Create release from tag workflow (awslabs/aws-cfn-template-flip)

The Create release from tag workflow from awslabs/aws-cfn-template-flip, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Create release from tag workflow from the awslabs/aws-cfn-template-flip repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its Apache-2.0 license.

Below, Latchkey shows a faster, safer version produced by its optimization engine.

The workflow

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '*'

name: Create release from tag

jobs:
  release:
    name: Release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
        with:
          python-version: '3.x'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          python -m pip install -U pip
          pip install -r requirements.txt
          pip install setuptools wheel twine

      - name: Build
        run: |
          python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel

      - name: Publish
        env:
          TWINE_USERNAME: ${{ secrets.PYPI_USERNAME }}
          TWINE_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.PYPI_PASSWORD }}
        run: twine upload dist/*
      
      - name: Create GitHub release
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        run: |
          set -x
          (echo ${GITHUB_REF##*/}; echo; git cherry -v $(git describe --abbrev=0 HEAD^) | cut -d" " -f3-) > CHANGELOG
          assets=()
          for f in ./dist/*; do
            assets+=("-a" "$f")
          done
          hub release create "${assets[@]}" -F CHANGELOG "${GITHUB_REF##*/}"

The same workflow, on Latchkey

Estimated ~20% faster on cache hits, plus fewer wasted runs and a safer supply chain. Added and changed lines are highlighted.

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '*'
 
name: Create release from tag
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  release:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Release
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
 
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
        with:
          cache: 'pip'
          python-version: '3.x'
 
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          python -m pip install -U pip
          pip install -r requirements.txt
          pip install setuptools wheel twine
 
      - name: Build
        run: |
          python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
 
      - name: Publish
        env:
          TWINE_USERNAME: ${{ secrets.PYPI_USERNAME }}
          TWINE_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.PYPI_PASSWORD }}
        run: twine upload dist/*
      
      - name: Create GitHub release
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        run: |
          set -x
          (echo ${GITHUB_REF##*/}; echo; git cherry -v $(git describe --abbrev=0 HEAD^) | cut -d" " -f3-) > CHANGELOG
          assets=()
          for f in ./dist/*; do
            assets+=("-a" "$f")
          done
          hub release create "${assets[@]}" -F CHANGELOG "${GITHUB_REF##*/}"
 

What changed

• Run on Latchkey managed runners with one line (runs-on), which apply the fixes below automatically and self-heal transient failures. This example uses latchkey-small; pick the runner size that fits the job.
• Cancel superseded runs when a branch or PR gets a newer push.
• Cache dependency installs on the setup step so they are served from cache.
• Add a job timeout so a hung step cannot burn hours of runner time.

What Latchkey heals here

This workflow has steps that commonly fail on transient issues (network, registries, flaky browsers). On Latchkey managed runners they are detected, retried, and self-healed instead of failing your build:

• Dependency installs

This workflow runs 1 job per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.

Actions used in this workflow