script_path option does not find the script passed in parameter

[vaevictis]

Describe the bug

I can't get the script_path option to work. Using script, and passing it one or multiple commands works just fine, so I've validated the connection part to my server. But trying to pass a local, in-repo script file as a parameter to script_path keeps returning the same error message, no matter how I attempt multiple relative paths.

Error stack on Github Actions

Run appleboy/ssh-action@v1.2.2
Run echo "$GITHUB_ACTION_PATH" >> $GITHUB_PATH
Run entrypoint.sh
Will download drone-ssh-1.8.1-linux-amd64 from https://github.com/appleboy/drone-ssh/releases/download/v1.8.1
======= CLI Version =======
Drone SSH version 1.8.1
===========================
2025/04/26 00:50:24 stat scripts/update_vam_and_relaunch_worker.sh: no such file or directory
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

Yaml Config

Please post your Yaml configuration file along with the output results.

name: deploy to prod
env:
  PYTHON_VERSION: "3.11.10"
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    name: Deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: SSH Remote Commands
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v1.2.2
        with:
          host: <HIDDEN>
          username: <HIDDEN>
          key: ${{ PASSED AS A GITHUB SECRET secrets.(...) }}
          script_path: scripts/update_vam_and_relaunch_worker.sh

Related environment

Please provide the following information:

1. The target is a Digital Ocean server.
2. The version information of your host's SSH service.

$ ssh -v localhost
OpenSSH_9.2p1 Debian-2+deb12u5, OpenSSL 3.0.15 3 Sep 2024

3. The information from your host's SSH configuration file.
   Not sure what's expected here, the whole config file? I doubt it's connection-related, as I can connect just fine with commands passed to the script parameter.

[appleboy]

Please try using the absolute path first and let us know your feedback if the issue persists.

[vaevictis]

I just spent another few attempts trying work with absolute file paths. None of my attempts resolved my issues. I wasn't sure which box we are talking about, so I tried all three. None worked. Same no such file or directory error. I tried, with a scripts folder within the git repo for which I am running this action.

• my dev box
• the Github worker box
• my target SSH'd-into server box

I'll try to build a minimal POC without my confidential work's paths and names in there.

Also, I may well be missing something obvious, but it would drastically accelerate my experiments to know which box the absolute path to script we are talking about is referred to.

Ah, from the doc:

These parameters control the commands executed on the remote host and related behaviours.

Ok so I'm going to keep experimenting assuming that the file needs to already live on the remote server.

[vaevictis]

That was short lived.

# On the target server
user@box:~/scripts$ ls
test.sh
user@box:~/scripts$ pwd
/home/faktory/scripts

# YML line:
          script_path: /home/faktory/scripts/test.sh

# GH Actions run output:
Will download drone-ssh-1.8.1-linux-amd64 from https://github.com/appleboy/drone-ssh/releases/download/v1.8.1
2025/04/29 01:11:24 stat /home/faktory/scripts/test.sh: no such file or directory
======= CLI Version =======
Drone SSH version 1.8.1
===========================
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

[EDIT for local filesystem test]

• Same problem, trying to access a script in my user's home but out of the github repo, referenced by an absolute path.

[appleboy]

@vaevictis I will try your scenario.

[appleboy]

The script_path refers to the file path stored in the local Git repository, not the remote file path.

If you want to execute the script_path on the remote server, please use the following method:

script: |
  #!/bin/bash
  sh /home/faktory/scripts/test.sh

[vaevictis]

Thanks @appleboy for your quick responses, btw.
So at least this confirms how I was visualizing how the option script_path should be used. I package a shell script in my repo, and that exact file is what is being run once ssh connection to server has been established.

But then, when you mention early on in this conversation:

Please try using the absolute path first (...)

that is an absolute path in the context of the Github Actions runner box, so something like /home/runner/work/<project_name>/scripts/test.sh, using the ${{ github.workspace }} variable, or an absolute path as if the Github repo is chrooted into? Like, then, /scripts/test.sh? Or event /<repo_name>/scripts/test.sh?

I've tried all these options, output github.workspace first, hard-coded it or used interpolation. I always end up with the same no such file or directory error.

[vaevictis]

The script_path refers to the file path stored in the local Git repository, not the remote file path.

If you want to execute the script_path on the remote server, please use the following method:

script: |
#!/bin/bash
sh /home/faktory/scripts/test.sh

I am trying to not assume that a script already exists on the target server, thus being able to package it in the repo is key. My attempts at trying with target server filepath were more experiments as I was trying to figure out if I was misunderstanding the use case for the script_path option.

[Hayder-Aziz-cardano]

try to add the following as the firs step:

steps:
  - name: Checkout repository
    uses: actions/checkout@v4

[appleboy]

@Hayder-Aziz-cardano Good catch. I didn’t even notice that the original author forgot to use actions/checkout.