Github Action: Upstream Sync

About

An action with forks in mind! Automatically sync a branch on your fork with the latest commits from the original repo. It should work to keep any two branches in sync. Keep all your things up to date!

Support This Project

This project is not currently in active development, but code contributions are always welcome.

I encourage you to share projects using Fork Sync in the Users file. Open a PR against Users so others can check out your work!

USERS.md

If you would like to see more updates to this project, please consider taking a brief survey to help me understand your needs. Thank you, and happy coding.

Fork Sync - Developer Survey

Intended Workflow

This action was made to keep non-working branches up to date with a remote repo. However, you should also be able to use it for branches under active development as long as the custom input supports your needs.

Configure the action with a branch on your target repo - the one you want to update - and a branch on your upstream repo - where the updates are coming from. This action checks out those branches on both repos, checks for any new commits (by hash comparison), and pulls those new commits from upstream to the target. Easy!

How to Use

Add a workflow to your repo that includes this action (sample below). Please note that scheduled workflows only run on the default branch of a repo.

Input Variables

Always set target_repo_token to ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} so the action can push to your target repo.

For more information on optional input variables, advanced configurations, and working with private repos, see Wiki - Configuration

Output Variables

If you need more output data, please open an issue to request it.

Sample Workflow

name: 'Upstream Sync'

on:
  schedule:
    - cron:  '0 7 * * 1,4'
    # scheduled at 07:00 every Monday and Thursday

  workflow_dispatch:  # click the button on Github repo!
    inputs:
      sync_test_mode: # Adds a boolean option that appears during manual workflow run for easy test mode config
        description: 'Fork Sync Test Mode'
        type: boolean
        default: false

jobs:
  sync_latest_from_upstream:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Sync latest commits from upstream repo

    steps:
    # REQUIRED step
    # Step 1: run a standard checkout action, provided by github
    - name: Checkout target repo
      uses: actions/checkout@v3
      with:
        # optional: set the branch to checkout,
        # sync action checks out your 'target_sync_branch' anyway
        ref:  my-branch
        # REQUIRED if your upstream repo is private (see wiki)
        persist-credentials: false

    # REQUIRED step
    # Step 2: run the sync action
    - name: Sync upstream changes
      id: sync
      uses: aormsby/Fork-Sync-With-Upstream-action@v3.4.1
      with:
        target_sync_branch: my-branch
        # REQUIRED 'target_repo_token' exactly like this!
        target_repo_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        upstream_sync_branch: main
        upstream_sync_repo: aormsby/Fork-Sync-With-Upstream-action
        upstream_repo_access_token: ${{ secrets.UPSTREAM_REPO_SECRET }}

        # Set test_mode true during manual dispatch to run tests instead of the true action!!
        test_mode: ${{ inputs.sync_test_mode }}

    # Step 3: Display a sample message based on the sync output var 'has_new_commits'
    - name: New commits found
      if: steps.sync.outputs.has_new_commits == 'true'
      run: echo "New commits were found to sync."

    - name: No new commits
      if: steps.sync.outputs.has_new_commits == 'false'
      run: echo "There were no new commits."

    - name: Show value of 'has_new_commits'
      run: echo ${{ steps.sync.outputs.has_new_commits }}