tasks: Task automation using GitHub Actions

Task automation using GitHub Actions

Description

GitHub Actions is a powerful automation tool (continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) platform) that allows you to define workflows (called actions) for your repository that help automate tasks such as building, testing and deploying code. GitHub Actions enable you to streamline development processes and improve efficiency.

Considerations

• Ensure your repository has a .github/workflows/ directory where workflow files will be stored.
• Workflows are defined using YAML files (.yml or .yaml).
• Actions can be triggered by various GitHub events, such as push, pull_request, or scheduled times.
• GitHub provides a marketplace with reusable actions that can be integrated into workflows.
• Understanding basic YAML syntax is essential for configuring GitHub Actions correctly.
• The workflow execution environment supports different operating systems, including Ubuntu, Windows, and macOS.
• Review the repository’s security settings to control access to sensitive information, such as API keys and credentials, stored as secrets.

Solutions

Creating a basic GitHub Action workflow

Setting up a GitHub Action workflow allows you to automate tasks like testing and deployment. By defining a workflow file, you can specify triggers and actions to execute when specific events occur.

To create a basic workflow follow these steps:

• Navigate to your GitHub repository and create a .github/workflows/ directory if it doesn’t exist.
• Create a new YAML file (e.g., first-action.yml) inside this directory.

• Define a basic workflow that runs on push events:

    name: First GitHub Action
    on: [push]
    jobs:
      build:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        steps:
          - name: Checkout repository
            uses: actions/checkout@v4
          - name: Run a simple command
            run: echo "Hello, GitHub Actions!"
  

• Commit and push this file to your repository.
• Go to the Actions tab in your GitHub repository to see the workflow run. The real-time visualisation graph displayed here provides a clear sequence of executed jobs, making it easier to track progress and identify potential issues. Click on individual jobs to expand the steps, where you’ll find detailed logs and error messages to help with troubleshooting and debugging efficiently.

Using pre-built actions from the GitHub Marketplace

The GitHub Marketplace provides pre-built actions that can be easily integrated into workflows to automate tasks. To use an action from the Marketplace, follow these steps:

• Search for a relevant action in the Marketplace and open its page.
• Copy the code provided under the “Use latest version” section and add it to your workflow file.

• For example, you could decide to use the pre-built Python setup action to ensure the correct Python version is available for running scripts, tests, or installations. Copy the following step into your workflow file:

  - name: Setup Python
    uses: actions/setup-python@v4
    with:
      python-version: '3.10'
  

Automating testing with GitHub Actions

• Use actions to run tests automatically after each push.

• Example: Running unit tests for a Python project using pytest:

  jobs:
    test:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:
        - name: Checkout repository
          uses: actions/checkout@v4
        - name: Setup Python
          uses: actions/setup-python@v4
          with:
            python-version: '3.10'
        - name: Install dependencies
          run: |
            python -m pip install --upgrade pip
            pip install -r requirements.txt
        - name: Run tests
          run: pytest
  

Related pages

tasks

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment

How can you use CI/CD in software development?

tasks

Task automation using GitLab CI/CD

How to use and set up GitLab CI/CD for your GitLab repository

Training

Tools and resources on this page

Eva Martín del Pico

Author

How to cite this page

Eva Martín del Pico, "Task automation using GitHub Actions". everse.software. http://everse.software/RSQKit/task_automation_github_actions .