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Getting the Gist of GitHub Actions

Getting the Gist of GitHub Actions

Tutorial and tips for GitHub Actions workflows

Mentioned in Awesome Actions

Table of Contents

Introduction

GitHub Actions is a CI/CD service that runs on GitHub repos.

Compared with Travis CI, GitHub Actions is:

  • Easier
  • More flexible
  • More powerful
  • More secure

Workflows and actions

Getting started

  • Workflows are YAML files stored in the .github/workflows directory of a repository.
  • An Action is a package you can import and use in your workflow. GitHub provides an Actions Marketplace to find actions to use in workflows.
  • A job is a virtual machine that runs a series of steps. Jobs are parallelized by default, but steps are sequential by default.
  • To get started:
    • Navigate to one of your repos
    • Click the "Actions" tab.
    • Select "New workflow"
    • Choose one of the starter workflows. These templates come from actions/starter-workflows.
  • Workflows can be triggered by many different events from the GitHub API. The workflow_dispatch trigger allows workflows to be triggered manually, with optional input values that can be referenced in the workflow.
  • GitHub provides an expression syntax for programmatic control of workflows. For example:
    echo "SPAM_STRING=${{ format(
      'Spam is short for {0} and is made from {1} by {2}',
      'spiced ham',
      'pork shoulder',
      'Hormel'
    ) }}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
    
    • Command: echo "ENV_NAME=value" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT, like echo "COLOR=green" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
    • Expression: ${{ }}
    • Function:
      • contains('this is a demo', 'demo') evaluates to Boolean true
      • format('Spam is short for {0} and is made from {1} by {2}', 'spiced ham', 'pork shoulder', 'Hormel')

Example workflow with one job

A workflow file might look like this:

name: demo

on:
  push:
    branches: [demo]
  pull_request:
  workflow_dispatch:

env:
  APP_NAME: "GitHub Actions demo workflow"

jobs:
  simple:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Verify the workspace context
        run: echo 'Workspace directory is ${{ github.workspace }}'
      - name: Run a simple echo command with a pre-set environment variable
        run: echo 'Hello World, from ${{ env.APP_NAME }}'
      - name: Set an environment variable using a multi-line string
        run: |
          echo "MULTI_LINE_STRING<<EOF" >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo "
            Hello World!
            Here's a
            multi-line string.
          " >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo "EOF" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: Check the environment variable from the previous step
        run: echo $MULTI_LINE_STRING
      - name: Set build environment based on Git branch name
        if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/demo' || contains(env.APP_NAME, 'demo')
        run: echo "BUILD_ENV=demo" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: Use the GitHub Actions format function to provide some details about Spam
        run: |
          echo "SPAM_STRING=${{ format(
            'Spam is short for {0} and is made from {1} by {2}',
            'spiced ham',
            'pork shoulder',
            'Hormel'
          ) }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: Run a multi-line shell script block
        run: |
          echo "
          Hello World, from ${{ env.APP_NAME }}!
          Add other actions to build,
          test, and deploy your project.
          "
          if [ "$BUILD_ENV" = "demo" ] || ${{ contains(env.APP_NAME, 'demo') }}; then
            echo "This is a demo."
          elif [ "$BUILD_ENV" ]; then
            echo "BUILD_ENV=$BUILD_ENV"
          else
            echo "There isn't a BUILD_ENV variable set."
          fi
          echo "Did you know that $SPAM_STRING?"
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v4
        with:
          python-version: "3.10"
      - name: Run a multi-line Python script block
        shell: python
        run: |
          import os
          import sys

          version = f"{sys.version_info.major}.{sys.version_info.minor}"
          print(f"Hello World, from Python {version} and ${{ env.APP_NAME }}!")
          print(f"Did you know that {os.getenv('SPAM_STRING', 'there is a SPAM_STRING')}?")
      - name: Run an external shell script
        working-directory: ./.github/workflows
        run: . github-actions-workflow-demo.sh
      - name: Run an external Python script
        working-directory: ./.github/workflows
        run: python github-actions-workflow-demo.py

