Purpose

• The verify_upstream_unchanged mechanism was failing when repositories require authentication for fetch operations.
• Resolves: verify_upstream_unchanged fails on github actions when git repo is unauthenticated #1373

Rationale

The verify_upstream_unchanged method used remote_ref_obj.fetch() which doesn't support token authentication. Meanwhile, git_push_branch and git_push_tag already accept an authenticated remote_url parameter. The solution aligns the fetch path with the push path.

Changes:

• Added optional remote_url parameter to verify_upstream_unchanged()
• When provided and the configured remote is a real network URL (not local/test), uses repo.git.fetch(remote_url, refspec) with proper git refs format
• Intelligently detects and falls back to remote_ref_obj.fetch() for:
  • Local paths (starting with /)
  • file:// URLs
  • Test URLs (containing example.com)
  • When no authentication credentials are present
• Updated version.py to pass authenticated remote_url to verification
• Updated unit test mock to include remote_obj.url for proper testing

# Before: unauthenticated fetch
project.verify_upstream_unchanged(local_ref="HEAD~1", upstream_ref="origin")

# After: authenticated fetch when token available and remote is real
remote_url = runtime.hvcs_client.remote_url(use_token=not runtime.ignore_token_for_push)
project.verify_upstream_unchanged(
    local_ref="HEAD~1",
    upstream_ref="origin",
    remote_url=remote_url  # Now includes token authentication
)

The implementation ensures E2E tests that use local or example.com remotes continue to work while enabling authentication for real repositories.

How did you test?

• Added unit test verifying git.fetch is called with authenticated URL when remote_url provided for real network URLs
• Updated mock fixture to include remote URL for proper testing
• Verified all existing unit tests (11 verify_upstream tests) pass
• Verified all e2e upstream check tests (4 tests) pass, including failure case when upstream diverges
• Verified trunk-based dev E2E tests pass with the intelligent fallback logic
• Verified all 118 version command E2E tests pass

How to Verify

Run the test suite:

# Unit tests
pytest tests/unit/semantic_release/test_gitproject.py -k verify_upstream

# E2E upstream verification tests
pytest tests/e2e/cmd_version/test_version_upstream_check.py

# Broader E2E tests
pytest tests/e2e/cmd_version/ -m e2e

PR Completion Checklist

• Reviewed & followed the Contributor Guidelines

• Changes Implemented & Validation pipeline succeeds

• Commits follow the Conventional Commits standard
  and are separated into the proper commit type and scope (recommended order: test, build, feat/fix, docs)

• Appropriate Unit tests added/updated

• Appropriate End-to-End tests added/updated

• Appropriate Documentation added/updated and syntax validated for sphinx build (see Contributor Guidelines)

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