Add check to validate the value of PREVIOUS_RELEASE_TAG in release-notes-tools

[chandankumar4]

trafficstars

What steps did you take and what happened?

Add check to validate PREVIOUS_RELEASE_TAG that it should contains rc or beta in the provided value.

For example

1. Generating notes for rc tag RELEASE_TAG=v1.7.x-rc.1 PREVIOUS_RELEASE_TAG=tags/v1.7.x-rc.0 make release-notes
2. Generating notes for beta tag RELEASE_TAG=v1.7.x-beta.1 PREVIOUS_RELEASE_TAG=tags/v1.7.x-beta.0 make release-notes

What did you expect to happen?

Validate should ensure that PREVIOUS_RELEASE_TAG is in correct format.

Cluster API version

v1.10

Kubernetes version

No response

Anything else you would like to add?

No response

Label(s) to be applied

/kind bug One or more /area label. See https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/labels?q=area for the list of labels.

[sbueringer]

Why is only rc and beta supported?

[chrischdi]

/help

[k8s-ci-robot]

@chrischdi: This request has been marked as needing help from a contributor.

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Instructions for interacting with me using PR comments are available here. If you have questions or suggestions related to my behavior, please file an issue against the kubernetes-sigs/prow repository.

[tsuzu]

/assign

[chandankumar4]

Thanks @tsuzu for taking up this issue. Feel free to ping me on slack, if you need any help!!

[tsuzu]

Listing patterns to use make release-notes (ref)

• stable release (for new minor/patch releases): Running without PREVIOUS_RELEASE_TAG
  • RELEASE_TAG=v1.7.x make release-notes make release-notes
• RC/beta/alpha releases
  • First pre-releases: Running without PREVIOUS_RELEASE_TAG
    • RELEASE_TAG=v1.7.x make release-notes make release-notes
  • Second or later pre-releases: Running with PREVIOUS_RELEASE_TAG
    • RELEASE_TAG=v1.7.x PREVIOUS_RELEASE_TAG=tags/v1.7.x-rc.0 make release-notes

Therefore, while PREVIOUS_RELEASE_TAG is specified, it's rc, beta, or alpha. so in this issue, we want to validate that rc, beta, or alpha is used unless empty.

@chandankumar4 Is my understanding correct?

[chandankumar4]

Why is only rc and beta supported?

I have to create a new issue to support alpha as well. Also we have different command for stable release RELEASE_TAG=v1.7.x make release-notes here