config.sh --labels should sanity-check its value and print+log a warning
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Description
Describe the bug
The --labels option should do basic sanity checking: warning very strongly if presented with a value containing spaces and/or other non-label characters.
Otherwise someone else might accidentally feed it a space-separated list of labels and wonder why it registers but never picks up jobs.
To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
- ./config.sh ... --labels "full_build staging"
- ./run.sh
- Runner registers and looks fine with a label of "full_build staging"
- Runner fails to pick up jobs with both "full_build" and "staging" labels.
Expected behavior
Runner should print and log a clear warning:
"WARNING: non-label characters detected in comma-separated label list: only (whatever) are permitted."
Personally I'd prefer that it abort too, but a warning is safer for backwards compatibility.
Probably should warn about labels exceeding any size limit, too.
Runner Version and Platform
actions-runner-linux-arm64-2.329.0
What's not working?
My runner did not pick up its jobs, despite registering successfully because --labels silently accepted spaces.
It should warn very clearly about any non-label characters, especially spaces.
Job Log Output
Requested labels: iat-951-app-android-2-19472959613-6, iat-951-keep-alive
Job defined at: [xxx]/.github/workflows/build.yaml@refs/heads/IAT-951-ec2-runner
Waiting for a runner to pick up this job...
Runner and Worker's Diagnostic Logs
[2025-11-19 12:36:24Z INFO CommandLineParser] Adding option 'labels': 'ip_34_224_102_123 ec2_i-0a55b0f8bc2378d60 host-iat-951 iat-951-app-android-2-19472959613-6 iat-951-keep-alive'
Contributor guide
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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 with the config.sh --labels entry point and the CommandLineParser log output shown in the report. Trace how comma-separated labels are accepted, then verify that values containing spaces or other non-label characters produce a clear warning both on the console and in the runner log, including any reported size-limit case.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- csharp
- Domain
- cli
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 50/100