What is the second column in the Actions for?

[Rod-at-DOH]

Why are you starting this discussion?

Question

What GitHub Actions topic or product is this about?

Misc

Discussion Details

When we create a PR and successfully run it, an entry on the Actions page for that repo on GitHub.com, will appear. The left most column has the value of the name from the .yml file, some data from the commit message that the developer entered when they made their commit, the number of runs of that .yml file, etc. The second column has branch names. The third column has how long ago the workflow ran and how long it took to run. The fourth column is 3 dots for additional information.

My question concerns the second column. What branch is displayed there? What I mean is that in previous iterations of the .yml file it looked like it was showing us the name of the destination branch when the PR succeeded and merged to the destination branch. However, we were experiencing other side issues, so I asked in this forum/discussion group for help, which I received 😄.
Now that we've prevented two builds from running and making it so that only one build is run upon closing the PR and successfully merging the changes to the destination branch, the branch displayed in that second column is the originating branch, not the destination branch. Is the source branch the branch that is meant to be displayed in the second column?

[vpexxi]

well...gitHub Actions always shows you the branch or ref that actually kicked off that workflow run, so if your job is firing on pull_request events ,, the second column will list the PR’s source branch (the head ref) because that’s what triggered it. If you want to see your destination branch there, you’d need to let the workflow run on the push event to that branch (e.g. push: branches: [main]) rather than only on the pull_request trigger....

[Rod-at-DOH]

Oh WOW. We tried using push, but that meant that we would get 2 actions; the first when someone created the PR and the second when the PR ran. For some reason, the YAML file which was causing multiple runs had this at the beginning of the file:

name: Emailer Development Deployment

on:
  push:

    branches: 
      - Development
    paths:
      - '.github/workflows/Emailer-Dev.yml'
      - 'Emailer/**.*'

jobs:
  build-Emailer:

    environment: 
      name: ${{ github.ref_name }}

And what we have now is this:

name: Emailer Development Deployment

on:
  pull_request:
    types: closed
    branches: 
      - Development
    paths:
      - 'Emailer/**.*'

jobs:
  build-Emailer:
    if : ${{ github.event.pull_request.merged == true && github.base_ref == 'Development' }}
    environment: 
      name: ${{ github.ref_name }}

[kawtinx]

Yes, there's not taken into account the triggering branch on GitHub Actions, the source branch of the PR (On pull_request) is the triggering branch.

If you want it, when you push to target branch, Toggle on Push to the target branch.

You've prevented double runs by adjusting the trigger to only run on pull_request with types: closed and a regular condition.

💡 Tip: If you ever need both sets of info (source and destination) you’d like to include in some place, for example in your workflow logs or job name:

name: "Build PR from ${{ github. head_ref }} into ${{ github. base_ref }}"

If you'd like, I can give you a prettified version of your YAML.

[vpexxi]

hmmm...once you switch to a pull_request: closed trigger, GitHub Actions will show the PR’s source branch (the head ref) in that second column because that’s what actually fired the workflow. If you want the destination branch to appear instead, you’ll need to run on a push to that branch (e.g. on: push: branches: [Development]) and either remove the pull_request block or guard your job with something like if: github.event_name == 'push'. That way you’ll get exactly one run on merge, and the column will read “Development.”..errrr

[Rod-at-DOH]

@kawtinx I'll give that

name: "Build PR from ${{ github. head_ref }} into ${{ github. base_ref }}"

I try, thank you.

[Rod-at-DOH]

@kawtinx I tried using what you provided. Perhaps I entered it wrong, but I got this error message:

The workflow is not valid. .github/workflows/Emailer-Dev.yml (Line: 5, Col: 7): Unrecognized named-value: 'github'. Located at position 1 within expression: github.head_ref

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[rfalanga]

I believe it is the name of the originating branch. If that is wrong, please correct me.

[jfullstackdev]

these might be the related helpful issues:

1. Have a new workflow run from a PR (non-main branch) before merging
   🔗 https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/25746

2. GitHub Actions run a job on pull request merge to specific branch
   🔗 https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/67160