Branch Snapshots Action

This action publishes maven branch snapshots to the GitHub Packages Maven registry. Each time that it is executed, builds the system and publishes a snapshot with the version in the form <version number>-<branch name>-SNAPSHOT.

Inputs

• token (Required): Token to access GitHub Packages
• working-directory (Default to root directory): The name of the working directory from which the mvn deploy is executed'
• java-version (Required): Java version used to build the package
• mvn-deploy-args: Optional arguments to be passed to the mvn deploy command
• delete-old-snapshots (Default false): If true, keeps only min-snapshots-to-keep branch snapshots (versions)
• min-snapshots-to-keep (Default 2): The number of latest branch snapshots (versions) to keep if delete-old-snapshots is true
• always-keep-regex: 'An optional regex to specify branch snapshots (versions) that never will be deleted'

Example usage

      - uses: javiertuya/branch-snapshots-action@main
        with: 
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          working-directory: test
          java-version: '8'
          mvn-deploy-args: '-P publish-github -DskipTests=true -Dmaven.test.failure.ignore=false -U --no-transfer-progress'
          delete-old-snapshots: true
          min-snapshots-to-keep: 2
          always-keep-regex: "\\d*\\.\\d*\\.\\d*-main-SNAPSHOT$"

This action is better used from a dedicated job or workflow, see job publish-java-snapshot in: .github/workflows/test.yml

How to consume branch snapshots

To consume (install) the branch snapshots from a local development environment, Jenkins or GitHub Actions, follow the below instructions.

Configure the pom.xml (common to all environments)

Declare the GitHub repository in the pom.xml (you can specify * instead of the repo name), example:

  <repositories>
    <repository>
      <id>github</id>
      <url>https://maven.pkg.github.com/USERNAME-OR-ORGANIZATION/REPOSITORY</url>
      <snapshots>
        <enabled>true</enabled>
      </snapshots>
    </repository>
  </repositories>

and follow the below instructions for each environment

Install from GitHub Actions

The workflow requires authentication with a token with scope read:packages. This can be achieved by specifying the environment variable GITHUB_TOKEN associated with the workflow repository:

      - name: Build and test
        run: mvn test -U
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Install from a local development environment

Authentication must be included in a settings.xml file in your ~/.m2 folder. The id (github in the example) must match the id indicated in the pom.xml file. The GitHub token must have the read:packages scope:

<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0
                      http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">
  <servers>
    <server>
      <id>github</id>
      <username>USERNAME</username>
      <password>TOKEN</password>
    </server>
  </servers>
</settings>

Install from Jenkins

Autentication is similar to that of a local environment, but you can safely save the token in Jenkins:

• Place the settings.xml file in the jenkins node (agent) ~/.m2 folder.
• For security reasons, instead of use a plain text token, you should use an environment variable, for example, ${GITHUB_TOKEN}
• Add a "secret text" credential to Jenkins with the token ant take note of the credential_id
• Then, use the Jenkins Credentials Binding Plugin (https://www.jenkins.io/doc/pipeline/steps/credentials-binding/) in your pipeline to inject the secret:

    withCredentials([string(credentialsId: 'credential_id', variable: 'GITHUB_TOKEN')]) {
      sh 'mvn test -U'
    }