actions / actions/runner

Support container operations on Windows runners

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#904 38 comments 79 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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enhancement
Dominant language
C#
Stars
6.3k
Forks
1.4k
Avg merge
1d 16h
Merged PRs (30d)
24

Description

Describe the enhancement

I would like to run a Windows Docker container on a Windows runner. But was surprised to find out that this is not supported:

Error: Container operations are only supported on Linux runners

Specifically, I am asking that:

  • jobs.<job_id>.container work on Windows runners
  • It allows for use of Windows containers (as opposed to Linux containers)

Code Snippet

Here's an example workflow of what I'm asking for:

jobs:
  windows-build:
    name: Windows Build
    runs-on: windows-2019
    container:
      image: mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore:ltsc2019
    steps:
      - run: ...

Additional information

N/A

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 tracing the runner's handling of jobs.<job_id>.container from the reported error and compare it with the Windows runner path. Verify the example workflow with a Windows container image; done means container operations work on Windows runners and support Windows rather than Linux containers.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
csharp, docker, github-actions
Domain
ci-cd, devops, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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