@derongan ,

I tested and tried the commands mkdir , ls and cp on my repository like as below:

jobs:
  TEST:
    name: Test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
  - name: Create directory
    run: |
      echo "run mkdir -p $HOME/.m2/repository"
      mkdir -p $HOME/.m2/repository
      echo " ********************************ls in #HOME********************************"
      echo $HOME
      ls -lah $HOME
      echo " ******************************ls in $HOME/.m2******************************"
      ls -lah $HOME/.m2
  - name: Copy files
    run: |
      echo "run cp -a TestClock/. $HOME/.m2/repository"
      cp -a TestClock/. $HOME/.m2/repository
      echo " ******************************ls in $HOME/.m2******************************"
      ls -lah $HOME/.m2
      echo " *************************ls in $HOME/.m2/repository*************************"
      ls -lah $HOME/.m2/repository

and this is the result:

results.png1174×450 44.8 KB

You can see I run the ls command after using mkdir command to create the directory and after using cp command to copy files. Looks like all the commands can work fine on my side, and did not occur the problem as you reported.

Maybe you also can try the steps like as that in my example, to check whether the directory  $HOME/.m2/repository is really created successfully after execute the mkdir command. And also after copying the files.

And if possible, please also share your repository with us, so that we can check the complete configurations of your workflow and the detailed debug logs of the workflow run to analyze the root cause.

Hello,

I have not had a chance to play around yet with your solution. I am still playing around with a number of things with actions, but will get to this once I figure those out. Thanks!

@derongan ,

All right, if you have any progress, feel free to tell me.

However, as I mentioned in my second reply, I think the reason causes the problem you are facing is that you created directory with the $HOME on the container but when viewing file list you used the $ HOME on the runner machine. Because the environment variable  $HOME  on the container and on the runner machine points to different directories.

According to the above points, if you execute the command " mkdir -p $HOME/.m2/repository " in your Docker container action, and then execute the command " ls -lah $HOME/.m2 " in another step which runs on the runner machine, not on the container, you will definitely get the “directory not found"error. You should view the file list in the directory " /home/runner/work/_temp/_github_home ” on runner machine, instead of in $HOME .

This is great information for test reports. Thank you for this!!!