How do I match GitHub action with stability policy?

[lofidevops]

Is this related to a problem? Please describe.

The pages on stability policy and GitHub Actions are very clear. However, I don't think it's possible to enforce stability with GitHub actions.

Describe the solution you'd like

I would like to add uses: psf/black@2022 in my GitHub action, and have this be equivalent to black ~= 22.0 (or black < 23) in the developer toolchain. I believe this would require adding a 2022 tag, updating it on every release, then adding a 2023 tag for the first 23.x release.

Describe alternatives you've considered

• Pin specific version in GitHub action, leave toolchain at ~= 22.0. When developer toolchain is updated to ~= 23.0, re-pin in GitHub action. Downside: chance of discrepancy between 22.x (GitHub) and 22.y (toolchain).
• Similar options (e.g. switch toolchain to --preview in November/December) require even more coordination.
• Do not pin GitHub action or toolchain. Downside: defeats the point of stability policy, which I assume is to prevent scrambling in early 2023.
• Pin specific version of GitHub Action and toolchain. Dowside: must update for every single release.

Additional context

This is a professional team, so the goal is to eliminate non-critical technical alerts. It could be that the final alternative is the only viable solution. Or there's a simple solution I have missed :D

[Jackenmen]

You can just set version argument in the action to <23. The stability policy only applies to the code style so what matters is Black version, not the action version.

[lofidevops]

@jack1142 Ok, so this example adapted from the docs would work. Thanks!

- uses: psf/black@stable
  with:
    options: "--check --verbose"
    src: "./src"
    version: "<23"

[ichard26]

I don't believe that will work right now since if the version option is provided == is simply prefixed, breaking version ranges. I'd be happy to change the action to be smarter (defaulting to == but instead adds nothing if there's a version specifier type marker).

[cooperlees]

@jack1142 Ok, so this example adapted from the docs would work. Thanks!

- uses: psf/black@stable
  with:
    options: "--check --verbose"
    src: "./src"
    version: "<23"

Can we add anything to our docs to make the clearer? If so PR will be accepted.

[Jackenmen]

I don't believe that will work right now since if the version option is provided == is simply prefixed, breaking version ranges. I'd be happy to change the action to be smarter (defaulting to == but instead adds nothing if there's a version specifier type marker).

I assumed that it works based on the documentation in action.yml which says it uses PEP 440 version specifier, my bad for not checking the code :-)

[ichard26]

Ugh that's unfortunate. Can't really break the pre-existing usages of the action though, the default has to be included.

[lofidevops]

Reopened pending #3265

[aaossa]

I think this issue can be closed since the PR was merged recently