Example workflow with a build matrix

GitHub Actions Build Matrix from https://github.com/features/actions

name: demo

on:
  push:
    branches: [master, develop]
  pull_request:
  workflow_dispatch:

env:
  APP_NAME: "GitHub Actions sample workflow with build matrix"

jobs:
  matrix:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [macOS-latest, ubuntu-latest, windows-latest]
        python-version: ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10"]
        silly-word: [foo, bar, baz]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Echo a silly word
        run: echo ${{ matrix.silly-word }}
      - name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
        with:
          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
      - name: Run a multi-line Python script block
        shell: python
        run: |
          import os
          import sys

          version = f"{sys.version_info.major}.{sys.version_info.minor}"
          print(f"Hello World, from Python {version}, ${{ matrix.os }}, and ${{ matrix.silly-word }}!")

Output

GitHub Actions provides output like this:

Annotated workflow image from https://docs.github.com/en/actions/configuring-and-managing-workflows/configuring-a-workflow

You can see a demo workflow in br3ndonland/algorithms.

Pro tips

General

  • Steps in a job are sequential by default.
  • Jobs are parallelized by default, unless you control the order by using needs.
  • Action inputs and outputs: If you're unclear on what you can do with an action, navigate to the GitHub repo for the action and look for a file called action.yml, like this one in actions/checkout. This file is a manifest declaring what the action can do.
  • Debugging: If you want more debugging information, add ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG to your secrets parameter store.
    • Key: ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG
    • Value: true

Secrets

Secrets is an encrypted parameter store (key:value store). The syntax is similar to environment variables.

  • GitHub Actions can use secrets, so you don't have to hard-code API keys and other credentials. Secrets are redacted from GitHub Actions logs.
  • Each repo has a secrets store at Settings -> Secrets (https://github.com/org/repo/settings/secrets)
  • Each organization also has a secrets store that can be used in all the organization's repos.

Containers

Concurrency

  • GitHub Actions offers a concurrency key to control how many workflows are running at one time.
  • Syntax examples:
    • To only allow one concurrent workflow per commit: concurrency: ci-${{ github.ref }}
    • To only allow one concurrent workflow per environment, at the job level: concurrency: ${{ environment.name }}
  • Concurrency can be specified at the workflow level, or at the job level.
    • It's most useful to specify concurrency at the job level, because outputs from earlier jobs in the workflow can be used (like concurrency: ${{ needs.setup-job.outputs.ecs-deployment-group-name }}). Unfortunately, job-level concurrency (jobs.<job_id>.concurrency) triggers runs out of order (earlier jobs run after later jobs), which is not very useful. The docs explain, "Note: When concurrency is specified at the job level, order is not guaranteed for jobs or runs that queue within 5 minutes of each other."
    • Concurrency can also be specified at the workflow level, using the name of the workflow (concurrency: ${{ github.workflow }}). This avoids triggering runs out of order, but could also result in canceled workflow runs. Only one run can be pending at a time, and each new run will cancel the previous pending run.
  • A common use case for limiting concurrency is in deployments. For example, when deploying Docker containers to AWS ECS Fargate with CodeDeploy, the aws-actions/amazon-ecs-deploy-task-definition step may error with DeploymentLimitExceededException. The error message will look something like, "The Deployment Group already has an active Deployment." Furthermore, if GitHub Actions workflows are canceled, the ECS Fargate CodeDeploy deployments are not necessarily also canceled. If another GitHub Actions run proceeds, the DeploymentLimitExceededException may still be seen.
    • One solution is to add the force-new-deployment: true setting to the aws-actions/amazon-ecs-deploy-task-definition step, to ensure that a new deployment is triggered.
    • It is possible to simply re-run any workflows that failed because of this error.
    • It could also be helpful to limit concurrency to a single deployment to avoid errors.
  • Overall, GitHub Actions concurrency has many limitations, and may not be useful at this point.
  • Note: concurrency is in beta and the syntax may change.

