First of all, thanks for this action.

I've noticed that though the README has a section about the code being GPL-licensed, there are no LICENSE files that I could find (at least in the main branch) and the links in the README are broken. This makes me a bit wary of using it in my projects and might discourage others from contributing.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
This action seems to always exit non-zero, which leads to false positives. The Github action frame-work already has the continue-on-error: true attribute which can be set for each step in a job. Additionally, if the action didn't do what it should do, which in this case is sync files, it should always return non-zero when it doesn't.

This sample output didn't actually make any changes.

...which for my implementation is good. In this case I want the workflow to repo 'success', but for other conditions I may want this to report as a 'failure':

Here's an example where the copy failed, but this action reports a success (???):

If I ask the action to copy files and they don't exist, this is a failure in my opinion. On the other side, If there are files but this action fails to perform the copy it should still report as a failure.

Here's an example where this action failed to create a branch (due to a URL unfriendly name), but instead exited to a success status:

Describe the solution you'd like
The approach which I'd recommend would be to have the additional inputs be verified for 'real' success and if this action is unable to perform them completely and successfully, then fast-fail. Example:

with:
  ..
  ...
  PULL_REQUEST: true # if for ANY reason this is unsuccessful, the action exits non-zero because I've asked this action to create a pull-request.
  AUTO_CREATE_NEW_BRANCH: true # if for ANY reason no branch was created or exists with the provided name, then exit non-zero
  WORKFLOW_FILES: |
    file1 # if this file exists in the source repo and doesn't after the commit step, fail the action
    folder2=folder1 # if content fails to copy, fail the action
  GITHUB_TOKEN: 90234560346523458234example # if unable to clone the source repo or push to the destination repo, again..fail this action.

If there is an issue with the release version, since this would probably be a breaking-change, then create a new input, but default it to true. When ready to release the need major version such as v4.0, then just make this default false.

with:
  ..
  ...
  INGNORE_FAILURES: true # this is defaulted to true, but can be set to `false` to get the behavior described above.

Describe alternatives you've considered
There are many ways to implement this, even not exiting non-zero, such as outputting the 'end-state' or 'exit status'. Here's an example:
*exit-status: "unknown_error"
*exit-status: "clone_failure"
*exit-status: "copy_failed"
*exit-status: "invalid_token"
*exit-status: "pull-request_failed"
*exit-status: "ect,ect."

With these statuses, a Final status for the github workflow/job can be determined in a subsequent step as to whether the action really did what the implementation needs.
Additional context
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

@varunsridharan Once the file is synced and updated in the target repository and when the changes are made in the script and updated and when the changes are pushed to the target repository it's not getting updated.

For example:
abc.sh in beginning
echo "hi"
abc.sh in target repo
echo "hi"

abc.sh after updating
echo "hello"
abc.sh in target repo after updating
echo "hi"

workflow file used

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"
env:
  DRY_RUN: false
  REPOSITORIES: |
    QE/yarn-qe@github-actions-poc
  WORKFLOW_FILES: |
    yarn-qe/approval.yaml=.github/workflows/pr-approval.yaml
    yarn-qe/qe-check.yaml=.github/workflows/qe-check.yaml
    yarn-qe/qe-ci-gate-qe-gate.yaml=.github/workflows/qe-ci-gate-qe-gate.yaml
    .github/qaas-jobs/static-analysis.sh=.github/static-analysis.sh
    .github/qaas-jobs/commit_message_check.sh=.github/commit_message_check.sh
    .github/qaas-jobs/docker-build-system_test.sh=.github/docker-build-system_test.sh
    .github/qaas-jobs/docker-build-temp-image-system_test.sh=.github/docker-build-temp-image-system_test.sh
jobs:
  Github_Workflow_Sync:
    runs-on: [re-centos7]
    steps:
      - name: Fetching Local Repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Running Workflow Sync
        uses: Kitchen/RE-thirdparty-actions/actions/workflow-sync@main
        with:
          DRY_RUN: ${{ env.DRY_RUN }}
          REPOSITORIES: ${{ env.REPOSITORIES }}
          WORKFLOW_FILES: ${{ env.WORKFLOW_FILES }}
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.RE_JENKINS_GH_USER_TOKEN }}
          PULL_REQUEST: true
          GIT_URL: ***
          COMMIT_MESSAGE: "Sync workflow files | Triggered by Kitchen/RE-github-workflows"```

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Some of the repos we would like to keep in sync customize the workflows to a small extent.
It would be nice to keep the customizability but have a common basis that is up to date.

