Problems with self-hosted runners

[tegorov]

There are two problems with self-hosted runners:

1. Every run creates a new docker image.
2. A container is run as root user, that causes some problems with the files in future runs

The first problem is solved by building a docker image and referencing it in a workflow:

- name: 'Create pull request'
  uses: docker://ghcr.io/tegorov/pull-request:v2.6.2
  with:
     source_branch: develop
  ...

The second problem is solved by passing USER_ID parameter in a container:

- name: 'Create pull request'
  uses: docker://ghcr.io/tegorov/pull-request:v2.6.2
  with:
     source_branch: develop
     ...
  env:
     USER_ID: 1000

Here is my pull request as an example #90

[wei]

Fixed

pull-request/action.yml

Lines 52 to 54 in 992f4d7

	runs:
	using: 'docker'
	image: docker://ghcr.io/repo-sync/pull-request:v2.8

[tegorov]

@wei thanks, but you fixed only the first problem.
This pr #90 fixes the second problem.

[wei]

Can you elaborate and provide reproduction steps?

causes some problems with the files in future runs

[tegorov]

Can you elaborate and provide reproduction steps?

When a container runs, it uses the root user by default, that new files created in a container will be added to a runner with root user permissions.
After the first run, next runs will fail at this step:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
because a runner is using a different user (not root) and can not clear files with root permission (git clean)

jobs:
  pull-request:
    runs-on: [ self-hosted, Linux ]
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    - uses: docker://ghcr.io/repo-sync/pull-request:v2.8 
      with:
        destination_branch: "main"
        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

[chosten]

Same problem here, the workflow cannot run twice. Second run fails to delete files created with the root user by the first run.

[wei]

The permission issue with self-hosted runners is a general issue that happens to all docker based actions on self-hosted runners.

You can find discussions, solutions, and provide feedback at actions/runner#434

I'm going to mark this as a wontfix for now but open to revisit in the future.

[wei]

Added a section to README: Docker Container Image Usage