Chaining workflows together

  • The needs: key helps chain jobs within a workflow together, but not multiple workflows.

  • There's a new workflow_run trigger that may help to chain workflows together. The GitHub Actions docs explain how to use it to chain workflows:

    To run a workflow job conditionally based on the result of the previous workflow run, you can use the jobs.<job_id>.if or jobs.<job_id>.steps[*].if conditional combined with the conclusion of the previous run. For example:

    on:
      workflow_run:
        workflows: ["Build"]
        types: [completed]
    
    jobs:
      on-success:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        if: github.event.workflow_run.conclusion == 'success'
        steps: ...
      on-failure:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        if: github.event.workflow_run.conclusion == 'failure'
        steps: ...
  • GitHub has also introduced some features for reusable workflows, including a new workflow_call trigger that allows entire workflows to be called directly. The called workflow must include on: workflow_call, with inputs that are referenced in the downstream workflow.

    # greeter.yml
    name: Reusable workflow example
    
    on:
      workflow_call:
        inputs:
          username:
            description: Username for the workflow
            required: true
            type: string
          repo:
            description: >
              Repository to check out.
              Include a personal access token (PAT) with repo scope for private repos.
            required: true
            type: string
          environment:
            required: false
            type: string
            default: development
        secrets:
          personal-access-token:
            description: GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT) with necessary scopes
            required: false
    
    jobs:
      greeter:
        name: Greet the user
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        steps:
          uses: actions/checkout@v3
          with:
            repository: ${{ inputs.repo }}
            token: ${{ secrets.personal-access-token }}
          run: |
            echo 'Hello, ${{ inputs.username }}!' \
              'The repo ${{ inputs.repo }} was checked out.' \
              'This is the ${{ inputs.environment }} environment.'
    name: Downstream workflow that uses the reusable workflow
    
    on:
      push:
      pull_request:
      workflow_dispatch:
    
    jobs:
      greet_me:
        uses: org/repo/.github/workflows/greeter.yml@main
        with:
          username: Octocat
          repo: my-private-repo
          personal-access-token: ${{ secrets.MY_GITHUB_PAT }}
    Hello, Octocat! The repo my-private-repo was checked out. This is the development environment.
    

Error handling

Environments

GitHub Actions offers environments, which allow branch protection rules and secrets to be set individually for each environment (instead of for the repo as a whole). The way they've set up environments is a little confusing, and most of the functionality of environments can be implemented with other features like strategy.matrix or environment variables.

Let's look at a common use case that highlights the limitations of environments: deploying a service to multiple cloud regions. We'll use two environments that map to Git branches, and two cloud regions for each environment.

Setting up environments

  1. In a GitHub repo's settings, add an environment for each combo of Git branch and AWS region. For example, for two Git branches and two AWS regions, the environment names could be:
    • development-us-east-1
    • development-us-west-2
    • production-us-east-1
    • production-us-west-2
  2. In each environment's environment protection rules, set the deployment branch to the corresponding Git branch:
    • development-us-east-1: develop
    • development-us-west-2: develop
    • production-us-east-1: main
    • production-us-west-2: main
  3. In the environment secrets for each environment, set a secret with key AWS_REGION and value set to the corresponding AWS region. These aren't necessarily sensitive credentials, but GitHub uses secrets for all key-value pairs. Examples:
    • development-us-east-1: secret name: AWS_REGION, secret value: us-east-1
    • development-us-west-2: secret name: AWS_REGION, secret value: us-west-2
    • production-us-east-1: secret name: AWS_REGION, secret value: us-east-1
    • production-us-west-2: secret name: AWS_REGION, secret value: us-west-2
  4. Reference the environment name within GitHub Actions workflows, optionally limiting workflow concurrency by each environment.

