How to use working-directory in GitHub actions?

Question

I'm trying to set-up and run a GitHub action in a nested folder of the repo.

I thought I could use working-directory, but if I write this:

jobs:
  test-working-directory:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Test
    defaults:
      run:
        working-directory: my_folder
    steps:
      - run: echo test

I get an error:

Run echo test
echo test
shell: /usr/bin/bash -e {0}
Error: An error occurred trying to start process '/usr/bin/bash' with working directory '/home/runner/work/my_repo/my_repo/my_folder'. No such file or directory

I notice my_repo appears twice in the path of the error.

Here is the run on my repo, where:

my_repo = novade_flutter_packages
my_folder = packages

What am I missing?

Grzegorz Krukowski · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-29 15:25:29Z

9

You didn't check out the repository on the second job.

Each job runs on a different instance, so you have to checkout it separately for each one of them.

answered May 29, 2022 at 15:25

Grzegorz Krukowski

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2 Comments

majorgear Over a year ago

I only see one job "test-working-directory:" unless the OP changed their yaml files after you responded.

majorgear Over a year ago

in this case the OP forgot to checkout. in my experience, the working-directory value is appended to the current working directory instead of being treated as an absolute path.

deed02392 · Accepted Answer · 2023-07-19 22:36:57Z

2

You have to checkout the repository on the runner in order to use files in the repository.

For example, my repository has a /requirements.txt file which I want to pip install -r requirements.txt from, but I have to checkout my repository to ensure the file exists on the runner first.

jobs:
  my-job:
    name: my job
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Setup Python
        uses: actions/[email protected]
        with:
          python-version: 3.11
      # without this step, the pip install step will fail
      - name: Checkout the repo 
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Install Python requirements
        run: |
          pip install -r requirements.txt

answered Jul 19, 2023 at 22:36

deed02392

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