This recipe runs a Python script to update a README, then commits it back to the parent repo but only if it has changed:
\non:\n push:\n branches:\n - master\n# ...\n - name: Update README\n run: python update_readme.py --rewrite\n - name: Commit README back to the repo\n run: |-\n git config --global user.email \"readme-bot@example.com\"\n git config --global user.name \"README-bot\"\n git diff --quiet || (git add README.md && git commit -m \"Updated README\")\n git pushMy first attempt threw an error if I tried o run git commit -m ... and the README had not changed.
It turns out git diff --quiet exits with a 1 exit code if anything has changed, so this recipe adds the file and commits it only if something differs:
git diff --quiet || (git add README.md && git commit -m \"Updated README\")Mikeal Rogers has a publish-to-github-action which uses a slightly different pattern:
\n# publish any new files\ngit checkout master\ngit add -A\ntimestamp=$(date -u)\ngit commit -m \"Automated publish: ${timestamp} ${GITHUB_SHA}\" || exit 0\ngit pull --rebase publisher master\ngit push publisher masterCleanest example yet: https://github.com/simonw/coronavirus-data-gov-archive/blob/master/.github/workflows/scheduled.yml
\nname: Fetch latest data\n\non:\n push:\n repository_dispatch:\n schedule:\n - cron: '25 * * * *'\n\njobs:\n scheduled:\n runs-on: ubuntu-latest\n steps:\n - name: Check out this repo\n uses: actions/checkout@v2\n - name: Fetch latest data\n run: |-\n curl https://c19downloads.azureedge.net/downloads/data/data_latest.json | jq . > data_latest.json\n curl https://c19pub.azureedge.net/utlas.geojson | gunzip | jq . > utlas.geojson\n curl https://c19pub.azureedge.net/countries.geojson | gunzip | jq . > countries.geojson\n curl https://c19pub.azureedge.net/regions.geojson | gunzip | jq . > regions.geojson\n - name: Commit and push if it changed\n run: |-\n git config user.name \"Automated\"\n git config user.email \"actions@users.noreply.github.com\"\n git add -A\n timestamp=$(date -u)\n git commit -m \"Latest data: ${timestamp}\" || exit 0\n git push