[FIXED] Problem in GitHub Actions when running a Python script

Issue

I'm trying to write an action to automatically generate markdown summaries for a repository by running a Python script:

import os

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Walk through all directories and files
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk('.'):
        # Ignore hidden directories
        if root.startswith('.\\.'):
            continue

        # Filepath to summary file
        summary_file_path = f'{root}/Summary.md'
        with open(summary_file_path, "w") as summary_file:
            # Add title
            summary_file.write("# Summary\n\n")

            # Add directories to summary
            for dir in dirs:
                # Ignore hidden directories
                if not dir.startswith('.'):
                    # Add to summary
                    summary_file.write(f"- [{dir}]({dir}/Summary.md)\n")

            # Add files to summary
            for file in files:
                # Ignore specific files
                if not (file == 'Summary.md' or file == 'Script.py'):
                    # Remove extension
                    filename = os.path.splitext(file)[0]

                    # Replace underscores with spaces
                    filename = filename.replace('_', ' ')

                    # Add to summary
                    summary_file.write(f"- [{filename}]({file})\n")

And to run the script, I wrote the action:

# This name will appear in the Actions
name: Generate Summaries

on:
  # Allows to manually run the job(s) at any time
  workflow_dispatch:
  
  # Run on every push on the master branch
  push:
    branches:
    - main

# Jobs list
jobs:
  # Job name
  generate-summaries:
    # Where the workflow will run
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest 

    # Steps list
    steps:
    
    # Checkout the repository content
    - name: Checkout repository
      uses: actions/checkout@v4

    # Setup python
    - name: Setup python
      uses: actions/setup-python@v4
      with:
        python-version: '3.10'

    # Generate/Update summaries
    - name: Generate summaries
      run: python Script.py

    # Commit all changes
    - name: Commit changes
      run: |
        git config user.name 'github-actions[bot]'
        git config user.email 'github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com'
        git add .
        git commit -m "Updated summaries" || exit 0
        git push origin main
      
      env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

The script should create a Summary.md file in each directory (excluding hidden ones), listing the contents of each one. In other words, considering this folder structure:

.
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── main.yaml
├── ExampleFolder1/
│   ├── ExampleFolder1.md
│   └── ExampleFolder11/
│       └── ExampleFolder11.md
├── ExampleFolder2/
│   └── ExampleFolder2.md
└── Script.py

The result should be:

.
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── main.yaml
├── ExampleFolder1/
│   ├── ExampleFolder1.md
│   ├── Summary.md
│   └── ExampleFolder11/
│       ├── ExampleFolder11.md
│       └── Summary.md
├── ExampleFolder2/
│   ├── ExampleFolder2.md
│   └── Summary.md
├── Script.py
└── Summary.md

And it works properly when I run it locally, but it throws an error when it runs in the workflow:

Run git config user.name 'github-actions[bot]'
  git config user.name 'github-actions[bot]'
  git config user.email 'github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com'
  git add .
  git commit -m "Updated summaries" || exit 0
  git push origin main
  shell: /usr/bin/bash -e {0}
  env:
    pythonLocation: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    PKG_CONFIG_PATH: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64/lib/pkgconfig
    Python_ROOT_DIR: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    Python2_ROOT_DIR: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    Python3_ROOT_DIR: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64/lib
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ***
To https://github.com/diegoborbadev/summariestest
[main ec81c99] Updated summaries
 ! [remote rejected] main -> main (refusing to allow a GitHub App to create or update workflow `.github/workflows/Summary.md` without `workflows` permission)
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/diegoborbadev/summariestest'
 4 files changed, 12 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 .github/Summary.md
 create mode 100644 .github/workflows/Summary.md
 create mode 100644 FrontEnd/Summary.md
 create mode 100644 Summary.md
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

The error occurs due to permissions to modify the workflow, I understand, but the script shouldn't be modifying that folder. It has filters to prevent this from happening, and locally, it doesn't occur. So, why does it exhibit this behavior when executed in the workflow?

Solution

if root.startswith('.\\.'): is platform-specific, as it uses backslashes to check for directory paths.

However, backslashes are directory separators on Windows, whereas the GitHub Actions runner is set to use Ubuntu, where the directory separator is a forward slash (/).

Also, os.walk will return the relative file paths starting from the directory where you run the script, which might not include the leading ./.

So, when the script runs on Ubuntu, it sees directories starting with "./" instead of ".\\", and thus the condition does not filter out the .github hidden directory as you intended.

Answered By - Random Davis