Add blog post Simple versioning with git tags

blog/2024-04-27-simple-versioning-with-git-tags/index.mdx

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+---
+    authors: [grihabor]
+    tags: []
+---
+
+# Simple versioning with git tags
+
+A frequently asked question on [Pants Slack](/community/getting-help) is how to
+set a version - such as for a docker image, helm chart or Python distribution -
+based on git state.
+
+Pants does have various solutions for this, but they tend to be too
+complicated, or too limited:
+
+- [Generating version tags from Git](../../docs/docs/using-pants/generating-version-tags-from-git.mdx)
+- [Custom `python_artifact()` kwargs](../../docs/docs/writing-plugins/common-plugin-tasks/custom-python-artifact-kwargs.mdx)
+- [vcs_version](../../reference/targets/vcs_version.mdx) target
+- [Using env vars to include dynamic data in tags](../../docs/docs/docker/tagging-docker-images.mdx#using-env-vars-to-include-dynamic-data-in-tags)
+
+It turns out there is a hack that elegantly solves this problem. To make it
+work we need one more pants feature [hidden in the
+docs](../../docs/docs/using-pants/key-concepts/options.mdx#pantsbootstrap-file)
+— the `.pants.bootstrap` file. It makes it possible to automatically set the
+`VERSION` env var right before pants starts:
+
+```bash title=".pants.bootstrap"
+#!/bin/sh
+
+VERSION="${VERSION:-$(git describe --tags --dirty --match "[0-9\.]*" || echo 0.0.1)}"
+export VERSION
+```
+
+Now we can use the env var everywhere!
+
+To set [docker_image](../../reference/targets/python_distribution.mdx) tag:
+
+```python file="BUILD"
+docker_image(
+    name="image",
+    image_tags=[env("VERSION")],
+)
+```
+
+To pass [docker_image](../../reference/targets/python_distribution.mdx) build arg:
+
+```python file="BUILD"
+docker_image(
+    name="image",
+    extra_build_args=["VERSION=" + env("VERSION")],
+)
+```
+
+To set [python_distribution](../../reference/targets/python_distribution.mdx) version:
+
+```python file="BUILD"
+python_distribution(
+    name="mydist",
+    provides=python_artifact(
+        name="mydist",
+        version=env("VERSION"),
+    ),
+)
+```
+
+To set [helm_chart](../../reference/targets/helm_chart.mdx) version:
+
+```python file="BUILD"
+helm_chart(
+    version=env("VERSION"),
+)
+```

blog/authors.yml

@@ -38,6 +38,11 @@ eric:
   title: Pants Maintainer
   url: https://github.com/Eric-Arellano
   image_url: https://github.com/Eric-Arellano.png
+grihabor:
+  name: Gregory Borodin
+  title: Pants Contributor
+  url: https://github.com/grihabor
+  image_url: https://github.com/grihabor.png
 joshua:
   name: Joshua Cannon
   title: Pants Maintainer