fix: release.yml tag introspection and add floating tag automation (#26)

Fixes two related bugs in release.yml:

DTD#23: git describe --tags --abbrev=0 was used to find the latest
tag for VERSION comparison. This returns the highest reachable tag
(which can be a floating tag like v1.0 aliased to a commit), not
the highest semver patch tag. When v1.0 was an annotated tag
aliasing v1.8.2, the comparison broke entirely.

Replaces with git for-each-ref --sort=-v:refname filtered to the
semver pattern v[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*. This returns clean semver
output regardless of what floating tags exist.

DTD#14: floating major.minor and major tags (v1.7, v1.0) had to
be force-updated manually after each release. Adds an automated
step that creates/updates vMAJOR.MINOR and vMAJOR lightweight tags
pointing at the commit of the just-pushed patch tag.

Both as lightweight tags (matches actions/checkout convention,
avoids the alias bug that DTD#4's investigation surfaced). The
floating tags are explicitly resolved through ^{commit} so the
lightweight refs point at the underlying commit, not at the
annotated patch tag's tag object.

Closes #14, #23.

Signed-off-by: 154358121+TMHSDigital@users.noreply.github.com
Made-with: Cursor

Signed-off-by: 154358121+TMHSDigital@users.noreply.github.com

Author: TMHSDigital

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -55,7 +55,14 @@ jobs:
             exit 1
           fi
 
-          LATEST_TAG="$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo '')"
+          # DTD#23: walk tag refs sorted by semver, filtered to the
+          # vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH pattern. Excludes floating tags like v1
+          # and v1.7 (which lack the third segment) so the comparison
+          # cannot be confused by an aliased or stale floating tag.
+          # Glob is fnmatch: '[0-9]*' matches a digit followed by
+          # anything, so vX.Y.Z and pre-releases (vX.Y.Z-rc1) match
+          # while vX, vX.Y do not.
+          LATEST_TAG="$(git for-each-ref --sort=-v:refname --format='%(refname:short)' 'refs/tags/v[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*' | head -n1)"
           LATEST_VERSION="${LATEST_TAG#v}"
 
           echo "VERSION file:     $VERSION"
@@ -125,6 +132,32 @@ jobs:
           git tag -a "$TAG" -m "Release $TAG"
           git push origin "$TAG"
 
+      - name: Update floating major and major.minor tags
+        env:
+          TAG: ${{ needs.check-version.outputs.tag }}
+          VERSION: ${{ needs.check-version.outputs.version }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          # DTD#14: maintain vMAJOR and vMAJOR.MINOR floating tags
+          # automatically. Both patterns are in production: drift-check
+          # consumers pin @v1.7 (MAJOR.MINOR train), release-doc-sync
+          # consumers pin @v1 (MAJOR train).
+          MAJOR="${VERSION%%.*}"
+          REST="${VERSION#*.}"
+          MINOR="${REST%%.*}"
+
+          # Resolve the patch tag to its commit. Required because a
+          # bare 'git tag -f FLOAT ANNOTATED_TAG' would create a tag
+          # pointing to the annotated tag object, not the commit -
+          # the same alias-shape that broke DTD#4.
+          PATCH_COMMIT="$(git rev-parse "${TAG}^{commit}")"
+
+          for FLOAT in "v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}" "v${MAJOR}"; do
+            git tag -f "$FLOAT" "$PATCH_COMMIT"
+            git push -f origin "$FLOAT"
+            echo "Updated $FLOAT -> $PATCH_COMMIT"
+          done
+
       - name: Assemble release notes
         id: notes
         env:

VERSION

@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.8.3
+1.8.4