Suggested cache key for OS release version?

[eirrgang]

I saw that the release associated with the ubuntu-latest image will be changing (actions/runner-images#6399) but I can't find a context, expression, or (default) environment variable that I could include in my cache key to distinguish the environment after the update.

Suggestions?

[natsuk4ze]

Hi @eirrgang. To include the specific version of the Ubuntu release in the cache key, you can use a shell command to obtain the release version, and then utilize that information in the cache action.

Here's an example of how you might achieve this:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Get Ubuntu version
        id: ubuntu-version
        run: echo "UBUNTU_VERSION=$(lsb_release -rs)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Cache dependencies
        uses: actions/cache@v3
        with:
          path: ~/.cache
          key: ubuntu-${{ env.UBUNTU_VERSION }}-${{ hashFiles('**/lockfiles') }}