Document how to undo/recreate release

[rsenden]

Is it possible to undo a release, and if so, can you please document how to do this?

If for any reason there is an error in a release that makes it unusable, I think it would make sense to have the ability to roll back/undo that release, fix the error, and then release again with the same version number.

See for example https://github.com/fortify-ps/fortify-ssc-parser-symfony-security-checker/releases, where v1.0.1 is immediately superseded by v1.0.2 to fix an error in the build process; it would have been nicer to just re-publish a v1.0.1 release.

Somewhat related; suppose that someone accidentally deletes a release from the GitHub Releases page; is it possible to have release-please-action recreate that release instead of having to manually recreate it?

[kettanaito]

I don't think this tool supports reverting releases. Unfortunately, just as many other release automation tools, release-please tags, commits, and pushes the release changes to remote before it can ensure that the release has actually succeeded (i.e. build artifacts were pushed somewhere). I think for now you'd have to do:

1. Manually delete the release tag so that release-please knows it's not the latest release.
2. Clean up your manifests (i.e. package.json in JavaScript) to refer to the previous version.
3. Delete any other release artifacts like generated GitHub releases and the release-please's manifest.

And then re-run the release manually. Even with this last but I'm not sure how to do that without going through the entire "change -> release pr -> release job on main" workflow.