Please note that the Action depends on `bash`. If you're using the Action in a job in combination with a custom Docker container, make sure that `bash` is installed.
In this example, we're running `php-cs-fixer` in a PHP project to fix the codestyle automatically, then commit possible changed files back to the repository.
The goal of this Action is to be "the Action for committing files for the 80% use case". Therefore, you might run into issues if your Workflow falls into the not supported 20% portion.
**No `git pull` when the repository is out of date with remote.** The Action will not do a `git pull` before doing the `git push`. **You** are responsible for keeping the repository up to date in your Workflow runs.
**No support for running the Action in build matrices**. If your Workflow is using build matrices, and you want that each job commits and pushes files to the remote, you will run into the issue, that the repository in the workflow will become out of date. As the Action will not do a `git pull` for you, you have to do that yourself.
**No support for `git rebase` or `git merge`**. There are many strategies on how to integrate remote upstream changes to a local repository. `git-auto-commit` does not want to be responsible for doing that.
**No support for detecting line break changes between CR (Carriage Return) and LF (Line Feed)**. This is a low level issue, you have to resolve differently in your project. Sorry.
This is due to [limitations set by GitHub](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/security-guides/automatic-token-authentication#using-the-github_token-in-a-workflow).
> When you use the repository's GITHUB_TOKEN to perform tasks on behalf of the GitHub Actions app, events triggered by the GITHUB_TOKEN will not create a new workflow run. This prevents you from accidentally creating recursive workflow runs.
You can change this by creating a new [Personal Access Token (PAT)](https://github.com/settings/tokens/new),
storing the token as a secret in your repository and then passing the new token to the [`actions/checkout`](https://github.com/actions/checkout#usage) Action step.
If you work in an organization and don't want to create a PAT from your personal account, we recommend using a [robot account](https://docs.github.com/en/github/getting-started-with-github/types-of-github-accounts) for the token.
Does your workflow change a file but "git-auto-commit" does not detect the change? Check the `.gitignore` that applies to the respective file. You might have accidentally marked the file to be ignored by git.
**☝️ Important Notice**: This Action technically works with forks. However, please note that the combination of triggers and their options can cause issues. Please read [the documentation](https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/actions/reference/events-that-trigger-workflows) on which triggers GitHub Actions support.\
If you use this Action in combination with a linter/fixer, it's easier if you run the Action on `push` on your `main`-branch.
The workflow below runs whenever a commit is pushed to the `main`-branch or when activity on a pull request happens, by listening to the [`pull_request_target`](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/events-that-trigger-workflows#pull_request_target) event.
If the workflow is triggered by the `pull_request_target`-event, the workflow will run in the context of the base of the pull request, rather than in the context of the merge commit, as the `pull_request` event does.
In other words, this will allow your workflow to be run in the repository where the pull request is opened to and will push changes back to the fork.
Check out the discussion in [#211](https://github.com/stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action/issues/211) for more information on this.
1. In addition to listening to the `pull_request` event in your Workflow triggers, you have to add an additional event: `pull_request_target`. You can learn more about this event in [the GitHub docs](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/events-that-trigger-workflows#pull_request_target).
2. GitHub Action has to be enabled on the forked repository. \
For security reasons, GitHub does not automatically enable GitHub Actions on forks. The user has to explicitly enable GitHub Actions in the "Actions"-tab of the forked repository. (Mention this in your projects README or CONTRIBUTING.md!)
After you have added the `pull_request_target` to your desired Workflow and the forked repository has enabled Actions and a new Pull Request is opened, the Workflow will run **on the forked repository**.
Due to the fact that the Workflow is not run on the repository the Pull Request is opened in, you won't see any status indicators inside the Pull Request.
The following workflow runs `php-cs-fixer` (a code linter and fixer for PHP) when a `pull_request` is opened. We've added the `pull_request_target`-trigger too, to make it work for forks.
Next time a user forks your project **and** enabled GitHub Actions **and** opened a Pull Request, the Workflow will run on the **forked** repository and will push commits to the same branch.
As you can see, your contributors have to go through hoops to make this work. **For Workflows which run linters and fixers (like the example above) we recommend running them when a push happens on the `main`-branch.**
For more information about running Actions on forks, see [this announcement from GitHub](https://github.blog/2020-08-03-github-actions-improvements-for-fork-and-pull-request-workflows/).
By default, GitHub Actions doesn't run Workflows on forks from private repositories. To enable Actions for **private** repositories enable "Run workflows from pull requests" in your repository settings.
