file pattern not supporting deletion

[puneet-arora15]

I'm having issues with GitHub's auto-commit action when using the file pattern file_pattern: data//azure.yaml. When the azure.yaml file is deleted, it doesn't seem to be picked up in the auto commit. However, if I change the pattern to file_pattern: data/, it works. How can I modify the pattern to ensure it tracks deletions for the specific azure.yaml file without changing the structure and mentioning the file name as I want to only track that for now.

[stefanzweifel]

Hi there

Could you please share your exact workflow script? How does your file_pattern-config look like?
Edit: By editing your comment I saw that you wrote file_pattern: data/*/azure.yaml and not file_pattern: data//azure.yaml.

You could try the following, but the step will fail if azure.yaml is being deleted in a sub-directory of data.
(As you explicitly tell git to look for azure.yaml but the file is deleted, it won't be picked up)

- name: Auto commit
  uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v4
  with:
    file_pattern: data/*/azure.yaml
    commit_options: '--all' # Tell the command to automatically stage files that have been modified and deleted, but new files you have not told Git about are not affected.

So you might have to fall back to use

- name: Auto commit
  uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v4
  with:
    file_pattern: data/
    commit_options: '--all'

Or could you explain what you want to accomplish?

---

We had similar discussions in #286 and #137.

[puneet-arora15]

Hi @stefanzweifel

Yeah sure,
Reference to the workflow-

- name: Run script
        working-directory: ./scripts
        run: python azure.py

      - name: Update PR Contents
        uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@e348103e9026cc0eee72ae06630dbe30c8bf7a79 #v5.1.0
        if: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' }}
        with:
          commit_message: "chore(data): data changes."
          branch: ${{ github.head_ref	}}
          file_pattern: "data/*/azure.yaml" 

The current implementation of the git-auto-commit-action fails to detect deleted files when using file patterns. This issue arises because the pattern expansion (${INPUT_FILE_PATTERN_EXPANDED[@]}) is performed after the file is deleted, meaning that deleted files are not considered part of the input file pattern.

Problem Source:

In the current script, the file patterns are expanded in the following part of the code:

https://github.com/stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action/blob/master/entrypoint.sh#L86

Suggested Improvement

To address this, the input file pattern could be handled differently. Rather than expanding the pattern after file deletion, the pattern could be provided as a list but still be kept in its original pattern format in the git status command. This would allow deleted files to be picked up and committed as well.

Yes I could switch to the following example but it will pick up all files, I want the delete to be picked up only for the azure.yaml file.

- name: Auto commit
  uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v4
  with:
    file_pattern: data/
    commit_options: "--all"

[stefanzweifel]

Thanks for the reply.

We've added pattern expansion in #205 and #154 due to issues reported in #153.
We've introduced a disable_globbing: true-option. More details in the README.

I'm a bit out of the loop on this project to be honest. I'm not sure how git-auto-commit could solve this issue for you. git-auto-commit should always be the last step in a workflow and just looks at the state of a repo and commits the changed files.

Our tagline is "The GitHub Action for committing files for the 80% use case." and I have a feeling you fall into the 20% use case.

As I don't know what exactly you're doing in your project, I would suggest adding a git add data/*/azure.yml; git commit -m "chore(data): data changes." step to your workflow and commit the files without using git-auto-commit. Then you're in full control.

But if you think your use case can be covered with a simple code change, I'm happy to review a PR with a test case.