Introduction

GitHub Actions provides a powerful and flexible platform for automating workflows directly within your GitHub repository. One common use case is automating the testing of collections in Ansible, ensuring that each component functions as expected. This article will guide you through the setup of a GitHub Actions workflow for testing Ansible collections using the .github/test.yml configuration.

Understanding the Configuration

Let's break down the structure of the .github/test.yml file:

``yaml

name: GHA for foo.bar

concurrency:

group: ${{ github.head_ref || github.run_id }}

cancel-in-progress: true

on:

pull_request:

branches: [main]

workflow_dispatch:

schedule:

- cron: '0 0 *'

`

  • name: Describes the name of the GitHub Actions workflow.
  • concurrency: Specifies concurrency settings, ensuring that workflows do not interfere with each other. The group attribute combines workflows under the same conditions, and cancel-in-progress cancels any currently running workflow if a new one is triggered.
  • on: Defines the events that trigger the workflow. In this case, the workflow is triggered on pull requests targeting the main branch, manually using workflow_dispatch, and on a daily schedule.

Now, let's look at the job definitions:

`yaml

jobs:

ansible-lint:

uses: ansible-network/github_actions/.github/workflows/ansible-lint.yml@main

changelog:

uses: ansible-network/github_actions/.github/workflows/changelog.yml@main

integration:

uses: ansible-network/github_actions/.github/workflows/integration_simple.yml@main

sanity:

uses: ansible-network/github_actions/.github/workflows/sanity.yml@main

unit-galaxy:

uses: ansible-network/github_actions/.github/workflows/unit_galaxy.yml@main

`

  • jobs: Lists the individual jobs that will be executed. Each job is defined separately and utilizes existing workflows from the ansible-network/github_actions repository.

- ansible-lint, changelog, integration, sanity, and unit-galaxy are examples of jobs that can be run independently.

Next is the all_green job:

`yaml

all_green:

if: ${{ always() && (github.event_name != 'schedule') }}

needs:

- changelog

- integration

- sanity

- unit-galaxy

runs-on: ubuntu-latest

steps:

- run: >-

python -c "assert set([

'${{ needs.changelog.result }}',

'${{ needs.integration.result }}',

'${{ needs.sanity.result }}',

'${{ needs.unit-galaxy.result }}'

]) == {'success'}"

`

  • all_green: This job runs only if certain conditions are met. It runs on the latest version of Ubuntu and depends on the successful completion of the changelog, integration, sanity, and unit-galaxy` jobs.
  • steps: Specifies the steps to be executed within the job. In this case, it runs a Python script to assert that the results of the dependent jobs are all 'success'. If any