Argument list too long when logs encounter large output

[JamesIves]

Describe the bug

Multiple GitHub-provided actions are failing in their post-run steps due to an Argument list too long error.

To Reproduce

1. Initiate the following workflow provided below from a user of my action. This workflow will fetch data from an API and save it as a JSON file so subsequent steps can do something with it. The action is not saving it as an environment variable, just a json file through Nodes fs.writeFile function.

name: Refresh Feed
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  refresh-feed:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout 🛎️
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
  
      - name: Fetch API Data 📦
        uses: JamesIves/fetch-api-data-action@releases/v2
        with:
          endpoint: https://api.scryfall.com/catalog/card-names
          configuration: '{ "method": "GET" }'
          save-location: assets
          save-name: test
          set-output: false

2. You will get the following runner-related error. The same will occur if set-output is true in the fetch-api-data step as that makes the action save it as an environment variable: An error occurred trying to start process '/home/runner/runners/2.288.1/externals/node16/bin/node' with working directory '/home/runner/work/project/project'. Argument list too long.

Having looked at this briefly I suspect this is occurring as there's some degree of logging that occurs behind the scenes that are causing the argument list to overflow. If you toggle ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG to true in the secrets menu you see this. The data parsed is large but I'm not really sure why this would be a problem.

Expected behavior

I am not really sure. If this is indeed the runner causing this due to logging I would expect there to be some form of fail-safe to prevent it from crashing.

Runner Version and Platform

• ubuntu-latest

What's not working?

An error occurred trying to start process '/home/runner/runners/2.288.1/externals/node16/bin/node' with working directory '/home/runner/work/project/project'. Argument list too long.

Job Log Output

##[debug]Evaluating condition for step: 'Post Checkout 🛎️'
##[debug]Evaluating: always()
##[debug]Evaluating always:
##[debug]=> true
##[debug]Result: true
##[debug]Starting: Post Checkout 🛎️
##[debug]Loading inputs
##[debug]Evaluating: github.repository
##[debug]Evaluating Index:
##[debug]..Evaluating github:
##[debug]..=> Object
##[debug]..Evaluating String:
##[debug]..=> 'repository'
##[debug]=> 'JamesIves/reddit-viewer'
##[debug]Result: 'JamesIves/reddit-viewer'
##[debug]Evaluating: github.token
##[debug]Evaluating Index:
##[debug]..Evaluating github:
##[debug]..=> Object
##[debug]..Evaluating String:
##[debug]..=> 'token'
##[debug]=> '***'
##[debug]Result: '***'
##[debug]Loading env
Post job cleanup.
Error: An error occurred trying to start process '/home/runner/runners/[2](https://github.com/JamesIves/reddit-viewer/runs/5440253729?check_suite_focus=true#step:8:2).288.1/externals/node16/bin/node' with working directory '/home/runner/work/reddit-viewer/reddit-viewer'. Argument list too long
##[debug]System.ComponentModel.Win[3](https://github.com/JamesIves/reddit-viewer/runs/5440253729?check_suite_focus=true#step:8:3)2Exception (7): An error occurred trying to start process '/home/runner/runners/2.288.1/externals/node1[6](https://github.com/JamesIves/reddit-viewer/runs/5440253729?check_suite_focus=true#step:8:6)/bin/node' with working directory '/home/runner/work/reddit-viewer/reddit-viewer'. Argument list too long
##[debug]   at System.Diagnostics.Process.ForkAndExecProcess(ProcessStartInfo startInfo, String resolvedFilename, String[] argv, String[] envp, String cwd, Boolean setCredentials, UInt[32](https://github.com/JamesIves/reddit-viewer/runs/5440253729?check_suite_focus=true#step:8:32) userId, UInt32 groupId, UInt32[] groups, Int32& stdinFd, Int32& stdoutFd, Int32& stderrFd, Boolean usesTerminal, Boolean throwOnNoExec)
##[debug]   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartCore(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
##[debug]   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
##[debug]   at GitHub.Runner.Sdk.ProcessInvoker.ExecuteAsync(String workingDirectory, String fileName, String arguments, IDictionary`2 environment, Boolean requireExitCodeZero, Encoding outputEncoding, Boolean killProcessOnCancel, Channel`1 redirectStandardIn, Boolean inheritConsoleHandler, Boolean keepStandardInOpen, Boolean highPriorityProcess, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
##[debug]   at GitHub.Runner.Common.ProcessInvokerWrapper.ExecuteAsync(String workingDirectory, String fileName, String arguments, IDictionary`2 environment, Boolean requireExitCodeZero, Encoding outputEncoding, Boolean killProcessOnCancel, Channel`1 redirectStandardIn, Boolean inheritConsoleHandler, Boolean keepStandardInOpen, Boolean highPriorityProcess, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
##[debug]   at GitHub.Runner.Worker.Handlers.DefaultStepHost.ExecuteAsync(String workingDirectory, String fileName, String arguments, IDictionary`2 environment, Boolean requireExitCodeZero, Encoding outputEncoding, Boolean killProcessOnCancel, Boolean inheritConsoleHandler, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
##[debug]   at GitHub.Runner.Worker.Handlers.NodeScriptActionHandler.RunAsync(ActionRunStage stage)
##[debug]   at GitHub.Runner.Worker.ActionRunner.RunAsync()
##[debug]   at GitHub.Runner.Worker.StepsRunner.RunStepAsync(IStep step, CancellationToken jobCancellationToken)
##[debug]Finishing: Post Checkout 🛎️

