Nightly develop Binaries workflow (Superalgos/Superalgos)

The Nightly develop Binaries workflow from Superalgos/Superalgos, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

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Source: Superalgos/Superalgos.github/workflows/release_build_dev.ymlLicense Apache-2.0View source

What it does

This is the Nightly develop Binaries workflow from the Superalgos/Superalgos 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

workflow (.yml)

name: Nightly develop Binaries

on:
  schedule:
    - cron:  '20 3 * * *'

  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  create-release:
    if: github.repository == 'superalgos/superalgos'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Download a file
        run: curl "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/${{ github.repository }}/develop/package.json" -o package.json

      - name: Get current date
        id: date
        run: echo "::set-output name=date::$(date +'%Y%m%d')"

      - name: Get version
        id: vars
        run:  echo "::set-output name=tag::$(node -p "require('./package.json').version")"

      - name: Create nightly release
        id: create_release
        uses: viperproject/create-nightly-release@v1
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        with:
          tag_name: ${{ steps.vars.outputs.tag }}-${{ steps.date.outputs.date }}
          release_name: Superalgos-Beta-v${{ steps.vars.outputs.tag }} Snapshot ${{ steps.date.outputs.date }}
          keep_num: 5
          keep_tags: false

  build-release:
    if: github.repository == 'superalgos/superalgos'
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    needs: create-release
    strategy:
        matrix:
          os: [windows-latest, macos-latest, ubuntu-latest]

    steps:
      - name: Get current date
        id: date
        run: echo "::set-output name=date::$(date +'%Y%m%d')"

      - name: Check out Git repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          ref: develop

      - name: Install Node.js, NPM and Yarn
        uses: actions/setup-node@v1
        with:
          node-version: 18

      - name: Get version
        id: vars
        run:  echo "::set-output name=tag::$(node -p "require('./package.json').version")"

      - name: Build/release Electron app
        uses: samuelmeuli/action-electron-builder@v1
        with:
          # GitHub token, automatically provided to the action
          # (No need to define this secret in the repo settings)
          github_token: ${{ secrets.github_token }}
          args: "-c.extraMetadata.version=${{ steps.vars.outputs.tag }}-${{ steps.date.outputs.date }} -c build/electron-builder.json -p onTagOrDraft"

          # If the commit is tagged with a version (e.g. "v1.0.0"),
          # release the app after building
          # release: ${{ startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/v') }}
          release: true

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.

name: Nightly develop Binaries
 
on:
  schedule:
    - cron:  '20 3 * * *'
 
  workflow_dispatch:
 
jobs:
  create-release:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    if: github.repository == 'superalgos/superalgos'
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - name: Download a file
        run: curl "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/${{ github.repository }}/develop/package.json" -o package.json
 
      - name: Get current date
        id: date
        run: echo "::set-output name=date::$(date +'%Y%m%d')"
 
      - name: Get version
        id: vars
        run:  echo "::set-output name=tag::$(node -p "require('./package.json').version")"
 
      - name: Create nightly release
        id: create_release
        uses: viperproject/create-nightly-release@v1
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        with:
          tag_name: ${{ steps.vars.outputs.tag }}-${{ steps.date.outputs.date }}
          release_name: Superalgos-Beta-v${{ steps.vars.outputs.tag }} Snapshot ${{ steps.date.outputs.date }}
          keep_num: 5
          keep_tags: false
 
  build-release:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    if: github.repository == 'superalgos/superalgos'
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    needs: create-release
    strategy:
        matrix:
          os: [windows-latest, macos-latest, ubuntu-latest]
 
    steps:
      - name: Get current date
        id: date
        run: echo "::set-output name=date::$(date +'%Y%m%d')"
 
      - name: Check out Git repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          ref: develop
 
      - name: Install Node.js, NPM and Yarn
        uses: actions/setup-node@v1
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: 18
 
      - name: Get version
        id: vars
        run:  echo "::set-output name=tag::$(node -p "require('./package.json').version")"
 
      - name: Build/release Electron app
        uses: samuelmeuli/action-electron-builder@v1
        with:
          # GitHub token, automatically provided to the action
          # (No need to define this secret in the repo settings)
          github_token: ${{ secrets.github_token }}
          args: "-c.extraMetadata.version=${{ steps.vars.outputs.tag }}-${{ steps.date.outputs.date }} -c build/electron-builder.json -p onTagOrDraft"
 
          # If the commit is tagged with a version (e.g. "v1.0.0"),
          # release the app after building
          # release: ${{ startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/v') }}
          release: true

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.
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.

2 third-party actions are referenced by a movable tag. Pin them to the commit SHA (Latchkey resolves and applies this automatically) so a repointed tag cannot change what runs.

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:

Network fetches

This workflow runs 2 jobs (4 with the matrix expanded) per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.

Actions used in this workflow

actions/checkout actions/setup-node