6 ms·

How I accidentally took down GitHub Actions (2019)

142 points by l1n 5y ago

namanaggarwal 5y ago
Question: What did,"https://api.github.com/repos/actions/docker/tarball/76ff57a https://api.github.com/repos/actions/docker/tarball/76ff57a" had anything to do with the OPs fork? Shouldn't it just point to the original repo which didn't had the clashing commit ?
- namanaggarwal 5y ago
  So, OP has answered it and I missed it, Github shares commit hash between Forks and parent repo
  - justusthane 5y ago
    Yeah, and it can lead to fun things like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24882921 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24882921
- daniel-thompson 5y ago
  > However, I realized I could get around that issue by forking the actions/docker repo and pushing a commit to my fork (since GitHub shares commits between forks and parent repositories).
- brilee 5y ago
  It's a space-saving mechanism; since forks are extremely common, sharing commit trees across all of GitHub makes the forking action very cheap.
- canadianfella 5y ago
  *have
papa-whisky 5y ago
>I used GitHub’s configuration wizard to create a config file. I wonder why this config UI never made it out of the beta. Sounds kinda handy...
- madeofpalk 5y ago
  Looks like the configuration format also changed before publicly released - Actions now uses a YAML file.
- wungsten 5y ago
  I suppose they might have figured the "New Workflow" UI that can add Starter Workflows is a suitable replacement. https://github.com/actions/starter-workflows https://github.com/actions/starter-workflows
- tasogare 5y ago
  Visual Studio Online (now Azure DevOps if it didn't change again) used to have a wizard/UI to create CI scripts. It was very handy and allow to create them quickly. One day they imposed the YAML version (probably close or the same used now for GH actions) and it has been a huge pain to use: all discoverability is lost, and it's now a painful cycle of searching documentation with a search engine, try something, commit, lose build minutes, wait it to fail, restart at step one. I want the wizard back.
  - joelby37 5y ago
    I totally agree.. I like the idea of YAML and source control for pipelines, but unless you're already very familiar with the system it is much slower. Fortunately there's a "Use the classic editor to create a pipeline without YAML" option to use the previous system.
    - vorticalbox 5y ago
      is there? ive never seen that hutton on any repos at work.
  - 5y ago
judge2020 5y ago
In case you don't recognize the syntax, this is HCL and was the system in use before it was changed to YML. This change seems to have been (partially) a result of being purchased by Microsoft since the HCL version ran on Google Cloud while the new one used Azure instances.
- darkwater 5y ago
  One of my acquisitions bet is that MS will eventually buy Hashicorp, so they might switch back to HCL one day :)

142 points by l1n 5y ago

Question: What did,"https://api.github.com/repos/actions/docker/tarball/76ff57a https://api.github.com/repos/actions/docker/tarball/76ff57a" had anything to do with the OPs fork? Shouldn't it just point to the original repo which didn't had the clashing commit ?

namanaggarwal 5y ago
So, OP has answered it and I missed it, Github shares commit hash between Forks and parent repo
- justusthane 5y ago
  Yeah, and it can lead to fun things like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24882921 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24882921
daniel-thompson 5y ago
> However, I realized I could get around that issue by forking the actions/docker repo and pushing a commit to my fork (since GitHub shares commits between forks and parent repositories).
brilee 5y ago
It's a space-saving mechanism; since forks are extremely common, sharing commit trees across all of GitHub makes the forking action very cheap.
canadianfella 5y ago
*have

papa-whisky 5y ago

>I used GitHub’s configuration wizard to create a config file. I wonder why this config UI never made it out of the beta. Sounds kinda handy...

madeofpalk 5y ago
Looks like the configuration format also changed before publicly released - Actions now uses a YAML file.
wungsten 5y ago
I suppose they might have figured the "New Workflow" UI that can add Starter Workflows is a suitable replacement. https://github.com/actions/starter-workflows https://github.com/actions/starter-workflows
tasogare 5y ago
Visual Studio Online (now Azure DevOps if it didn't change again) used to have a wizard/UI to create CI scripts. It was very handy and allow to create them quickly. One day they imposed the YAML version (probably close or the same used now for GH actions) and it has been a huge pain to use: all discoverability is lost, and it's now a painful cycle of searching documentation with a search engine, try something, commit, lose build minutes, wait it to fail, restart at step one. I want the wizard back.
- joelby37 5y ago
  I totally agree.. I like the idea of YAML and source control for pipelines, but unless you're already very familiar with the system it is much slower. Fortunately there's a "Use the classic editor to create a pipeline without YAML" option to use the previous system.
  - vorticalbox 5y ago
    is there? ive never seen that hutton on any repos at work.
- 5y ago

judge2020 5y ago

In case you don't recognize the syntax, this is HCL and was the system in use before it was changed to YML. This change seems to have been (partially) a result of being purchased by Microsoft since the HCL version ran on Google Cloud while the new one used Azure instances.

darkwater 5y ago
One of my acquisitions bet is that MS will eventually buy Hashicorp, so they might switch back to HCL one day :)