Minimal example

name: multi-region environment example

on:
  push:
    branches: [develop, main]
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  setup:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      deploy-env: ${{ steps.set-deploy-env.outputs.deploy-env }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Set deployment environment based on Git branch
        id: set-deploy-env
        run: |
          if ${{ github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' }} || ${{ startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/') }}; then
            DEPLOY_ENV="production"
          else
            DEPLOY_ENV="development"
          fi
          echo "deploy-env=$DEPLOY_ENV" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
  deploy:
    needs: [setup]
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        aws-region: [us-east-1, us-west-2]
    environment:
      name: ${{ needs.setup.outputs.deploy-env }}-${{ matrix.aws-region }}
    concurrency: ${{ environment.name }}
    steps:
      - uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v1
        id: aws-login
        with:
          aws-region: ${{ secrets.AWS_REGION }}
          aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
      - run: echo "This job will deploy to the environment named ${{ environment.name }}."

Limitations

By the time you've done all the setup to actually specify the deployment environment and region, you already have the region you need, and the environment isn't particularly useful. For example, in the aws-login step above, the aws-region: ${{ secrets.AWS_REGION }} value could be replaced by aws-region: ${{ matrix.aws-region }}. It would be more helpful to have an environment automatically apply to a Git branch or a workflow, and then be able to reference the configuration values within workflows automatically. It's actually the opposite. You have to specify the environment from within the workflow, and then if the environment protection rules are met, you get access to the corresponding environment secrets.

VMs and pricing

  • VM info: The GitHub Actions runner provisions virtual machines with similar resources as AWS EC2 t2.large instances.

    • 2-core CPU
    • 7 GB of RAM memory
    • 14 GB of SSD disk space
  • GitHub Actions is free for open-source repos. Pricing for other repos only kicks in if you exceed the allotted build minutes.

    GitHub Actions pricing info from https://github.com/features/actions

GitHub Actions and Poetry

Poetry is a useful tool for Python packaging and dependency management. The following set of tips was originally posted to python-poetry/poetry#366.

Use caching to speed up workflows

Use actions/cache with a variation on their pip cache example to cache Poetry dependencies for faster installation.

- name: Set up Poetry cache for Python dependencies
  uses: actions/cache@v3
  if: startsWith(runner.os, 'Linux')
  with:
    path: ~/.cache/pypoetry
    key: ${{ runner.os }}-poetry-${{ hashFiles('**/poetry.lock') }}
    restore-keys: ${{ runner.os }}-poetry-

Install Poetry with pipx

Installing Poetry via pip can lead to dependency conflicts, and their "custom installer" script (get-poetry.py/install-poetry.py) has been problematic. Instead, Poetry can be installed with pipx. Versions of pipx and Poetry can be pinned to promote reproducible installations.

- name: Install pipx
  run: python -m pip install "pipx==0.16.4"
- name: Install Poetry
  run: pipx install "poetry==1.1.11"
- name: Install dependencies
  run: poetry install --no-interaction

Build and publish in one step

  • Create a PyPI token.
  • Add it to the GitHub Secrets store for the repo (Settings -> Secrets).
  • Use the secret in your workflow with ${{ secrets.PYPI_TOKEN }} (secret name is PYPI_TOKEN in this example, and username for PyPI tokens is __token__).
  • Use poetry publish --build to build and publish in one step.
- name: Build Python package and publish to PyPI
  if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
  run: poetry publish --build -u __token__ -p ${{ secrets.PYPI_TOKEN }}

That's why they call it Poetry. Beautiful.