See [this announcement from GitHub](https://github.blog/2020-08-03-github-actions-improvements-for-fork-and-pull-request-workflows/) or the [GitHub docs](https://docs.github.com/en/github/administering-a-repository/disabling-or-limiting-github-actions-for-a-repository#enabling-workflows-for-private-repository-forks) for details.
Using command lines options needs to be done manually for each workflow which you require the option enabled. So for example signing commits requires you to import the gpg signature each and every time. The following list of actions are worth checking out if you need to automate these tasks regularly.
If you would like to use this Action to create a commit using [`--amend`](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit#Documentation/git-commit.txt---amend) and [`--no-edit`](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit#Documentation/git-commit.txt---no-edit) you need to make some adjustments.
**☝️ Important Notice:** You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you amend a commit that has already been published. [See rebasing](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-rebase#_recovering_from_upstream_rebase)
Then you need to provide this last commit message to the Action through the `commit_message` input option.
Finally, you have to use `push_options: '--force'` to overwrite the git history on the GitHub remote repository. (git-auto-commit will not do a `git-rebase` for you!)
If your repository uses [protected branches](https://help.github.com/en/github/administering-a-repository/configuring-protected-branches) you have to make some changes to your Workflow for the Action to work properly: You need a Personal Access Token and you either have to allow force pushes or the Personal Access Token needs to belong to an Administrator.
store the token as a secret in your repository and pass the new token to the [`actions/checkout`](https://github.com/actions/checkout#usage) Action step.
```yaml
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
with:
token: ${{ secrets.PAT }}
```
You can learn more about Personal Access Token in the [GitHub documentation](https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token).
**Note:** If you're working in an organisation, and you don't want to create the PAT from your personal account, we recommend using a bot-account for such tokens.
If you go the "force pushes" route, you have to enable force pushes to a protected branch (See [documentation](https://help.github.com/en/github/administering-a-repository/enabling-force-pushes-to-a-protected-branch)) and update your Workflow to use force push like this.
This is due to limitations set up by GitHub, [commits of this Action do not trigger new Workflow runs](#commits-of-this-action-do-not-trigger-new-workflow-runs).
If you're using the Action with a custom `file_pattern` and the Action throws a fatal error with the message "Pathspec 'file-pattern' did not match any files", the problem is probably that no file for the pattern exists in the repository.
`file_pattern` is used both for `git-status` and `git-add` in this Action. `git-add` will throw a fatal error, if for example, you use a file pattern like `*.js *.ts` but no `*.ts` files exist in your projects' repository.
### Custom `file_pattern`, changed files but seeing "Working tree clean. Nothing to commit." in the logs
If you're using a custom `file_pattern` and the Action does not detect the changes made in your worfklow, you're probably running into a globbing issue.
Let's imagine you use `file_pattern: '*.md'` to detect and commit changes to all Markdown files in your repository.
If your Workflow now only updates `.md`-files in a subdirectory, but you have an untouched `.md`-file in the root of the repository, the git-auto-commit Action will display "Working tree clean. Nothing to commit." in the Workflow log.
This is due to the fact, that the `*.md`-glob is expanded before sending it to `git-status`. `git-status` will receive the filename of your untouched `.md`-file in the root of the repository and won't detect any changes; and therefore the Action does nothing.
To fix this add `disable_globbing: true` to your Workflow.
```yaml
- uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v4
with:
file_pattern: '*.md'
disable_globbing: true
```
See [Issue #239](https://github.com/stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action/issues/239) for details.
The Action has tests written in [bats](https://github.com/bats-core/bats-core). Before you can run the test suite locally, you have to install the dependencies with `npm` or `yarn`.
We use [SemVer](http://semver.org/) for versioning. For the versions available, see the [tags on this repository](https://github.com/stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action/tags).
We also provide major version tags to make it easier to always use the latest release of a major version. For example, you can use `stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v4` to always use the latest release of the current major version.
This Action has been inspired and adapted from the [auto-commit](https://github.com/cds-snc/github-actions/tree/master/auto-commit
)-Action of the Canadian Digital Service and this [commit](https://github.com/elstudio/actions-js-build/blob/41d604d6e73d632e22eac40df8cc69b5added04b/commit/entrypoint.sh)-Action by Eric Johnson.
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the [LICENSE](https://github.com/stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action/blob/master/LICENSE) file for details.
