Checking out 'head_ref' doesn't work anymore

[Smana]

Hi everyone,

I was using the following configuration to checkout the proper branch in order to use it with another action 'git-auto-commit'.

 on:                                                                                                                                                                                                               
   pull_request:                                                                                                                                                                                                   
     branches: [master]                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
 jobs:                                                                                                                                                                                                             
   build:                                                                                                                                                                                                          
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest                                                                                                                                                                                        
     steps:                                                                                                                                                                                                        
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2                                                                                                                                                                                 
         with:                                                                                                                                                                                                     
           ref: ${{ github.head_ref }} 
...

Since a few days, this doesn't work anymore. I got the following errors:

   /usr/bin/git -c protocol.version=2 fetch --no-tags --prune --progress --no-recurse-submodules --depth=1 origin +refs/heads/ska/checkout_github.head_ref*:refs/remotes/origin/ska/checkout_github.head_ref* +refs/tags/ska/checkout_github.head_ref*:refs/tags/ska/checkout_github.head_ref*
  ##[error]The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 1

This is a public repository for tests purposes so please have a look here : https://github.com/Smana/gh-actions-gitops/actions

Let me know if you need further details.
Thanks

[ericsciple]

Can you try setting the following env vars so fetch will print more info:

GITHUB_TRACE=1
GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=1

For example:

jobs:
  foo:
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
        env:
          GIT_TRACE: 1
          GIT_CURL_VERBOSE: 1

[Smana]

Hi @ericsciple, thanks for the answer and sorry for the delay. Here are the error logs when adding the env vars you mentionned.

Fetching the repository
  /usr/bin/git -c protocol.version=2 fetch --no-tags --prune --progress --no-recurse-submodules --depth=1 origin +refs/heads/ska/verbose_gh_checkout*:refs/remotes/origin/ska/verbose_gh_checkout* +refs/tags/ska/verbose_gh_checkout*:refs/tags/ska/verbose_gh_checkout*
  19:06:20.402264 git.c:442               trace: built-in: git fetch --no-tags --prune --progress --no-recurse-submodules --depth=1 origin '+refs/heads/ska/verbose_gh_checkout*:refs/remotes/origin/ska/verbose_gh_checkout*' '+refs/tags/ska/verbose_gh_checkout*:refs/tags/ska/verbose_gh_checkout*'
  19:06:20.402506 run-command.c:663       trace: run_command: GIT_DIR=.git git-remote-https origin https://github.com/Smana/gh-actions-gitops
  * Couldn't find host github.com in the .netrc file; using defaults
  *   Trying 140.82.113.3...
  * TCP_NODELAY set
  * Connected to github.com (140.82.113.3) port 443 (#0)
  * found 127 certificates in /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
  * found 383 certificates in /etc/ssl/certs
  * ALPN, offering http/1.1
  * SSL connection using TLS1.2 / ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
  * 	 server certificate verification OK
  * 	 server certificate status verification SKIPPED
  * 	 common name: github.com (matched)
  * 	 server certificate expiration date OK
  * 	 server certificate activation date OK
  * 	 certificate public key: RSA
  * 	 certificate version: #3
  * 	 subject: C=US,ST=California,L=San Francisco,O=GitHub\, Inc.,CN=github.com

[Smana]

Actually removing the protection on master branch did the trick. For the moment I don't know why. I'll open an issue or reopen that one if necessary. If I have any other info I'll let you know

[0ptim]

Hey @Smana sorry for bothering.
But I'm facing a similar issue where using head_ref to check out does not work if someone makes a PR from a forked repo onto main in my repo.

      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}
          fetch-depth: 0

This fails with: A branch or tag with the name 'patch-1' could not be found. Was that all you had to do?

I removed the branch protection on main, but this does not change anything.

---

Just got it working! 🎉
Have a look here: #455