Example workflow

Expand this details element for an example workflow that uses these tips.
name: ci

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    branches: [develop, main]
    tags:
      - "[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+*"
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  ci:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        python-version: ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10"]
    env:
      PIPX_VERSION: "0.16.4"
      POETRY_VERSION: "1.1.11"
      POETRY_VIRTUALENVS_IN_PROJECT: true
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v4
        with:
          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
      - name: Set up Poetry cache for Python dependencies
        uses: actions/cache@v3
        if: startsWith(runner.os, 'Linux')
        with:
          path: ~/.cache/pypoetry
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-poetry-${{ hashFiles('**/poetry.lock') }}
          restore-keys: ${{ runner.os }}-poetry-
      - name: Install pipx for Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
        run: python -m pip install "pipx==$PIPX_VERSION"
      - name: Install Poetry
        run: pipx install "poetry==$POETRY_VERSION"
      - name: Test Poetry version
        run: |
          POETRY_VERSION_INSTALLED=$(poetry -V)
          echo "The POETRY_VERSION environment variable is set to $POETRY_VERSION."
          echo "The installed Poetry version is $POETRY_VERSION_INSTALLED."
          case $POETRY_VERSION_INSTALLED in
          *$POETRY_VERSION*) echo "Poetry version correct." ;;
          *) echo "Poetry version incorrect." && exit 1 ;;
          esac
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: poetry install --no-interaction
      - name: Test virtualenv location
        run: |
          EXPECTED_VIRTUALENV_PATH=${{ github.workspace }}/.venv
          INSTALLED_VIRTUALENV_PATH=$(poetry env info --path)
          echo "The virtualenv should be at $EXPECTED_VIRTUALENV_PATH."
          echo "Poetry is using a virtualenv at $INSTALLED_VIRTUALENV_PATH."
          case "$INSTALLED_VIRTUALENV_PATH" in
          "$EXPECTED_VIRTUALENV_PATH") echo "Correct Poetry virtualenv." ;;
          *) echo "Incorrect Poetry virtualenv." && exit 1 ;;
          esac
      - name: Run unit tests
        run: poetry run pytest tests
      - name: Build Python package with latest stable Python version and publish to PyPI
        if: matrix.python-version == '3.10' && startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
        run: |
          PACKAGE_VERSION=$(poetry version -s)
          GIT_TAG_VERSION=$(echo ${{ github.ref }} | cut -d / -f 3)
          echo "The Python package version is $PACKAGE_VERSION."
          echo "The Git tag version is $GIT_TAG_VERSION."
          if [ "$PACKAGE_VERSION" = "$GIT_TAG_VERSION" ]; then
            echo "Versions match."
          else
            echo "Versions do not match." && exit 1
          fi
          poetry publish --build -u __token__ -p ${{ secrets.PYPI_TOKEN }}

Bonus: automated dependency updates with Dependabot

Dependabot now offers automated version updates, with (preliminary) support for Poetry 🎉. If you have access to the Dependabot beta, set up .github/dependabot.yml as described in the docs:

version: 2
updates:
  - package-ecosystem: "github-actions"
    directory: "/"
    schedule:
      interval: "weekly"
  - package-ecosystem: "pip"
    directory: "/"
    schedule:
      interval: "weekly"

Dependabot will now send you PRs when dependency updates are available. Although package-ecosystem must be set to pip, it will pick up the pyproject.toml and poetry.lock. Check the status of the repo at Insights -> Dependency graph -> Dependabot.

Challenges

Lacking necessary on: triggers

There's no PR merge trigger. To run a workflow when PRs are merged, use pull_request: types: [closed] as the event trigger and only run each job if the GitHub event payload contains merged == 'true'.

name: demo
on:
  pull_request:
    types: [closed]
jobs:
  job1:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event.pull_request.merged == 'true'
    steps:
      - name: step1
        run: echo 'pull request was merged'

Triggers have confusing restrictions. Some events will only trigger workflows if the YAML syntax is on the default branch, and some events can only run on the default branch. For example, here is a comparison of repository_dispatch and workflow_dispatch:

