possible to checkout or clone another repo?

[ChrisChiasson]

I noticed the documentation for actions says I can't call an action in another private repo that I own. I have a different question. Is it possible to use the checkout action (of my repo) to checkout a public repo, or a private repo owned by me? This would be useful for pulling the latest version of C++ boost header libraries, or another library I wrote that's needed for the build.

[TingluoHuang]

Yes, you can

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@master
  with:
    name: org1/repo1     <-- clone https://github.com/org1/repo1
    ref: refs/heads/release

[maxperrimond]

I tried to clone another private repository with the action but I only get:

##[error]fatal: repository 'https://github.com/orgname/reponame/' not found

step:

      - name: Check out my other private repo
        uses: actions/checkout@master
        with:
          repository: orgname/reponame

I tried to pass the github token but doesn't change the outcome.

[TingluoHuang]

@maxperrimond try to generate a PAT and set that as repository secret, use that to clone the extra repository, the GITHUB_TOKEN is scope to the workflow repo.
Ex:

      - name: Check out my other private repo
        uses: actions/checkout@master
        with:
          repository: orgname/reponame
          token: ${{ secrets.my_pat }}

[maxperrimond]

It worked well. Thanks for your support @TingluoHuang

[ChrisChiasson]

Thanks

[rogerprz]

If it's from another source outside of github do we use the full URL?

[hohserg1]

I want to clone multiple repos for together build. How to prevent deleting of prev-cloned repo?

It's my configuration: https://github.com/ElegantNetworking/ElegantNetworkingRoot/blob/master/.github/workflows/gradle.yml
Can anyone help?

[hohserg1]

Ok, now I solve cloning multiple repos by using path.
But I have a problem with running gradle from inner directory
'cd' command is not work

[hohserg1]

Yeeeeah! Solved! --project-dir is cool!

[orelviz]

@hohserg1 can you elaborate on how you solved it? Can you share youre .yml file?

[hohserg1]

@orelviz yes.
I use a path parameter of actions/checkout to specify cloning location.
https://github.com/ElegantNetworking/ElegantNetworkingRoot/blob/master/.github/workflows/gradle.yml#L21
Next I use a --project-dir command line parameter of gradle to specify root location of gradle workspace
https://github.com/ElegantNetworking/ElegantNetworkingRoot/blob/master/.github/workflows/gradle.yml#L55
Link to this yml been posted above

[rdreyer-godaddy]

@rogerprz did you get it to work with a repo outside of github.com?

[blane1988]

@rogerprz did you get it to work with a repo outside of github.com?

I am also wondering if we can clone from another domain besides the one where this action is called. In my case, the domain is githubdev, and I want to clone from regular old github.com.

Currently, this action appends the githubdev domain to the repo arg for the action (org/repo) leading to an incorrect full URL.

[elect86]

@hohserg1 How did you manage to get the clone persistent?

[garvit-joshi]

Can we checkout or clone a gitlab repo?

[CartBlanche]

Does anyone have a simple example of using both path and clean: false, when trying to checkout another repo at the same level as the currently building repo?
I'm trying to get this..
/currentdev/currentrepo
/currentdev/../siblingrepo
before then building the project in currentrepo.

[mochadwi]

Can we checkout or clone a gitlab repo?

+1 asking a same questions

[CaseyLabs]

This is for anyone coming here from a Google search.

If you receive the following error when trying to clone a public git repo with Github Actions (whether it's on Github or Gitlab or elsewhere):

An unexpected error has occurred: CalledProcessError: command: ('/usr/bin/git', 'fetch', 'origin', '--tags')
return code: 128
expected return code: 0
stdout: (none)
stderr:
    fatal: unable to connect to github.com:
    github.com[0: 140.82.113.4]: errno=Connection timed out

You need to configure git to clone using HTTPS, and not SSH:

git config --global url.https://github.com/.insteadOf git://github.com/

Example:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      
      - name: Run shell commands
        run: |
          git config --global url.https://github.com/.insteadOf git://github.com/
          git clone https://github.com/githubtraining/hellogitworld.git

[Shindek77]

It worked well. Thanks for your support @TingluoHuang
For me getting below issue: Any suggestions
Error: fatal: could not read Username for 'https://github.com/': terminal prompts disabled

[pa-0]

I see multiple people asking whether custom git URL's can be checked out but don't think anyone posted a solution. Has anyone figured this out?

[sudhraja]

@maxperrimond try to generate a PAT and set that as repository secret, use that to clone the extra repository, the GITHUB_TOKEN is scope to the workflow repo. Ex:

      - name: Check out my other private repo
        uses: actions/checkout@master
        with:
          repository: orgname/reponame
          token: ${{ secrets.my_pat }}

Doesn't work with the latest fine grained token access. Had to do a classic token generation method. Ref #1796

[jigar-joshi-nirmata]

@maxperrimond try to generate a PAT and set that as repository secret, use that to clone the extra repository, the GITHUB_TOKEN is scope to the workflow repo. Ex:

  - name: Check out my other private repo
    uses: actions/checkout@master
    with:
      repository: orgname/reponame
      token: ${{ secrets.my_pat }}

Can we do this without PAT?
I do not want to use PAT, can I use the GITHUB_TOKEN within workflow itself and eliminate PAT?