Support pre and post steps in Composite Actions
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- C#
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Description
Describe the enhancement
Currently, three Action types are supported: Docker, JavaScript and Composite (see https://docs.github.com/en/actions/creating-actions/about-custom-actions#types-of-actions). However, features pre, pref-if, post and post-if are only is supported in JavaScript Actions only (see https://docs.github.com/en/actions/creating-actions/metadata-syntax-for-github-actions#runs-for-javascript-actions). Therefore, users writing workflows/actions using some scripting language such as Python are forced to wrap the steps in JavaScript in order to register pre and post steps. See, for example, https://github.com/pyTooling/Actions/tree/main/with-post-step:
name: With post step
description: 'Generic JS Action to execute a main command and set a command in a post step.'
inputs:
main:
description: 'Main command/script.'
required: true
post:
description: 'Post command/script.'
required: true
key:
description: 'Name of the state variable used to detect the post step.'
required: false
default: POST
runs:
using: 'node12'
main: 'main.js'
post: 'main.js'
const { exec } = require('child_process');
function run(cmd) {
exec(cmd, (error, stdout, stderr) => {
if ( stdout.length != 0 ) { console.log(`${stdout}`); }
if ( stderr.length != 0 ) { console.error(`${stderr}`); }
if (error) {
process.exitCode = error.code;
console.error(`${error}`);
}
});
}
const key = process.env.INPUT_KEY.toUpperCase();
if ( process.env[`STATE_${key}`] != undefined ) { // Are we in the 'post' step?
run(process.env.INPUT_POST);
} else { // Otherwise, this is the main step
console.log(`::save-state name=${key}::true`);
run(process.env.INPUT_MAIN);
}
The complexity might be simplified if Python or Bash or PowerShell were supported similarly to JavaScript:
name: 'Login to container registries and set a post step'
runs:
using: 'python'
main: 'precmd.py'
post: 'postcmd.py'
Additional information
Alternatively, since regular steps support Python as a built-in shell already, the same capability might be achieved if Composite Actions supported fields pre and post as a complement to steps. For instance:
name: 'Login to container registries and set a post step'
inputs:
precmd:
description: 'Pre command'
required: true
postcmd:
description: 'Pre command'
required: true
runs:
using: 'composite'
pre:
- shell: python
run: ${{ inputs.precmd }}
post:
- shell: python
run: ${{ inputs.postcmd }}
steps:
- ...
/cc @thboop, per https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/646#issuecomment-901336347
Contributor guide
No contributing guide indexed for this repository
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reviewing the runner's existing Composite Action handling and the linked discussion around issue 646. Compare the requested pre, post, pre-if, and post-if behavior with current JavaScript Action support, then define and test the intended lifecycle semantics for composite steps and supported shells.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- csharp, github-actions
- Domain
- ci-cd, devops
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100