Job output cannot be using when triggering workflow from job

[afonsoc12]

Hi,

So I have this workflow that gathers the version from a website and then triggers a build (another workflow), via the workflow_call trigger. This is the code of the scheduler:

name: Checks for new releases and deploys master
on:
  schedule:
      - cron: '15 */2 * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:

external_trigger:

runs-on: ubuntu-latest

outputs:

version: ${{ steps.version_getter.outputs.version }}

steps:

- uses: actions/checkout@v2.3.3
  - name: Version diff
    run: |
      chmod u+x ./scripts/isUpdated.sh
      ./scripts/isUpdated.sh

  - id: version_getter
    name: Trigger build check
    if: ${{ hashFiles('DOCKER_VERSION.txt') != '' }}
    run: |
      version=$(cat DOCKER_VERSION.txt)
      echo "Triggering because there is the new version $version"
      echo "::set-output name=version::$version"

trigger:

needs: external_trigger

uses: ./.github/workflows/docker_build_master.yml

with:

version: ${{ needs.external_trigger.outputs.version }}

The problem is that the version variable is being set as empty string. I have tried using a step in the last job and it works, its just when I use the uses to trigger the other workflow that the output does not work. Like this:

trigger:
    needs: external_trigger
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
       - run: echo "${{ needs.external_trigger.outputs.version }}"

Any fix for this issue?
Thanks

[jsoref]

Afaict, from:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/contexts#context-availability

Workflow key	Context	Special functions
jobs.<job_id>.steps.with	github, needs, strategy, matrix, job, runner, env, secrets, steps, inputs	hashFiles
jobs.<job_id>.with.<with_id>	github, needs

needs should be available (and presumably work) in both cases…

Can you provide a sample repository?

[afonsoc12]

Sure! Here it is.

If you check the job trigger, the output is not propagated, but it works on job tst.
Any thoughts?

[jsoref]

Personally, I’d want to fix this:

  <a href="https://github.com/afonsoc12/docker-cloudflared/runs/6476100269?check_suite_focus=true#step:3:8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GitHub</a>

Checks for new releases and deploys master ·...

Contribute to afonsoc12/docker-cloudflared development by creating an account on GitHub.

I’d probably add a set -x to the set output step.

I’d probably also enable debug logging:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/monitoring-and-troubleshooting-workflows/enabling-debug-logging

[afonsoc12]

Thanks, sure the scripts are still very crude, I am looking forward to fix CI first.
While the output is shown on this one, it does not show here, which is going to use another workflow

[jsoref]

https://github.com/check-spelling/docker-cloudflared/runs/6478217149?check_suite_focus=true#step:3:1

[jsoref]

I should probably explain, but in short:
afonsoc12/docker-cloudflared@ee01e19

---

A slightly longer explanation is certainly in order.

Literally, the google completion for github.event.inputs is github.event.inputs vs inputs.

GitHub supports events that have inputs:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/events-that-trigger-workflows#providing-inputs
It handles that via github.event.inputs

It also supports giving (reusable) workflows inputs:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/reusing-workflows#using-inputs-and-secrets-in-a-reusable-workflow

In that case, inputs come via inputs

Note that this aligns with actions:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/creating-actions/metadata-syntax-for-github-actions#inputs
where they also come via inputs:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/contexts#inputs-context

[longyarnz]

I don't know why @afonsoc12 marked this comment as the answer but it doesn't answer the question.

[jsoref]

So, the trick is that there are two files that were supposed to work together, one generated some outputs and tried to pass those as inputs to the other. The problem wasn't in the file with the outputs, it was in the file trying to take those as inputs.

You can see how they debugged and fixed it here:
https://github.com/afonsoc12/docker-cloudflared/blob/f593a4d237b07cc7ce0a60130a7e46da250e34f7/.github/workflows/docker_build_master.yml#L25-L27

        echo "github.events.inputs: ${{ github.event.inputs.version }}"
        echo "inputs: ${{ inputs.version }}"
        echo "::set-output name=version::${{ github.event.inputs.version || inputs.version }}"

I'm sorry that the answer didn't clarify that the question was misstated, but, until someone understands what's going wrong, all they can do is describe what they think they see -- and they thought their output wasn't getting to the next stage, and they were kinda right -- so what they wrote as a question was understandable.

[afonsoc12]

Hi,
Thanks this was massive help! I’ll read those links closely

[gatsbyz]

The problem is that the version variable is being set as empty string.

This problem still persists.

trigger:
  needs: external_trigger
  uses: ./.github/workflows/docker_build_master.yml
  with:
    version: ${{ needs.external_trigger.outputs.version }}

with uses:, needs.job_id.outputs.xxxxx is returning an empty string

seems like OP's solution was to just paste the uses: workflow into the same file. https://github.com/afonsoc12/docker-cloudflared/blob/master/.github/workflows/docker_build_master.yml#L29-L39

[khiemns54]

I am still facing the similar issue.