full Changelog: essnmx/26.4.0...essnmx/26.6.0

[jokasimr]

Interesting! Will this workflow overwrite whatever was in the release notes originally? Or just append to it?

[YooSunYoung]

Interesting! Will this workflow overwrite whatever was in the release notes originally? Or just append to it?

I just used edit, which will simply overwrite whatever there was if any.
I assumed that there was nothing yet when this action is triggered.

[jokasimr]

If possible I think it would be better to append to the existing release notes. Then the person making the release can just leave them empty and they'll be populated automatically, or they can add their own release notes and the generated notes will be appended below.

[YooSunYoung]

@jokasimr I added this step to handle the existing release note.
Is that what you meant in the comment...?

i.e. in case someone wrote something in advance in the release note.