How to get current branch within github actions

Question

I\'m building docker images with Github Actions and want to tags images with branch name, I found only GITHUB_REF variable, but it results in refs/heads/f

Answer 1

Use branch name on GitHub actions

Convenience action for using current branch name. Usage

name: build
on: push

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v1
    - run: npm ci
    - uses: nelonoel/branch-name@v1
    # Use branch name for whatever purpose
    - run: echo ${BRANCH_NAME}

Answer 2

You could use https://github.com/rlespinasse/github-slug-action

- name: Inject slug/short variables
  uses: rlespinasse/github-slug-action@v2.x

- name: Print slug/short variables
  run: |
    echo "Slug variables"
    echo " - ${{ env.GITHUB_REF_SLUG }}"    
    echo " - ${{ env.GITHUB_HEAD_REF_SLUG }}"
    echo " - ${{ env.GITHUB_BASE_REF_SLUG }}"
    echo " - ${{ env.GITHUB_REPOSITORY_SLUG }}"
    // output e.g. : master feat-new-feature v1.0.0 product-1.0.0-rc.2 new-awesome-product
    echo "Slug URL variables"
    echo " - ${{ env.GITHUB_REF_SLUG_URL }}"
    echo " - ${{ env.GITHUB_HEAD_REF_SLUG_URL }}"
    echo " - ${{ env.GITHUB_BASE_REF_SLUG_URL }}"
    echo " - ${{ env.GITHUB_REPOSITORY_SLUG_URL }}"
    // output e.g. : master feat-new-feature v1-0-0 product-1-0-0-rc-2 new-awesome-product
    echo "Short SHA variables"
    echo " - ${{ env.GITHUB_SHA_SHORT }}"
    // output e.g. : ffac537e

Answer 3

I just made a simple test within GitHub Actions using a bash script:

#!/bin/bash

echo Reserved for REPO_NAME=${GITHUB_REPOSITORY##*/}
echo GITHUB_REF=${GITHUB_REF}
echo EXTRACT_GITHUB_REF=${GITHUB_REF##*/}
echo EXTRACT_GITHUB_REF_HEADS=$(echo ${GITHUB_REF#refs/heads/})

cd $REPO_NAME
git checkout ${GITHUB_REF##*/}
git checkout $(echo ${GITHUB_REF#refs/heads/})

Here is screenshot of the output:

So both ${GITHUB_REF##*/} and $(echo ${GITHUB_REF#refs/heads/}) are correct

Answer 4

Running on Windows?. Windows default command is a PowerShell terminal.

  - name: SET CURRENT_BRANCH
    run: |
      $branchName = "${{github.ref}}".Split("/")["${{github.ref}}".Split("/").Length -1]
      echo "::set-env name=CURRENT_BRANCH::$(echo $branchName)"

Answer 5

I added a separate step for extracting branch name from $GITHUB_REF and set it to the step output

- name: Extract branch name
  shell: bash
  run: echo "##[set-output name=branch;]$(echo ${GITHUB_REF#refs/heads/})"
  id: extract_branch

after that, I can use it in the next steps with

- name: Push to ECR
  id: ecr
  uses: jwalton/gh-ecr-push@master
  with:
    access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
    secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
    region: us-west-2
    image: eng:${{ steps.extract_branch.outputs.branch }}

Answer 6

The GitHub Action FranzDiebold/github-env-vars-action exposes several useful environment variables, such as current branch name and their slug values. I made this action exactly for this use case.

Usage

steps:
  - uses: FranzDiebold/github-env-vars-action@v1.2.0
  - name: Print environment variables
    run: |
      echo "GITHUB_REPOSITORY_SLUG=$GITHUB_REPOSITORY_SLUG"
      echo "GITHUB_REPOSITORY_OWNER=$GITHUB_REPOSITORY_OWNER"
      echo "GITHUB_REPOSITORY_OWNER_SLUG=$GITHUB_REPOSITORY_OWNER_SLUG"
      echo "GITHUB_REPOSITORY_NAME=$GITHUB_REPOSITORY_NAME"
      echo "GITHUB_REPOSITORY_NAME_SLUG=$GITHUB_REPOSITORY_NAME_SLUG"
      echo "GITHUB_REF_SLUG=$GITHUB_REF_SLUG"
      echo "GITHUB_REF_NAME=$GITHUB_REF_NAME"
      echo "GITHUB_REF_NAME_SLUG=$GITHUB_REF_NAME_SLUG"
      echo "GITHUB_SHA_SHORT=$GITHUB_SHA_SHORT"

A demo for all Operating systems (Linux, macOS and Windows) is also available in the demo workflows file of the repository!