Describe the solution you'd like
It would be cool if the sync could open PRs upon pushing the workflow files to a specified branch

Describe alternatives you've considered
Currently, we bypass the problem by having a workflow inside the target repo that creates the PR upon pushes to the "workflow-sync" branch

Does that make sense to you?

Due to changes into the branches management, the master branch is not longer supported and will be removed in 1 month (EOL: 2020-11-29).

After a search, here is the list of projects who use master branch for this action inside their workflows.

• ihm-software/.github#5
• TheBoringWebsites/bddummy1#1

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I'd like to update a repository without kicking off that repo's build automation.

Describe the solution you'd like
Since Github Actions now supports adding [skip ci] to the commit message (https://github.blog/changelog/2021-02-08-github-actions-skip-pull-request-and-push-workflows-with-skip-ci/), I'd like to be able to add it to the commit message
by setting a parameter/input.
It could be something as simple as SKIP_CI: true
This would result in a commit message something like "Files Synced | [skp ci] | Runner ID : ! | ⚡ Triggered By Name/Repo"
Without that option, updating a config file could result in 100s of deployments kicking off at once.

Describe alternatives you've considered
A more flexible solution might be to edit part or the whole commit message by inputing a string.

Additional context
Might be useful to know that several CI engines support [skip ci]

https://github.blog/changelog/2021-02-08-github-actions-skip-pull-request-and-push-workflows-with-skip-ci/
https://circleci.com/docs/2.0/skip-build/
https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/customizing-the-build/#skipping-a-build

Also, really love your work here.
Great solution to a problem I've been trying to solve for far too long 👍

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I use this action to sync files to a few repos by opening a PR, some of which are not maintained that often. For those repos every time a sync is started a new PR is opened while old ones are still open.

Describe the solution you'd like
Is it possible that this actions detects that there still is an open PR and just adds a new commit to that branch? (Maybe this needs to be configurable)

Describe alternatives you've considered
Just accept it and close 'old' PR's manually.

Would be better if I can setup labels for PR created by bot

name: Workflow Sync

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
env:
  DRY_RUN: false
  CUSTOM_LABEL: workflow_sync_bot
  REPOSITORIES: |
  
  WORKFLOW_FILES: |

jobs:
  Github_Workflow_Sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Fetching Local Repository
        uses: actions/checkout@master
      - name: Running Workflow Sync
        uses: varunsridharan/action-github-workflow-sync@main
        with:
          DRY_RUN: ${{ env.DRY_RUN }}
          REPOSITORIES: ${{ env.REPOSITORIES }}
          WORKFLOW_FILES: ${{ env.WORKFLOW_FILES }}
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
          CUSTOM_LABEL: ${{ env.CUSTOM_LABEL }}

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I started my journey towards workflow sharing with starter workflows at https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/creating-starter-workflows-for-your-organization, by creating files in the org .github repo's workflow-templates sub-directorywith the $default-branch placeholder.

Then later, I realized I can't use workflow-templates unless I switch to GitHub Enterprise Cloud. Which I'm not ready to do (yet).
And I only have private repos in my organization.

Then I found this project, and figured this would solve my immediate problem of copying workflow files to target repositories whenever a change is pushed.

Problem: The target repositories use a mix of master and main as default branch. And I cannot change that yet.

Describe the solution you'd like
Have action-github-workflow-sync replace $default-branch with the default branch name of the repository that the workflow file is being copied to. This way, I keep workflow-templates which is starter workflow friendly for the day I switch to Enterprise Cloud (which could be never), and yet the sync creates a workflow file that contains the correct default branch name on my behalf.

