govulncheck workflow (prometheus-community/postgres_exporter)

The govulncheck workflow from prometheus-community/postgres_exporter, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the govulncheck workflow from the prometheus-community/postgres_exporter 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

---
name: govulncheck
on:
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - VERSION
      - .github/workflows/govulncheck.yml
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - master
  schedule:
    - cron: '33 2 * * *'

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  govulncheck:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Run govulncheck
    steps:
      - name: Install snmp_exporter/generator dependencies
        id: snmp-deps
        run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y install libsnmp-dev
        if: github.repository == 'prometheus/snmp_exporter'
      - id: govulncheck
        uses: golang/govulncheck-action@3fa7bd9cee2cfdf3499a8803b226e43de7b7cdb4 # master
        env:
          GOOS: ${{ contains(github.repository, 'windows_exporter') && 'windows' || '' }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

Removes redundant runs and caps runaway jobs. Added and changed lines are highlighted.

---
name: govulncheck
on:
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - VERSION
      - .github/workflows/govulncheck.yml
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - master
  schedule:
    - cron: '33 2 * * *'
 
permissions:
  contents: read
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  govulncheck:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    name: Run govulncheck
    steps:
      - name: Install snmp_exporter/generator dependencies
        id: snmp-deps
        run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y install libsnmp-dev
        if: github.repository == 'prometheus/snmp_exporter'
      - id: govulncheck
        uses: golang/govulncheck-action@3fa7bd9cee2cfdf3499a8803b226e43de7b7cdb4 # master
        env:
          GOOS: ${{ contains(github.repository, 'windows_exporter') && 'windows' || '' }}
 

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• Cancel superseded runs when a branch or PR gets a newer push.
• 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.