GitHub Actions: Terminology – DevOpsSchool.com

Here’s a table that summarizes key GitHub Actions terminology, providing a clear and concise explanation of each term:

Example

name: CI Pipeline

# Define the triggers (events) for this workflow
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch: # Allows manually triggering the workflow

# Define the jobs in the workflow
jobs:
  # A job for building the project using a matrix strategy
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        node-version: [12.x, 14.x, 16.x] # Run the job for different versions of Node.js
        os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest] # Run on different operating systems
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3 # Action to checkout the code

      - name: Set up Node.js ${{ matrix.node-version }}
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}

      - name: Cache node modules
        uses: actions/cache@v3 # Cache dependencies
        with:
          path: ~/.npm
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json') }}
          restore-keys: |
            ${{ runner.os }}-node-

      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Run Unit Tests
        run: npm test

      - name: Upload Test Results as Artifacts
        if: always() # Upload artifacts even if the tests fail
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: test-results
          path: test-results.xml

  # A job for deploying the application, running only when building on main
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: build # This job will only run if the build job succeeds
    environment: production # Specifies the environment (can be 'production', 'staging', etc.)
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' # Deploy only on pushes to main
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Set up Node.js 16.x
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: 16.x

      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Deploy to Production Server
        env:
          SSH_PRIVATE_KEY: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }} # Using a secret for authentication
        run: |
          ssh -i $SSH_PRIVATE_KEY [email protected] "cd /var/www/app && git pull && npm install && pm2 restart app"
        
      - name: Notify on Success
        if: success()
        run: echo "Deployment successful!"

      - name: Notify on Failure
        if: failure()
        run: echo "Deployment failed!"

Explanation of Key Terminology in the Workflow

Main Features Demonstrated

1. Triggers: The workflow triggers on push and pull_request to the main branch, and can also be manually triggered via workflow_dispatch.
2. Matrix: The build job uses a matrix to run multiple combinations of Node.js versions (12.x, 14.x, 16.x) and operating systems (ubuntu-latest, windows-latest).
3. Secrets: The deploy job uses a secret (SSH_PRIVATE_KEY) to securely authenticate the deployment process.
4. Conditional Execution:
   • The deploy job only runs on the main branch.
   • The steps Notify on Success and Notify on Failure use if: success() and if: failure() to conditionally run based on the outcome of previous steps.
5. Artifacts: Test results are uploaded as an artifact so that they can be accessed after the workflow completes.
6. Caching: Caching is used for npm dependencies to improve performance on subsequent runs.

Conclusion:

This workflow showcases a wide variety of GitHub Actions terminologies, demonstrating how to set up a matrix build, conditionally run jobs, use secrets, cache dependencies, upload artifacts, and trigger workflows with various events.

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