How to pass the output of a bash command to Github Action parameter

Question

I have a workflow where after a push to master I want to create a release and upload an asset to it.
I'm using actions/create-release@v1 and actions/upload-release-asset@v1.

I would like to pass the outputs of a bash commands to the action parameters. However I found out the syntax of "$(command)" does not work.

How can I pass the output of a bash command to an action's parameter.

For example I'd like to do something like this:

- name: Create Release
  id: create_release
  uses: actions/create-release@v1
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.token }}
  with:
    tag_name: $(cat projectFile | grep -Po '(?<=Version>).*(?=</Version>)')

l33tHax0r · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-28 18:09:45Z

78

Update: set-output is being deprecated as well "Starting 1st June 2023 workflows using save-state or set-output commands via stdout will fail with an error."

Now that set-env is deprecated and set-output is soon to be deprecated, you can use GITHUB_OUTPUT environment files: to accomplish the same thing in this answer

- name: Retrieve version
  run: |
    echo "TAG_NAME=$(cat projectFile | grep -Po '(?<=Version>).*(?=</Version>)')" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
  id: version

- name: Create Release
  id: create_release
  uses: actions/create-release@v1
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.token }}
  with:
    tag_name: ${{ steps.version.outputs.TAG_NAME }}

References:

https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/workflow-commands-for-github-actions#environment-files

How to save the output of a bash command to output parameter in github actions

edited Oct 28, 2022 at 18:09

answered Jan 7, 2021 at 16:44

l33tHax0r

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2 Comments

Sandra Over a year ago

GitHub is also deprecating set-output - see github.blog/changelog/… instead use echo "{name}={value}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT where in the example above {name} would be TAG_NAME and the {value} would be the $(... command output

A G Over a year ago

The deprecation has been postponed as there is still significant use of save-state and set-output - ref github.blog/changelog/…

Sridhar Ratnakumar · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-24 20:43:00Z

40

Use environment files

steps:
  - name: Set the value
    id: step_one
    run: |
        echo "FOO=$(git status)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
  - name: Use the value
    id: step_two
    run: |
        echo "${{ env.FOO }}"

answered Feb 24, 2021 at 20:43

Sridhar Ratnakumar

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4 Comments

Tobias Feil Over a year ago

Thank you for providing this example as I couldn't see any useful example code in the linked section in the docs.

Sandra Over a year ago

this is now (Oct. 2022) the preferred way as GitHub is deprecating both set-env and set-output, see github.blog/changelog/…

Roman Vottner Over a year ago

This unfortunately does not work further as the output of git status is a multi-line output and as such the handling of thereof has to look a bit different. Note further, I tried to retrieve the second-to-last tag to calculate the changes in the latest release via git tag --sort=-v:refname | sed -n '2p' and no matter what I tried so far, the env-variable I assign the output to remains an empty string, even though the output should be a single line

Matthew Read Over a year ago

@RomanVottner By default, actions/checkout does not pull down the tags. Make sure you've done that and that the output of the command is correct without setting a var. Setting the var is the easy part.

Sridhar Ratnakumar · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-24 20:41:27Z

19

UPDATE: This answer will not work as GitHub as disabled this syntax for security reasons. You should use environment files instead.

I would create an environment variable based of your command output:

- name: Retrieve version
  run: |
    echo ::set-env name=TAG_NAME::$(cat projectFile | grep -Po '(?<=Version>).*(?=</Version>)')

And then access it like the following:

- name: Create Release
  id: create_release
  uses: actions/create-release@v1
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.token }}
  with:
    tag_name: ${{ env.TAG_NAME }}

edited Feb 24, 2021 at 20:41

Sridhar Ratnakumar

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answered Apr 16, 2020 at 19:26

SolalVall

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3 Comments

user13288253 Over a year ago

Wait, there's one problem, I also want to get the release notes, which have newlines in them and I use cat projectFile | grep -Pzo '(?<=PackageReleaseNotes>)(.|\n)*(?=</PackageReleaseNotes>)', however only the first line gets set in the variable.

SolalVall Over a year ago

The following link should help you to handle multilines: (github.community/t5/GitHub-Actions/…) You would have something like:

run: |      RELEASE_NOTES="$(grep -Pzo '(?<=PackageReleaseNotes>)(.|\n)*(?=</PackageReleaseNotes>)' projectFile)"      RELEASE_NOTES="${RELEASE_NOTES//'%'/'%25'}"      RELEASE_NOTES="${RELEASE_NOTES//$'\n'/'%0A'}"      RELEASE_NOTES="${RELEASE_NOTES//$'\r'/'%0D'}"      echo "::set-env name=RELEASE_NOTES::$RELEASE_NOTES"

rantoniuk Over a year ago

Note ::set-env is now deprecated - docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/actions/reference/…

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