Github Actions "Set up job" fails with tar error

[tripleee]

Since earlier today, a Github Actions workflow which has been working reliably for many months has started failing with a tar error. Is there a disk space issue on the build node (in which case, how and where do I report that?) or something internal to the component? The log output provides no clues as to what's wrong.

Here's a recent failed run, with all the diagnostic arrows expanded (https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true):

[build (3.10)](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true#logs)
failed 3 hours ago in 4s
Search logs
4s
Current runner version: '2.29[1](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:1).1'
Operating System
  Ubuntu
  [2](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:2)0.04.4
  LTS
Virtual Environment
  Environment: ubuntu-20.04
  Version: 20220515.1
  Included Software: https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/blob/ubuntu20/20220515.1/images/linux/Ubuntu2004-Readme.md
  Image Release: https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/releases/tag/ubuntu20%2F20220515.1
Virtual Environment Provisioner
  1.0.0.0-main-20220516-1
GITHUB_TOKEN Permissions
  Contents: read
  Metadata: read
Secret source: Actions
Prepare workflow directory
Prepare all required actions
Getting action download info
Download action repository 'actions/checkout@v[3](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:3)' (SHA:25[4](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:4)1b1294d2704b0964813337f33b291d3f8[5](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:5)9[6](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:7)b)
Download action repository 'actions/setup-python@v3' (SHA:98f2ad02fd48d05[7](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:8)ee3b4d4f66525b231c3e52b6)
Download action repository 'actions/cache@v2' (SHA:937d244753[8](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:9)1cd[9](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:10)c75ae6db12cb4e79714b926ed)
Error: Can't use 'tar -xzf' extract archive file: /home/runner/work/_actions/_temp_5c7ba8d5-a56d-4632-9e2b-a9e93af7c2bd/ac649a82-c6ff-48aa-a635-b5a5[10](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703125729?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:11)caccfa.tar.gz. return code: 2.

For comparison, here is a successful job from just a few minutes apart (https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true)

[build (3.10)](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#logs)
succeeded 3 hours ago in 6m 14s
Search logs
2s
Current runner version: '2.29[1](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:1).1'
Operating System
  Ubuntu
  [2](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:2)0.04.4
  LTS
Virtual Environment
  Environment: ubuntu-20.04
  Version: 20220515.1
  Included Software: https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/blob/ubuntu20/20220515.1/images/linux/Ubuntu2004-Readme.md
  Image Release: https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/releases/tag/ubuntu20%2F20220515.1
Virtual Environment Provisioner
  1.0.0.0-main-20220516-1
GITHUB_TOKEN Permissions
  Contents: read
  Metadata: read
Secret source: Actions
Prepare workflow directory
Prepare all required actions
Getting action download info
Download action repository 'actions/checkout@v[3](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:3)' (SHA:25[4](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:4)1b1294d2704b0964813337f33b291d3f8[5](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:5)9[6](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:7)b)
Download action repository 'actions/setup-python@v3' (SHA:98f2ad02fd48d05[7](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:8)ee3b4d4f66525b231c3e52b6)
Download action repository 'actions/cache@v2' (SHA:937d244753[8](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:9)1cd[9](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:10)c75ae6db[12](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:14)cb4e797[14](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:17)b926ed)
4s
Run actions/checkout@v3
Syncing repository: Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector
Getting Git version info
Temporarily overriding HOME='/home/runner/work/_temp/be5f8385-7824-4ba7-8c77-a[18](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:22)4[20](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:1:24)cd646d' before making global git config changes
Adding repository directory to the temporary git global config as a safe directory
/usr/bin/git config --global --add safe.directory /home/runner/work/SmokeDetector/SmokeDetector
Deleting the contents of '/home/runner/work/SmokeDetector/SmokeDetector'
Initializing the repository
Disabling automatic garbage collection
Setting up auth
Fetching the repository
Determining the checkout info
Checking out the ref
/usr/bin/git log -[1](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:1) --format='%H'
'990827ffe4b3[37](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:41)b7dfb9[43](https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/runs/6703075979?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:48)ad954785cfb57d6379'
...

When I checked recent builds, 5 out of 22 in the last hour had succeeded, the rest failed with this error.

The failing workflow is a simple run-of-the-mill one https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector/blob/master/.github/workflows/build.yml

I created an issue within our project for tracking this; Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector#7046

[talboren]

we're having the same issue.

[ihor-panasiuk95]

We also have such issue.
In our workflows we have parallel job, and for one job it always succeeds, but for other parallel jobs it always fails with exactly the same issue in Set up job step

[jonyjalfon94]

I'm also experiencing the same exact issue with no changes in our end. Currently using v2 of this action.

I also saw some other issues that seem to be related:

• Error: Can't use 'tar -xzf' extract archive file runner#1923
• Failed to Download #672 (comment)

[tripleee]

Apparently also community/community#17656

[tripleee]

Last failure was some 40 minutes ago; back to normal? Still I would like to understand what happened here and how one would diagnose and perhaps report this type of failure.

[tripleee]

Related? #814

[strobeflash]

Works for me now.

[chrweiss]

The same occured to me just now. Are there any fixes or workarounds for this issue?

[philspencer-owd]

Same issue - working for months, and now not - using v3

[kasvtv]

Also seeing this issue since the last hour or two. Can't be coincidence that @philspencer-owd is also commenting on this >1yr old issue just now.

Probably a temporarily Github Actions outage?

[markvai]

We are getting this very frequently as well since yesterday

[alexanderczigler]

We started seeing this yesterday as well. It happens in the CodeQL analysis workflow.

[inf17101]

Reverting the version to actions/checkout@v3.5.3 has fixed the issue for us. It seems that the generic tag v3 was updated before two weeks and since there we face this issue on our project.