gh-action-buildnum

GitHub Action to implement build numbers in Workflows.

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This Action can be used to generate increasing build numbers across a number of scopes that can be useful for tracking purposes and defining complete version strings for product releases.

This Action uses a Gist to store persistent state between invocations. The OAuth token that is normally made available to GitHub Workflows and its Actions (GITHUB_TOKEN) does not provide any access to Gists (read or write) therefore this Action requires a separate parameter (gist_token) for an OAuth or PAT token which will be used to read and write the state Gist.

NOTE: it is not necessary that the Gist token be associated with the repository in which the Workflow that consumes this Action is targeting. In this way, a separate GitHub account can actually be used to store the state.

NOTE: this action does include some debug messaging so if you need to troubleshoot its behavior, you can enable debug logging using the ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG secrets variable. You can find more info here.

Usage

Here is a quick sample of how to use this action in your own Workflows:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: generate build number
      uses: zyborg/gh-action-buildnum@v1 
      with:
        gist_token: ${{ secrets.GIST_TOKEN }}
        set_env: true

    - name: print repo global build number
      run: echo Global Build Number is $BUILDNUM_FOR_GLOBAL

    - name: get existing build number
      uses: zyborg/gh-action-buildnum@v1
      id: lastBuildNum
      with:
        gist_token: ${{ secrets.GIST_TOKEN }}
        skip_bump: true

    - name: dump last build num
      run: |
        echo Global Build Number is ${{ steps.lastBuildNum.outputs.global_buildnum }}
        echo Workflow Build Number is ${{ steps.lastBuildNum.outputs.workflow_buildnum }}

Scopes

When this action runs it generates several build numbers that are relative to a number of scopes.

Repository or Global Scope

This scope tracks build numbers across all Workflows of a given GitHub repository which make use of this Action. The state of this build number is stored as a top-level value in the state Gist.

The resolved value of the Global Scope is made available as an output named global_build_number and optionally as an environment variable named BUILDNUM_FOR_GLOBAL.

Workflow Scope

This scope tracks build numbers across every invocation of single Workflow. The state of this build number is stored in the state Gist indexed by the current Workflow name.

The resolved value of the Workflow Scope is made available as an output named workflow_build_number and optionally as an environment variable named BUILDNUM_FOR_WORKFLOW.

Version Scope

This scope tracks build numbers across every invocation of single Workflow for a given, unique version key. This scope is optional and will only be resolved if the input parameter of version_key is provided with a non-null/non-empty value. The state of this build number is stored in the state Gist indexed by the current Workflow name and the given version key.

The resolved value of the Version Scope is made available as an output named version_build_number and optionally as an environment variable named BUILDNUM_FOR_VERSION.

Inputs

This Action defines the following formal inputs.

Name	Req	Description
gist_token	true	GitHub OAuth/PAT token to be used for accessing Gist to store builder number state. The integrated GITHUB_TOKEN that is normally accessible during a Workflow does not include read/write permissions to associated Gists, therefore a separate token is needed. You can control which account is used to actually store the state by generating a token associated with the target account.
repo_full_name	false	The name of the current repository, in <OWNER>/<REPO-NAME> format. This input is optional and is only used to override the default value which is pulled in from the running Workflow context. This value is used to compute a unique identifier for the Gist that will be used to store state for current and subsequent build numbers. Default is $env:GITHUB_REPOSITORY.
workflow_name	false	The name of the workflow to identify the build number with. This input is optional and is only used to override the default value which is pulled in from the running Workflow context. This value is used to compute a unique identifier for the Gist that will be used to store state for current and subsequent build numbers. Default is $env:GITHUB_WORKFLOW.
version_key	false	A unique identifer used to calculate a version-specific build number.
skip_bump	false	If true, this will skip bumping up the build numbers, and only pulls in the last values stored in the state Gist.
set_env	false	If true, this will export the resolved version numbers as environment variables for the current and future steps.

Outputs

This Action defines the following formal outputs.

Name	Description
global_build_number	Resolved build number for the repository or Global scope.
workflow_build_number	Resolved build number for the Workflow scope.
version_build_number	Resolved build number for the Version scope.

Environment Variables

If the set_env input is true, then the following environment variables will be defined.

Name	Description
BUILDNUM_FOR_GLOBAL	Resolved build number for the repository or Global scope.
BUILDNUM_FOR_WORKFLOW	Resolved build number for the Workflow scope.
BUILDNUM_FOR_VERSION	Resolved build number for the Version scope.

Miscellaneous

State Gist

This Action uses a Gist file to store the state of build numbers across Workflow runs.

Here is a sample.

/* THIS FILE IS AUTO-GENERATED AND MANAGED BY GITHUB ACTIONS. MANUAL MODIFICATIONS
** CAN BREAK THINGS IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! *YOU* HAVE BEEN WARNED!
*/
{
  "workflow_buildnums": {
    "test-action": {
      "version_buildnums": {
        "0.0.0": {
          "build_num": 5
        }
      },
      "build_num": 13
    }
  },
  "build_num": 13
}

PowerShell GitHub Action

This Action is implemented as a PowerShell GitHub Action.