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Anower Jahan Shofol
Anower Jahan Shofol

Posted on • Edited on

Run your Github Actions jobs from a specific directory

#todayilearned #github #webdev

I am working on a current project where the Backend and the Frontend of the application are on the same repository of Github. That's why I faced a situation to run the Github Actions jobs for my React app from a specific directory. And, I find a quick solution to it.

Specify for all Jobs:

Github actions have a working-directory option to declare on workflow. It specifies the working directory for all run steps.

defaults:
  run:
    working-directory: web
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Documentation:
defaults.run

Specify for specific Job:

So, you got the idea. This can be configured for specific jobs too. To set working_directory for a specific job, here is the procedure-

jobs:
  job1:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    defaults:
      run:
        working-directory: scripts
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Documentation:
jobs..defaults.run

Here is a simple Actions for NodeJs build job. The 'web' directory will be used for all jobs run-

name: Node.js CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [ frontend-develop ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ frontend-develop ]

defaults:
  run:
    working-directory: web

jobs:
  build:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    strategy:
      matrix:
        node-version: [10.x, 12.x, 14.x]

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Use Node.js ${{ matrix.node-version }}
      uses: actions/setup-node@v1
      with:
        node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
    - run: npm ci
    - run: npm run build --if-present
    - run: npm test
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From the first documentation an important note to quote-

When more than one default setting is defined with the same name, GitHub uses the most specific default setting. For example, a default setting defined in a job will override a default setting that has the same name defined in a workflow.

Thanks for checking out the article. I hope it may help someone somehow. Let me know if I missed something or did something wrong.

Good Luck!

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Top comments (6)

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spydon profile image
Lukas Klingsbo •

This doesn't work for uses unfortunately.

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corleroux profile image
Cor le Roux •

For anyone struggling with the Node Setup action step, specifically with the uses section when your project is in a sub-folder, you need to add a cache-dependency-path to the with section.

Example:


 - uses: actions/setup-node@v2
  with:
    node-version: '14'
    cache: 'npm'
    cache-dependency-path: subdir/package-lock.json`
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rickychongjl profile image
rickychongjl • • Edited

To add to this, if your package.lock.json is in another directory, this would most probably mean that you need to target npm build command to that particular directory by adding the default-directory syntax on your steps or job (depending on your setup)

npm:
runs-on: windows-latest
defaults:
run:
working-directory: ./subdir/
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- uses: actions/setup-node@v3
with:
node-version: 16
cache: 'npm'
cache-dependency-path: ./subdir/package-lock.json

Thread Thread
 
thebigstevo profile image
Stephen Somuah •

your solution in addition to the article was helpful

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seriosus profile image
Alekz •

uses is for linking a repo, which works in its own directories, that is what is supposed to happen, that's why you cant use working-directory with uses

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bgrand_ch profile image
Benjamin Grand •

Thanks a lot!

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