Linking to an issue creates closes token in readme which closes the issue when merged

[steveoh]

What you're trying to do

I am trying to understand where in our pipeline this functionality is handled and if it is expected or not.

We link to issues in github commits. We use the convention of refs #issue when the commit references an issue but does not close it. When we do want a linked commit to close we use fixes #issue but from the github docs any of the following will perform that action.

• close
• closes
• closed
• fix
• fixes
• fixed
• resolve
• resolves
• resolved

This commit used the pattern Ref 182 and the resulting release pull request added a , closes #182 which is not accurate.

It appears that the code below possibly ignores the value and groups closes and refs together?

release-please/src/commit.ts

Lines 174 to 221 in 34abdd3

	// Populates references array from footers:
	// references: [{
	// action: 'Closes',
	// owner: null,
	// repository: null,
	// issue: '1', raw: '#1',
	// prefix: '#'
	// }]
	visit(ast, ['footer'], (node: parser.Footer) => {
	const reference: parser.Reference = {
	prefix: '#',
	action: '',
	issue: '',
	};
	let hasRefSepartor = false;
	visit(
	node,
	['type', 'separator', 'text'],
	(node: parser.Type | parser.Separator | parser.Text) => {
	switch (node.type) {
	case 'type':
	// refs, closes, etc:
	// TODO(@bcoe): conventional-changelog does not currently use
	// "reference.action" in its templates:
	reference.action = node.value;
	break;
	case 'separator':
	// Footer of the form "Refs #99":
	if (node.value.includes('#')) hasRefSepartor = true;
	break;
	case 'text':
	// Footer of the form "Refs: #99"
	if (node.value.charAt(0) === '#') {
	hasRefSepartor = true;
	reference.issue = node.value.substring(1);
	// TODO(@bcoe): what about references like "Refs: #99, #102"?
	} else {
	reference.issue = node.value;
	}
	break;
	}
	}
	);
	// TODO(@bcoe): how should references like "Refs: v8:8940" work.
	if (hasRefSepartor && reference.issue.match(NUMBER_REGEX)) {
	headerCommit.references.push(reference);
	}
	});

This code suggests that closes is presumptuous and it should be refs which aligns with my expectation but is not a part of the node strategy.

release-please/src/strategies/go-yoshi.ts

Lines 180 to 197 in 34abdd3

	// "closes" is a little presumptuous, let's just indicate that the
	// PR references these other commits:
	protected async buildReleaseNotes(
	conventionalCommits: ConventionalCommit[],
	newVersion: Version,
	newVersionTag: TagName,
	latestRelease?: Release,
	commits?: Commit[]
	): Promise<string> {
	const releaseNotes = await super.buildReleaseNotes(
	conventionalCommits,
	newVersion,
	newVersionTag,
	latestRelease,
	commits
	);
	return releaseNotes.replace(/, closes /g, ', refs ');
	}

Is this expected behavior and we need to retrain how we link to issues without closing them or can this be fixed in the strategy or release note writer?