📄 Transfer file to Remote Server via SCP GitHub Action

This GitHub Action allows you to copy files from a specified directory in your repository to a remote server via SCP. It's a simple and convenient way to automate the deployment of your project files to a remote server.

Usage

To use this action in your workflow, you can add the following configuration to your workflow YAML file (e.g., .github/workflows/deploy.yml):

name: Copy files with SCP

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  copy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Copy to Remote Server
      uses: pierrickdelrieu/scp-action@v0.1.0
      with:
        host: ${{ secrets.DESTINATION_HOST }}
        ssh_port: ${{ secrets.DESTINATION_SSH_PORT }}
        ssh_username: ${{ secrets.SSH_USERNAME }}
        ssh_key: ${{ secrets.SSH_KEY }}
        ssh_passphrase: ${{ secrets.SSH_PASSPHRASE }}
        source_dir: ${{ secrets.SOURCE_FOLDER }}
        destination_dir: ${{ secrets.DESTINATION_FOLDER }}
        rm: true

Input variables

This informations are also present in the action.yml file.

Options	Type	Description	Default	Required
host	string	The remote host where you want to copy files.		X
ssh_port	integer	The remote port to use for SSH.	22
ssh_username	string	Your SSH username for authentication.		X
ssh_key	string	Your SSH key for authentication.		X
ssh_passphrase	string	The passphrase for your SSH key (if applicable).
source_dir	string	The local source directory from your repository.	./
destination_dir	string	The remote destination directory on the server.		X
rm	boolean	Whether to remove the content of the target folder on the remote server before uploading data	false

💡 It is recommended to put the variables that you define as secrets in the repository. To do this, head to settings/Security/Secrets and Variables/Actions.

Github Action Secrets

Settings up SSH KEY

Here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up an SSH key after creating a user on a machine:

- Step 1: Create a New User (if not already created) If you haven't already created a user on the machine, you can do so with the following command (replace with your desired username):

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sudo adduser <username>

-Step 2: Log In as the New User You can log in as the new user using the following command (replace with the username you created):

su - <username>

-Step 3: Generate SSH Key Pair Now, let's generate an SSH key pair. The key pair consists of a private key (which you keep on your local machine) and a public key (which you copy to the remote machine). Run the following command to generate the key pair. Make sure to replace your_email@example.com :

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ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "<your_email@example.com>"

This command will prompt you to enter a file where you want to save the key. By default, it will be saved in ~/.ssh/id_rsa or /home//.ssh/id_rsa. You can leave it as the default or specify a custom location.

- Step 4: You'll need to copy the public key to the remote machine where you want to log in.

cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh <username>@<remote_host> 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys'

After that, you can disbale the authentification with password and enable the authentification with key in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.

Finish ! You can copy the private key (id_rsa) to the INPUT ssh_key

License

This action is released under the MIT License.

Author

Pierrick Delrieu