[ruvceskistefan]

Hi @JamesIves,
Thanks for reporting this issue! We will try to reproduce this issue and we will get back to you as soon as we have more information 😊

[ruvceskistefan]

Hi @JamesIves,
I tried to reproduce the reported problem, but I didn't succeed, your workflow works for me (see this).
However, I discovered the cause of the problem: during the cleanup, you download too many files and therefore receive such an error message from the OS. I am also sending a link in which the error you received is explained in more detail.
Since this is not a runner problem, I will close this issue. Feel free to reopen it if you have more questions and doubts.

[JamesIves]

I am somewhat confused about how I can run the exact same workflow in a different project and get different results. I read up on the error so I'm somewhat familiar with it but I don't really know how this is causing it?

Could the size of the contents of the repo be the problem? And if so is there a hard upper limit?

[ruvceskistefan]

I further researched and concluded that this is not a runner bug, so I'll leave this issue closed for now. Please take a look at this issue, it is about a similar/same bug as the one you reported.

[jketcham]

In case it's helpful to anyone else that runs into this, I ran into this error with post-run steps, and it was because I had an environment variable set in $GITHUB_ENV that was too large (in my case a diff for kubernetes changes). Removing that env variable fixed the issue for me.

[jsimoni]

I am also getting the Argument list too long error when trying to work with a larger (~ 7k characters) terraform plan output between multiple steps in my workflow.

[beyarkay]

Why was this closed? I'm having lot's of trouble trying to upload longer text streams

[umutkacar]

The issue is still present on v6.4.0

Run actions/github-script@v6.4.0
Error: An error occurred trying to start process '/runner/externals/node16/bin/node' with working directory '/runner/_work/repo-name/repo-name'. Argument list too long

[denist-huma]

I got the same one today

Post Run actions/checkout@v3
Post job cleanup.
Error: An error occurred trying to start process '/home/runner/runners/2.305.0/externals/node16/bin/node' with working directory '/home/runner/work/huma-rpm-server/huma-rpm-server'. Argument list too long

[AngellusMortis]

Definitely still valid. We got the issue trying to store the git diff in an environment variable so only one job in the workflow needs a fetch-depth: 0.

[jketcham]

The best way to work around this is to store large outputs in a file instead of in an env var.

[PennyQ]

Still no fix? We got the same issue with a very long Terraform plan output.

[raveheart1]

I found this stack overflow article where a user suggests truncating the tfplan result if the plan is too long.

add these to your workflow:

  - name: truncate terraform plan result
    run: |
      plan=$(cat <<'EOF'
      ${{ format('{0}{1}', steps.plan.outputs.stdout, steps.plan.outputs.stderr) }}
      EOF
      )
      echo "${plan}" | grep -v 'Refreshing state' >> $GITHUB_ENV
      echo "EOF" >> $GITHUB_ENV

  - name: create comment from plan result
    uses: actions/github-script@0.9.0
    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
    with:
      github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      script: |
        const output = `#### Terraform Initialization ⚙️\`${{ steps.init.outcome }}\`
        #### Terraform Plan 📖\`${{ steps.plan.outcome }}\`
        
        <details><summary>Show Plan</summary>
        
        \`\`\`\n
        ${ process.env.PLAN }
        \`\`\`
        
        </details>
        
        *Pusher: @${{ github.actor }}, Action: \`${{ github.event_name }}\`, Working Directory: \`${{ inputs.TF_WORK_DIR }}\`, Workflow: \`${{ github.workflow }}\`*`;

        github.issues.createComment({
          issue_number: context.issue.number,
          owner: context.repo.owner,
          repo: context.repo.repo,
          body: output
        })```

[tmlye]

My solution is to run the terraform show inside the comment step:

      - name: Plan
        id: plan
        working-directory: ${{ inputs.working_directory }}
        run: terraform plan -out tf.plan

      - name: Comment Plan
        uses: actions/github-script@v7
        continue-on-error: true
        with:
          script: |
            const fs = require('fs');
            const { execSync } = require('child_process');

            // Get the terraform plan output
            const planOutput = execSync('terraform show -no-color tf.plan', {
              cwd: '${{ inputs.working_directory }}'
            }).toString();

            const {data: comments} = await github.rest.issues.listComments({
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              issue_number: context.payload.number,
            })
            const botComment = comments.find(comment => comment.user.id === 41898282 && comment.body.includes("${{ github.workflow }}"))

            if (!botComment) {
              github.rest.issues.createComment({
                issue_number: context.issue.number,
                owner: context.repo.owner,
                repo: context.repo.repo,
                body: `Terraform Plan for ${{ github.workflow }}:\n\`\`\`${planOutput}\`\`\``
              })
            } else {
              github.rest.issues.updateComment({
                owner: context.repo.owner,
                repo: context.repo.repo,
                comment_id: botComment.id,
                body: `Terraform Plan for ${{ github.workflow }}:\n\`\`\`${planOutput}\`\`\``
              })
            }