Unable to clone outside of GITHUB_WORKSPACE directory

[eabuslaiman30]

Hi Guys. I have a directory where the source code is located. I'm trying to create an action to:

1. Pull the last code on that directory (example /home/my-code/src)
2. Run npm install on that directory
3. Run npm run build on that directory.

Anyway, I set the env var $GITHUB_WORKSPACE into my yml file, but it seems to be not respecting the directory where the code is cloned / pulled in.

My script:

name: Development Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches: [ develop ]

jobs:
  build:

    runs-on: self-hosted

    strategy:
      matrix:
        node-version: [10.10.0]
    steps:
      - name: Updating base code from develop
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          ref: refs/heads/develop
          GITHUB_WORKSPACE: /home/my-code/src

    ... Another steps here

The log says the following:

Added matchers: 'checkout-git'. Problem matchers scan action output for known warning or error strings and report these inline.
Syncing repository: repoowner/reponame
Working directory is '/etc/actions-runner/website/src/reponame'

Is there anyway I can use the existing directory to use the checkout action? I want this to be cloned on /home/my-code/src

Thanks

[jsg2021]

I could be wrong, but I think that's a reserved variable that already has meaning in this system.

[jsg2021]

Why do you need to specify where the code is cloned? This action takes care of that for you.

[ericsciple]

Today the path input is the only way to change the directory where the code is cloned. Also there is a restriction that it must be under GITHUB_WORKSPACE. If you want to get around that limitation, you could add a run step to move or copy the folder - or soft/hard link too i guess but but might unexpected issues later 🤷‍♂

[eabuslaiman30]

So we're running a self-hosted runner, so the runner is in /etc and we don't want our code to be on that location. @jsg2021

Thanks @ericsciple . The limitation with path parameter is as you said, it needs to be under GITHUB_WORKSPACE. Tried with absolute paths and ../../{blabla} but error hapenned.

[ddrinka]

This is important functionality for our builds because we have long repository names. We're getting paths like:
D:\a\VeryLongRepositoryNameAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA\VeryLongRepositoryNameAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA\src\ALongProjectNameBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB\ALongProjectNameBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB.csproj

We're hitting MAX_PATH on Windows builds. We need to be able to checkout and build in a directory like: D:\a\s\src\ALongProjectName...

[dukeofphilberg]

Perhaps you could create a symlink from the github workspace folder (_work by default) to another location.

This won't help long repository names though..

[AzfaarQureshi]

I was running into the same issue, @ericsciple thanks for the workaround suggestion! :)

do you know if the $GITHUB_WORKSPACE variable can be changed elsewhere?

[gengjiawen]

On windows, too

Run actions/checkout@v2
  with:
    path: C:/nodejs
    repository: gengjiawen/node
    token: ***
    ssh-strict: true
    persist-credentials: true
    clean: true
    fetch-depth: 1
    lfs: false
    submodules: false
  env:
    PYTHON_VERSION: 3.8
    FLAKY_TESTS: dontcare
Error: Repository path 'C:\nodejs' is not under 'D:\a\node\node'