support: self-hosted runner publishes directory with weird prefix

[dhimmel]

I recently switched a workflow that includes peaceiris/actions-gh-pages to use a self-hosted runner.

When using peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3 and when the output branch doesn't already exist, the deploy step succeeded but placed the published data under a prefix, i.e. the output was written to undefined/actions_github_pages_1651252139745/test.json instead of just test.json. Here are links for the workflow, the job log, and output branch. Some key lines of output:

INFO:nxontology_data.utils:Wrote ontology to /actions-runner/_work/nxontology-data/nxontology-data/output/test/test.json
...

/usr/bin/git clone --depth=1 --single-branch --branch output/test ***github.com/related-sciences/nxontology-data.git undefined/actions_github_pages_1651252139745
  Cloning into 'undefined/actions_github_pages_1651252139745'...
  warning: Could not find remote branch output/test to clone.
  fatal: Remote branch output/test not found in upstream origin
  [INFO] first deployment, create new branch output/test
  [INFO] The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128
  [INFO] chdir undefined/actions_github_pages_16512521397[45](https://github.com/related-sciences/nxontology-data/runs/6232229406?check_suite_focus=true#step:6:45)
  /usr/bin/git init
  Initialized empty Git repository in /actions-runner/_work/nxontology-data/nxontology-data/undefined/actions_github_pages_1651252139745/.git/
  /usr/bin/git checkout --orphan output/test
  Switched to a new branch 'output/test'
  [INFO] prepare publishing assets
  [INFO] create undefined/actions_github_pages_1651252139745
  [INFO] copy /actions-runner/_work/nxontology-data/nxontology-data/output/test to undefined/actions_github_pages_1651252139745
  cp: no such file or directory: /actions-runner/_work/nxontology-data/nxontology-data/output/test/.*

When using peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@main, I got a failure:

Error: File not found: '/actions-runner/_work/_actions/peaceiris/actions-gh-pages/main/lib/index.js'

When using peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3 but when the output branch already exists, I get:

  /usr/bin/git push origin output/test
  To https://github.com/related-sciences/nxontology-data.git
   ! [rejected]        output/test -> output/test (fetch first)
  error: failed to push some refs to '***github.com/related-sciences/nxontology-data.git'
  hint: Updates were rejected because the remote contains work that you do
  hint: not have locally. This is usually caused by another repository pushing
  hint: to the same ref. You may want to first integrate the remote changes
  hint: (e.g., 'git pull ...') before pushing again.
  hint: See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.
  Error: Action failed with "The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 1"

So not sure exactly how to proceed.

Relevant links

Public repository: https://github.com/related-sciences/nxontology-data
YAML config: https://github.com/related-sciences/nxontology-data/blob/6b43ce4927641f43baebc3e077e0c56a32fdf53f/.github/workflows/create.yaml

[dhimmel]

@peaceiris any insights here? Happy to help diagnose.

[pavlovp]

started getting that with ForceOrphan: true

[dhimmel]

started getting that with ForceOrphan: true

Thanks @pavlovp for commenting. Specifically which part since there are several potential issues / symptoms here?

[pavlovp]

My github actions pipeline:

  - name: build-docs
    run: npm run build:docs
  - name: Deploy-docs
    uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3.8.0
    with:
      github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      publish_dir: ./docs
      destination_dir: docs
      force_orphan: true

Logs (actions tab):

Run peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3.8.0
[INFO] Usage https://github.com/peaceiris/actions-gh-pages#readme
Dump inputs
[INFO] GithubToken: true
[INFO] PublishBranch: gh-pages
[INFO] PublishDir: ./docs
[INFO] DestinationDir: docs
[INFO] ExternalRepository:
[INFO] AllowEmptyCommit: false
[INFO] KeepFiles: false
[INFO] ForceOrphan: true
[INFO] UserName:
[INFO] UserEmail:
[INFO] CommitMessage:
[INFO] FullCommitMessage:
[INFO] TagName:
[INFO] TagMessage:
[INFO] EnableJekyll (DisableNoJekyll): false
[INFO] CNAME:
[INFO] ExcludeAssets .github

Setup auth token
[INFO] setup GITHUB_TOKEN
Prepare publishing assets
[INFO] ForceOrphan: true
[INFO] chdir undefined/actions_github_pages_1653910528380
/usr/local/git/bin/git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /var/actions/_work/project-name/project-name/undefined/actions_github_pages_1653910528380/.git/
/usr/local/git/bin/git checkout --orphan gh-pages
Switched to a new branch 'gh-pages'
[INFO] prepare publishing assets
[INFO] create undefined/actions_github_pages_1653910528380/docs
[INFO] copy /var/actions/_work/project-name/project-name/docs to undefined/actions_github_pages_1653910528380/docs
[INFO] delete excluded assets
cp: no such file or directory: /var/actions/_work/project-name/project-name/docs/.*
rm: no paths given
[INFO] Created undefined/actions_github_pages_1653910528380/.nojekyll

I'm wondering what cause this weird undefined/actions_github_pages_xxx folder to be created - when I navigate in the browser using this suffix I'm able to access the web app that is hosted in my github pages env.

[dhimmel]

@peaceiris hoping to catch your eye here, especially since this would be great to get fixed in the next major release. The issue is that content is deployed to a directory like undefined/actions_github_pages_1651252139745 rather than being placed in the root of the branch.

I'm having this issue using a self-hosted runner and @pavlovp experienced this issue when setting force_orphan: true.

[dhimmel]

@peaceiris any updates on this issue? I haven't tested with v3.9.1 yet, so let me know if any chance this is already fixed and I will reevaluate.

[12ain]

I seem to have the same problem, everything seems to work fine when running actions runner with nohup, when I use supervisor to manage run.sh, I have a similar problem, I don't know if this is the reason for it. Here is my supervisor configuration.

[program:actions-runner]
directory=/home/ubuntu/actions-runner
command=/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/run.sh
autostart=true
autorestart=true
startretries=3
user=ubuntu
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/logs/out.log
stderr_logfile=/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/logs/err.log

actions：

      - name: Push K8S Yaml
        uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
        if: ${{ inputs.config_stage == 'beta' }}
        with:
          personal_token: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_TOKEN }}
          publish_dir: ./artifact/cdk8s/test
          keep_files: true
          publish_branch: ${{ github.repository }}
          external_repository: ${{ github.repository }}
          destination_dir: beta

Guessing it could be because of some missing environment variable? I read the source code and didn't find out what the problem was.

Thank you for your prompt response.

[Hansanghyeon]

@dhimmel, I've identified what the issue is. If you have configured the GitHub Actions self-hosted runner with the root user, you will encounter the error mentioned above.

[dywanik]

Got the same issues when running on self-hosted runner as root. My workaround was to use containers. I noticed that this has something to do with removing the repository: when root does it, it cleans up using git commands. However, when using containers, it gets fully removed and cloned again. Maybe it'll help somebody.

[apanaete]

This issues seems to be that the HOME env variable is missing in these environment you could try manually defining in the env section:

env:
  HOME: "${{ github.workspace }}/../"