  • repository_dispatch
    • Where the YAML needs to be:
      • Default branch. Docs say "Note: This event will only trigger a workflow run if the workflow file is on the default branch." This means that the YAML file must be committed to the repo's default branch, and the repository_dispatch: trigger must be in the YAML file.
    • Which branches it can run on:
      • Default branch only.
    • How it's triggered:
      • Webhook event through the GitHub API. For example, let's say you use GitHub Actions to build and deploy a Docker container to Azure. It deploys successfully, but later maybe the connection to the database starts failing because of an outdated password or something. You can set up Azure to send a webhook to GitHub, and re-deploy the container.
  • workflow_dispatch

Environment variables can't be set per-trigger. It's difficult to set environment variables per-trigger, such as based on which branch was checked out. There's a top-level env: key, but it doesn't allow expressions or separate steps:.

env: # Can't do this
  - name: Set build environment to production if master branch is checked out
    if: contains(github.ref, 'master')
    run: echo "BUILD_ENV=production" >> $GITHUB_ENV
  - name: Set build environment to development if develop branch is checked out
    if: contains(github.ref, 'develop')
    run: echo "BUILD_ENV=development" >> $GITHUB_ENV
  - name: Set build environment to test otherwise
    if: ${{ !contains(github.ref, 'master') || !contains(github.ref, 'develop') }}
    run: echo "BUILD_ENV=test" >> $GITHUB_ENV

Furthermore, environment variables set to $GITHUB_ENV within a job are scoped to that job.

The solution is to use outputs instead of environment variables. Set outputs from one job and read them in downstream jobs. Note that step outputs must also be set as job outputs in order to be passed to other workflows.

PR merge conflicts blocking workflow runs

  • If a PR has merge conflicts, GitHub Actions workflows may not run at all. See this GitHub community thread.

  • Try using equality operators (== and !=) to check out the PR HEAD commit, instead of the default (the merge commit), as described in the actions/checkout README:

    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      if: ${{ github.event_name != 'pull_request' }}
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      if: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' }}
      with:
        ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
  • If checking out the HEAD commit doesn't work, you may need to resolve merge conflicts to continue.

Understanding context and expression syntax

  • See the context and expression syntax docs

  • In which context can I use which things?

    • Where can I define env:?
    • Where can I define defaults:?
    • Where can I add if:?
    • Where do I need ${{ }} for expressions? The docs explain that if: conditionals are automatically evaluated as expressions, but it's not always clear in other fields.
  • There are syntactic subtleties, such as the requirement for single quotes in some YAML contexts:

    jobs:
      job1:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        steps:
          # this works
          - name: Set build environment to production
            if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/master'
            run: echo "BUILD_ENV=production" >> $GITHUB_ENV
          # this doesn't because of "" in the if:
          - name: Set build environment to production
            if: github.ref == "refs/heads/master"
            run: echo "BUILD_ENV=production" >> $GITHUB_ENV
  • Or the requirement for quoting in other contexts, such as for Python 3.10:

    jobs:
      job1:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        strategy:
          matrix:
            # 3.10 without quotes will be parsed as 3.1
            python-version: [3.8, 3.9, "3.10"]
        steps:
          - uses: actions/checkout@v3
          - uses: actions/setup-python@v4
            with:
              python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
          - run: echo "Python version is ${{ matrix.python-version }}"
  • There's no concept of if/elif/else.

  • Object filters seem useful, but there's no explanation for how to set up object filters within workflows.

  • There are sometimes several context keys with similar values , like github.base_ref vs. github.ref_name vs. github.ref:

    • github.base_ref and github.ref_name return just the branch name, like main.
    • github.ref returns the full Git ref, like refs/heads/main.

