Job output cannot be using when triggering workflow from job #26664

afonsoc12 · 2022-05-15T17:45:50Z

afonsoc12
May 15, 2022

Hi,

So I have this workflow that gathers the version from a website and then triggers a build (another workflow), via the workflow_call trigger. This is the code of the scheduler:

name: Checks for new releases and deploys master
on:
  schedule:
      - cron: '15 */2 * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:

external_trigger:

runs-on: ubuntu-latest

outputs:

version: ${{ steps.version_getter.outputs.version }}

steps:

- uses: actions/checkout@v2.3.3
  - name: Version diff
    run: |
      chmod u+x ./scripts/isUpdated.sh
      ./scripts/isUpdated.sh

  - id: version_getter
    name: Trigger build check
    if: ${{ hashFiles('DOCKER_VERSION.txt') != '' }}
    run: |
      version=$(cat DOCKER_VERSION.txt)
      echo "Triggering because there is the new version $version"
      echo "::set-output name=version::$version"

trigger:

needs: external_trigger

uses: ./.github/workflows/docker_build_master.yml

with:

version: ${{ needs.external_trigger.outputs.version }}

The problem is that the version variable is being set as empty string. I have tried using a step in the last job and it works, its just when I use the uses to trigger the other workflow that the output does not work. Like this:

trigger:
    needs: external_trigger
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
       - run: echo "${{ needs.external_trigger.outputs.version }}"

Any fix for this issue?
Thanks

Answered by jsoref

May 17, 2022

I should probably explain, but in short:
afonsoc12/docker-cloudflared@ee01e19

A slightly longer explanation is certainly in order.

Literally, the google completion for github.event.inputs is github.event.inputs vs inputs.

GitHub supports events that have inputs:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/events-that-trigger-workflows#providing-inputs
It handles that via github.event.inputs

It also supports giving (reusable) workflows inputs:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/reusing-workflows#using-inputs-and-secrets-in-a-reusable-workflow

In that case, inputs come via inputs

Note that this aligns with actions:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/creating-actions/…

View full answer

jsoref · 2022-05-15T20:22:39Z

jsoref
May 15, 2022

Afaict, from:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/contexts#context-availability

Workflow key	Context	Special functions
`jobs.<job_id>.steps.with`	`github, needs, strategy, matrix, job, runner, env, secrets, steps, inputs`	`hashFiles`
`jobs.<job_id>.with.<with_id>`	`github, needs`

needs should be available (and presumably work) in both cases…

Can you provide a sample repository?

0 replies

afonsoc12 · 2022-05-17T17:53:41Z

afonsoc12
May 17, 2022
Author

Sure! Here it is.

If you check the job trigger, the output is not propagated, but it works on job tst.
Any thoughts?

0 replies

jsoref · 2022-05-17T18:09:49Z

jsoref
May 17, 2022

Personally, I’d want to fix this:

  <a href="https://github.com/afonsoc12/docker-cloudflared/runs/6476100269?check_suite_focus=true#step:3:8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GitHub</a>

Checks for new releases and deploys master ·...

Contribute to afonsoc12/docker-cloudflared development by creating an account on GitHub.

I’d probably add a set -x to the set output step.

I’d probably also enable debug logging:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/monitoring-and-troubleshooting-workflows/enabling-debug-logging

0 replies

afonsoc12 · 2022-05-17T18:31:33Z

afonsoc12
May 17, 2022
Author

Thanks, sure the scripts are still very crude, I am looking forward to fix CI first.
While the output is shown on this one, it does not show here, which is going to use another workflow

0 replies

jsoref · 2022-05-17T20:32:07Z

jsoref
May 17, 2022

https://github.com/check-spelling/docker-cloudflared/runs/6478217149?check_suite_focus=true#step:3:1

0 replies

jsoref · 2022-05-17T20:33:52Z

jsoref
May 17, 2022

I should probably explain, but in short:
afonsoc12/docker-cloudflared@ee01e19

A slightly longer explanation is certainly in order.

Literally, the google completion for github.event.inputs is github.event.inputs vs inputs.

GitHub supports events that have inputs:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/events-that-trigger-workflows#providing-inputs
It handles that via github.event.inputs

It also supports giving (reusable) workflows inputs:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/reusing-workflows#using-inputs-and-secrets-in-a-reusable-workflow

In that case, inputs come via inputs

Note that this aligns with actions:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/creating-actions/metadata-syntax-for-github-actions#inputs
where they also come via inputs:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/contexts#inputs-context

2 replies

longyarnz Mar 6, 2023

I don't know why @afonsoc12 marked this comment as the answer but it doesn't answer the question.

jsoref Mar 6, 2023

So, the trick is that there are two files that were supposed to work together, one generated some outputs and tried to pass those as inputs to the other. The problem wasn't in the file with the outputs, it was in the file trying to take those as inputs.

You can see how they debugged and fixed it here:
https://github.com/afonsoc12/docker-cloudflared/blob/f593a4d237b07cc7ce0a60130a7e46da250e34f7/.github/workflows/docker_build_master.yml#L25-L27

        echo "github.events.inputs: ${{ github.event.inputs.version }}"
        echo "inputs: ${{ inputs.version }}"
        echo "::set-output name=version::${{ github.event.inputs.version || inputs.version }}"

I'm sorry that the answer didn't clarify that the question was misstated, but, until someone understands what's going wrong, all they can do is describe what they think they see -- and they thought their output wasn't getting to the next stage, and they were kinda right -- so what they wrote as a question was understandable.

afonsoc12 · 2022-05-17T21:56:34Z

afonsoc12
May 17, 2022
Author

Hi,
Thanks this was massive help! I’ll read those links closely

0 replies

gatsbyz · 2023-04-25T14:17:55Z

gatsbyz
Apr 25, 2023

The problem is that the version variable is being set as empty string.

This problem still persists.

trigger:
  needs: external_trigger
  uses: ./.github/workflows/docker_build_master.yml
  with:
    version: ${{ needs.external_trigger.outputs.version }}

with uses:, needs.job_id.outputs.xxxxx is returning an empty string

seems like OP's solution was to just paste the uses: workflow into the same file. https://github.com/afonsoc12/docker-cloudflared/blob/master/.github/workflows/docker_build_master.yml#L29-L39

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