Only run a specific actions based on the project name in a mono repo?

[nstein-gpjoule]

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What would be the recommended way to run only a specific actions based on the project name in a mono repo?
e.g.

.github/actions/Project1.yml
.github/actions/Project2.yml <- Run this!
.github/actions/Project3.yml
Project1
Project2 <- Changes
Project3

My current solution is the following:

• Check which Projects have changes in the current branch
• Run shell scripts in the changed Project directories

name: Dispatch Projects Actions

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  Setup:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      run: ${{ steps.set-matrix.outputs.run }}
      matrix: ${{ steps.set-matrix.outputs.matrix }}
    steps:
    - name: Checkout
      uses: actions/checkout@v3
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0
    - name: Setup Dynamic Matrix
      id: set-matrix
      run: |
        DIRECTORIES=$(git --no-pager diff HEAD $(git merge-base --fork-point origin/main) --name-only | grep -E '^[A-Za-z0-9_\-]+\/' || true)
        if ! [ -z ${DIRECTORIES} ]; then
          CHANGED_PROJECTS=$(echo "${DIRECTORIES}" | xargs -0 dirname | uniq)

          echo "run=yes" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "Testing changed Projects:"
          echo "$CHANGED_PROJECTS"

          # Setup Test Matrix
          echo ${CHANGED_PROJECTS} | xargs echo -n | jq -Rsc 'split(" ") | { "project": (.) }' > .github/matrix.json
          echo "matrix=$(cat .github/matrix.json)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "Projects Matrix:"
          cat .github/matrix.json | jq
        else
          echo "run=no" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
        fi
      shell: bash

  Run-Project-Actions:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: Setup
    if: needs.Setup.outputs.run == 'yes'
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        ${{ insert }}: ${{ fromJson(needs.Setup.outputs.matrix) }}
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Call Project Action
        run: |
          ./run-actions.sh
        shell: bash
        working-directory: ./${{ matrix.project }}


  Check-Run:
    if: ${{ always() }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs:
      - Run-Project-Actions
    steps:
      - run: |
          result="${{ needs.Run-Project-Actions.result }}"
          if [[ $result == "success" || $result == "skipped" ]]; then
            exit 0
          else
            exit 1
          fi
        shell: bash

I would've loved to use composite actions, but we can't call them dynamically:
https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/25246#discussioncomment-6260695

Is there a recommended way / native GitHub-Action way?

[jge162]

That’s is true @nstein-gpjoule composite actions cannot be called dynamically, you can utilize the jobs.<job_id>.if condition to conditionally run specific jobs based on the output of the Setup job.

[nstein-gpjoule]

That also the workaround described here: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/25246#discussioncomment-6127932

But for large repos I'll end up with a giant if block.

[jge162]

Make a json then

{
"Project1": ".github/actions/Project1.yml",
"Project2": ".github/actions/Project2.yml",
"Project3": ".github/actions/Project3.yml"
}

Modify your workflow to read this configuration file and extract the actions for the changed projects. Iterate over the changed projects and run the corresponding actions dynamically. The catch is do you want to modify your existing action? If not then this would not help. But, it does make managing a larger scale repo more manageable.

Best of luck 🍀

[github-actions[bot]]

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