Resources

GitHub Gist notes

  • A Gist is actually a repository.
  • To clone the Gist locally:
    git clone [email protected]:f9c753eb27381f97336aa21b8d932be6.git github-actions
  • No subdirectories are allowed.
  • To add images to a Markdown file in a Gist:
    • Commit the image file (in the same directory, no sub-directories)
    • Push the change to GitHub with git push
    • Click on the "raw" button next to the image
    • Copy the URL
    • Add the URL to an image tag in the Markdown file.
import os
import sys
version = f"{sys.version_info.major}.{sys.version_info.minor}"
print(f"Hello World, from Python {version} in an external script!")
print(f"Did you know that {os.getenv('SPAM_STRING', 'there is a SPAM_STRING')}?")
#! /bin/sh
echo "Hello World, from an external shell script!"
if [ "$BUILD_ENV" = "demo" ]; then
echo "This is a demo."
elif [ "$BUILD_ENV" ]; then
echo "BUILD_ENV=$BUILD_ENV"
else
echo "There isn't a BUILD_ENV variable set."
fi
if [ "$SPAM_STRING" ]; then echo "Did you know that $SPAM_STRING?"; fi
name: demo
on:
push:
branches: [demo]
workflow_dispatch:
env:
APP_NAME: "GitHub Actions demo workflow"
jobs:
simple:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout repo
uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Verify the workspace context
run: echo 'Workspace directory is ${{ github.workspace }}'
- name: Run a simple echo command with a pre-set environment variable
run: echo 'Hello World, from ${{ env.APP_NAME }}'
- name: Set an environment variable using a multi-line string
run: |
echo "MULTI_LINE_STRING<<EOF" >> $GITHUB_ENV
echo "
Hello World!
Here's a
multi-line string.
" >> $GITHUB_ENV
echo "EOF" >> $GITHUB_ENV
- name: Check the environment variable from the previous step
run: echo $MULTI_LINE_STRING
- name: Set build environment based on Git branch name
if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/demo' || contains(env.APP_NAME, 'demo')
run: echo "BUILD_ENV=demo" >> $GITHUB_ENV
- name: Use the GitHub Actions format function to provide some details about Spam
run: |
echo "SPAM_STRING=${{ format(
'Spam is short for {0} and is made from {1} by {2}',
'spiced ham',
'pork shoulder',
'Hormel'
) }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
- name: Run a multi-line shell script block
run: |
echo "
Hello World, from ${{ env.APP_NAME }}!
Add other actions to build,
test, and deploy your project.
"
if [ "$BUILD_ENV" = "demo" ] || ${{ contains(env.APP_NAME, 'demo') }}; then
echo "This is a demo."
elif [ "$BUILD_ENV" ]; then
echo "BUILD_ENV=$BUILD_ENV"
else
echo "There isn't a BUILD_ENV variable set."
fi
echo "Did you know that $SPAM_STRING?"
- uses: actions/setup-python@v2
with:
python-version: "3.10"
- name: Run a multi-line Python script block
shell: python
run: |
import os
import sys
version = f"{sys.version_info.major}.{sys.version_info.minor}"
print(f"Hello World, from Python {version} and ${{ env.APP_NAME }}!")
print(f"Did you know that {os.getenv('SPAM_STRING', 'there is a SPAM_STRING')}?")
- name: Run an external shell script
working-directory: ./.github/workflows
run: . github-actions-workflow-demo.sh
- name: Run an external Python script
working-directory: ./.github/workflows
run: python github-actions-workflow-demo.py
matrix:
needs: [simple]
runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
strategy:
matrix:
os: [macOS-latest, ubuntu-latest, windows-latest]
python-version: ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10"]
silly-word: [foo, bar, baz]
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Echo a silly word
run: echo ${{ matrix.silly-word }}
- name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
uses: actions/setup-python@v2
with:
python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
- name: Run a multi-line Python script block
shell: python
run: |
import os
import sys
version = f"{sys.version_info.major}.{sys.version_info.minor}"
print(f"Hello World, from Python {version}, ${{ matrix.os }}, and ${{ matrix.silly-word }}!")
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