`pre_release: true` is ineffective by itself

[jchesterpivotal]

Running Concourse 2.6.0.

What We Expect

If we have a github-release-resource with pre_release: true, we expect all put operations to create a pre-release on Github.

We expect that no other configuration is necessary.

What We Observe

When we perform a put, we just get a standard release, not a pre-release.

However, when we add release: false as well as pre_release: true, we observe that put gives us a pre-release.

[concourse-bot]

Hi there!

We use Pivotal Tracker to provide visibility into what our team is working on. A story for this issue has been automatically created.

The current status is as follows:

• [ ] #137752675 pre_release: true is ineffective by itself

This comment, as well as the labels on the issue, will be automatically updated as the status in Tracker changes.

[andrewedstrom]

@vito @chendrix is this the expected behavior?

[manterfield]

Looking at the docs it seems like this is the expected behaviour, it's just really poorly worded.

It says under pre_release:

If release and pre_release are set to true, put produces release and check detects prereleases and releases.

and then under release it states that the default is release: true

i.e. the default behaviour of setting pre_release without setting release is for put to create a release. That seems like a gotcha to me.