Feature request: pull before push

See also #79

This action works well for me, but occasionally I am running 2 of them at the same time and one will push changes in the middle of another one pulling the changes and then pushing.

It would be convenient if there was a pull_first: true option that would re-issue the git pull right before pushing to avoid a push conflict. Force is not the option as that will overwrite the other push changes (and ruin history).

I just run code inside the runner directly now rather than calling this action:

jobs:
  my_job_name:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
        # Standard checkout step
        - name: Checkout code
          id: git_checkout
          uses: actions/checkout@v2
          ....
        # Commit files
        ... # I use https://github.com/EndBug/add-and-commit
        # Push config files
        - name: Push code
          id: git_push
          run: |
            # Pull first
            git pull --rebase origin "${GITHUB_REF}"

            # Push after
            git push origin "${GITHUB_REF}"

You may find this latest update https://github.blog/changelog/2021-04-19-github-actions-limit-workflow-run-or-job-concurrency/ quite useful. Setting concurrency on your jobs means your workflows are run in sequence rather than sequentially

@alexiswl

@alexiswl Could you provide pull request to README of github-push-action to add note about concurrency settings?

@ad-m

@ad-m while the concurrency means that the jobs don't run simultaneously, they still run from the one original commit.

Whilst concurrency will stop 'race conditions' of two actions pushing commits to the repo at the exact same time, it won't fix the issue because the second push will always fail because it hasn't merged the commit of the first push.

Any ideas on this? We are seeing this error when lots of GitHub actions fire closely together and errors with:

Run ad-m/github-push-action@master
Push to branch master
To https://github.com/Acme-Org/DevOps.git
 ! [rejected]          HEAD -> master (non-fast-forward)
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/Acme-Org/DevOps.git'
hint: Updates were rejected because the tip of your current branch is behind
hint: its remote counterpart. Integrate the remote changes (e.g.
hint: 'git pull ...') before pushing again.
hint: See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.
Error: Invalid exit code: 1
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/_actions/ad-m/github-push-action/master/start.js:29:21)
    at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:314:20)
    at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:1022:16)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:28[7](https://github.com/Acme-Org/DevOps/runs/6603223590?check_suite_focus=true#step:4:8):5) {
  code: 1
}
Error: Invalid exit code: 1
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/_actions/ad-m/github-push-action/master/start.js:29:21)
    at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:314:20)
    at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:1022:16)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:2[8](https://github.com/Acme-Org/DevOps/runs/6603223590?check_suite_focus=true#step:4:9)7:5)

Is there a way to perform a pull/rebase before?

@nodesocket

Hi @nodesocket, do you tried git pull or git pull --rebase origin "${GITHUB_REF}" beforehand? You can include the command inside the commit/ configuration area, e.g.

- name: Commit files
      run: |
        git pull
        git config --local user.email "41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
        git config --local user.name "github-actions[bot]"
        git commit -m "Add changes" -a

@nsheff I think the point sounds valid to include a flag to pull the repository beforehand. I'll check how to include the functionality and prepare a PR.

@ZPascal

@ZPascal the action definition just does a checkout, runs a custom bash script which takes 1-2 seconds and then calls push. Do you spot anything or a solution? Are you recommending to call pull right before push?

jobs:
  update-helm-image-tags:
    name: Updated Helm image tags
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - name: updateimagetags.sh
        run: helm/updateimagetags.sh ${{ join(github.event.client_payload.applications, ',') }} ${{ join(github.event.client_payload.environments, ',') }} ${{ github.event.client_payload.image_tag }}
      - name: Push
        uses: ad-m/github-push-action@master
        with:
          force: false

@nodesocket

Hi @nodesocket, I would recommend trying a pull beforehand. I've got one question: Your bash script does the rest (git config, git add, git commit)?

@ZPascal

@ZPascal correct, in my bash script I am doing the following:

git config --local user.name "GitHub Actions"
git config --local user.email "engineering+$GITHUB_ACTOR@acme.org"
git add --all
git commit -am "[gh-action] image tag for $APPLICATIONS in $ENVIRONMENTS to $IMAGE_TAG"

Should I just add git pull --rebase at the end, after the commit?

@nodesocket

Hi @nodesocket, yes. I think that should solve the issue.

this package should totally have pull as an optional parameter.

I'll put the topic on my TODO list. I think it makes sense to contribute the feature.

The feature is implemented and realized in #373.

Navigation Menu

Repository navigation

Feature request: pull before push #84

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Feature request: pull before push #84

Description

Activity

alexiswl commented on Jul 5, 2021

ad-m commented on Jul 10, 2021

alexiswl commented on Jul 12, 2021

nodesocket commented on May 26, 2022

ZPascal commented on May 26, 2022

nodesocket commented on May 26, 2022

ZPascal commented on May 31, 2022

nodesocket commented on May 31, 2022

ZPascal commented on May 31, 2022

kevupton commented on Aug 3, 2022

ZPascal commented on May 20, 2026

ZPascal commented on May 23, 2026

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions