actions / actions/runner

Problem matchers do not work on colored output

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Dominant language
C#
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Description

Describe the bug
Color codes appear to affect regex matching of problem matchers

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

  1. Create a problem matcher that matches plaintext, e.g. "regexp": "Hello world"
  2. Run an action that produces color output, for example: bash -c "printf '\e[31mHello\e[0m world!\n'"
  3. Observe that no match appears in the actions output or inline on a PR "files" tab.

As a more real-life example, I have created a minimal reproduction with colored output and missing the expected annotations:
https://github.com/ian-h-chamberlain/actions-color-repro/actions/runs/3777593125

However, when I updated the workflow to disable color output, annotations appear as expected:
https://github.com/ian-h-chamberlain/actions-color-repro/pull/1
https://github.com/ian-h-chamberlain/actions-color-repro/actions/runs/3777594485

Expected behavior
Most (all?) are written against plain (un-colored) text, but it would be nice to have colorized output in the action logs while still supporting colored output.

This document indicates that color codes should be stripped before applying matchers.

Runner Version and Platform

Version of your runner? Current runner version: '2.299.1'

OS of the machine running the runner? ubuntu-latest

What's not working?

See the "expected behavior" above.

Other notes

I believe this logic is incomplete for stripping ANSI color codes:
https://github.com/actions/runner/blob/a1244d22692e44d7e1fe36e6eee7773f065e4ed3/src/Runner.Worker/Handlers/OutputManager.cs#L19
https://github.com/actions/runner/blob/a1244d22692e44d7e1fe36e6eee7773f065e4ed3/src/Runner.Worker/Handlers/OutputManager.cs#L100

Here is a sample logs from a more realistic run which I believe show a wider range of ANSI control codes that might be encountered by tools that use color: 6_Run clippy linting.txt

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading src/Runner.Worker/Handlers/OutputManager.cs at the referenced lines and compare its ANSI stripping logic with docs/adrs/0276-problem-matchers.md. Reproduce the issue with the provided bash command and sample logs; done means the plaintext matcher finds “Hello world” in colored output while the colorized log remains available.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
csharp
Domain
ci-cd, tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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