actions-template-sync

It is possible to create repositories within Github with GitHub templates. This is a nice approach to have some boilerplate within your repository. Over the time the template repository will get some code changes. The problem is that the already created repositories won't know about those changes. This GitHub action will help you to keep track of the template changes.

Features

• Sync template repository with the current repository
• Ignore files and folders from syncing using a .templatesyncignore file

Usage

GitHub Actions

Add this configuration to your github action

# File: .github/workflows/template-sync.yml

on:
    # cronjob trigger
  schedule:
  - cron:  "0 0 1 * *"
  # manual trigger
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  repo-sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      # To use this repository's private action, you must check out the repository
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: actions-template-sync
        uses: AndreasAugustin/actions-template-sync@v0.4.2-draft
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          source_repo_path: <owner/repo>
          upstream_branch: <target_branch> # defaults to main
          pr_labels: <label1>,<label2>[,...] # optional, no default

You will receive a pull request within your repository if there are some changes available.

Configuration parameters

Variable	Description	Required	[Default]
github_token	Token for the repo. Can be passed in using $\{{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}	true
source_repo_path	Repository path of the template	true
upstream_branch	The target branch	true	main
source_repo_ssh_private_key	[optional] private ssh key for the source repository. E.q. useful if using a private template repository. see	false
pr_branch_name_prefix	[optional] the prefix of branches created by this action	false	chore/template_sync
pr_title	[optional] the title of PRs opened by this action. Must be already created.	false	upstream merge template repository
pr_labels	[optional] comma separated list. pull request labels. Must be already created.	false
hostname	[optional] the hostname of the repository	false	github.com

Example

This repo uses this template and this action from the marketplace. See the definition here

Trigger

You can use all triggers which are supported for GitHub actions

Private template repository

If you have a private template repository.

SSH

You have various options to use ssh keys with GitHub. An example are deployment keys. For our use case write permissions are not needed. Within the repository where the GitHub action is enabled add a secret (e.q. SOURCE_REPO_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY) with the content of your private SSH key. Make sure that the read permissions of that secret fulfil your use case. Set the optional source_repo_ssh_private_key input parameter.

jobs:
  repo-sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      # To use this repository's private action, you must check out the repository
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: actions-template-sync
        uses: AndreasAugustin/actions-template-sync@v0.4.2-draft
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          source_repo_path: ${{ secrets.SOURCE_REPO_PATH }} # <owner/repo>, should be within secrets
          upstream_branch: ${{ secrets.TARGET_BRANCH }} #<target_branch> # defaults to main
          pr_labels: <label1>,<label2>[,...] # optional, no default
          source_repo_ssh_private_key: ${{ secrets.SOURCE_REPO_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }} # contains the private ssh key of the private repository

Ignore Files

Create a .templatesyncignore file. Just like writing a .gitignore file, follow the glob pattern in defining the files and folders that should be excluded from syncing with the template repository.

Debug

You must create a secret named ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG with the value true to see the debug messages set by this command in the log. For more information, see "Enabling debug logging."

DEV

The development environment targets are located in the Makefile

make help

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

andy Augustin 📖 💻 👀 🛡️ 🤔	Ugo Pattacini 📖	Jose Gabrielle Rivera 💻	P.D. Rittenhouse 🤔	Daniel Boll 🐛	albertschwarzkopf 🤔	Akul Pillai 🛡️
Stefan Riembauer 🤔	Fabrizio Cacicia 🛡️ 🐛	Justin Tunis 🤔 💻 🐛	Michael Matos 🐛

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!