There is then only one source of truth for the workflows...

Describe alternatives you've considered
I've considered reusable workflows, but it is not possible to call a reusable workflow in a private repository from a workflow in another private repository.

Additional context
Organizations dealing only with private repositories are not well served by default when it comes to keeping workflows DRY. Making this change could help improve the situation.

I tried passing the path as traditional "path/to/folder/*" to get every file in a folder but it does not work. This feature can come handy when you have many files in source folder.

Node.js 16 actions are deprecated. See https://github.blog/changelog/2023-09-22-github-actions-transitioning-from-node-16-to-node-20/.

When running this action, GitHub issues
"Node.js 16 actions are deprecated. Please update the following actions to use Node.js 20: varunsridharan/[email protected]. For more information see: https://github.blog/changelog/2023-09-22-github-actions-transitioning-from-node-16-to-node-20/."

This is a nice feature, it would be beneficial for us if we could get regex support for adding branch names under the REPOSITORIES: section
Hoping to see this feature very soon!!!
Thanks!!

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Currently the sync action only looks in github.com/{repository}, which does not work with Github Enterprise Servers.

Describe the solution you'd like
When assigning the git_url variable, use a new GIT_URL variable which would be defaulted to github.com but be over writable by users with GIT_URL

Describe alternatives you've considered
None

Additional context
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

When using the action, the following warning shows up on the workflow run summary page under "Annotations":

Node.js 12 actions are deprecated. For more information see: https://github.blog/changelog/2022-09-22-github-actions-all-actions-will-begin-running-on-node16-instead-of-node12/. Please update the following actions to use Node.js 16: varunsridharan/action-github-workflow-sync

Describe the solution you'd like
Please migrate to using node.js 16

Describe the bug
Hi, thanks for providing this useful action.
Unfortunately it fails for us, because somehow the git user is not correctly set inside the action itself.

We are running the action inside our organization, the repos are not public.
Would you have an idea how to fix this?

Here is the log from the action

" "update-prod.yml
" "***" "false" "workflows" "false" "false"

🗃 Git Config
    > Name          : Github Actions Workflow Sync Bot
    > Email         : [email protected]

 
⚙️ Basic Config
-------------------------------------------------------
  * DRY_RUN               : false
  * Total Repositories    : 1
  * Total Workflow Files  : 1
--------------------------------------------------------
 
📓  celonis/workflow-sync-test
  ⚙️ Repository Config
    Slug          : celonis/workflow-sync-test
    Branch        : default
    Url           : ***github.com/celonis/workflow-sync-test.git
    Local Path    : /workflow-sync/celonis/workflow-sync-test/default
  
  ✔️ Repository Cloned
  
  update-test.yml
    update-test.yml => update-test.yml
  
  Git Commit & Push Log
  ---------------------------------------------------
  
  *** Please tell me who you are.
  
  Run
  
    git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
    git config --global user.name "Your Name"
  
  to set your account's default identity.
  Omit --global to set the identity only in this repository.
  
  fatal: unable to auto-detect email address (got 'root@6a55273d2ba1.(none)')

Additional context
This seems to happen in the ghconfig function.
I couldn't find the source of /gh-toolkit/shell.sh where the function for setting up git is most likely defined.

Describe the bug
Intermittent 'Repository Dose Not Exists !' error whilst trying to sync

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Run workflow for multiple repositories

Expected behavior
Workflows should sync across all repositories

Additional context
We have multiple repositories being used for syncing and we are constantly running into the Repository Dose Not Exists ! error. It does not happen all the time but intermittent

It would be really nice to have the ability to clean up the destination directory before copying files.

Would like to have the ability to have custom destination paths. For example:

WORKFLOW_FILES: |
  ./sync/dependabot.yml=./.github/dependabot.yml

I don't want the destination to be .github/workflows/dependabot.yml because then github thinks it's an action rather than a dependabot file.