Define a list of elements in a variable

[gforcada]

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Hi! 👋🏾

I'm trying to get an organization level workflow to get the list of Operating systems it should run from a variable, i.e.:

Variable:

TEST_OS_VERSION = ['"ubuntu", "ubuntu-20.04"']

Workflow:

...
jobs:
  test:
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: ${{ vars.TEST_OS_VERSIONS }}
...

Unfortunately that does not work, trying it like the following either:

Variable:

TEST_OS_VERSION = '"ubuntu", "ubuntu-20.04"'

Workflow:

...
jobs:
  test:
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [ ${{ vars.TEST_OS_VERSIONS }} ]
...

😢

Any idea on how to use variables to to store a list of elements?

For my projects and the organizations I participate in, being able to define on a global level the list of operating systems and python versions and override them on a per repository basis, would help us reduce, a lot, the workflows maintenance 🍀 🙏🏾

[SilasRodrigues19]

Hey @gforcada

Did you try this way below?

jobs:
  test:
    name: Testing on
    runs-on:
      - ubuntu-latest
      - macos-latest
      - windows-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
        python-version: ["3.11", "3.10", 3.9, 3.8, 3.7, pypy-3.9]
    steps:
      ...

[gforcada]

That's what we are using, yes, but I want to store ["3.11", "3.10", 3.9, 3.8, 3.7, pypy-3.9] into a global variable, and being able to override it on a per repository basis.

You are not using any variable here.

[SilasRodrigues19]

You can define a global environment variable in the GitHub Actions configuration file and use it in your workflow.

env:
  PYTHON_VERSIONS: "3.11,3.10,3.9,3.8,3.7,pypy-3.9"

Then, you can use this variable in your strategy matrix by replacing ["3.11", "3.10", 3.9, 3.8, 3.7, pypy-3.9] with ${{ env.PYTHON_VERSIONS }}.

strategy:
  matrix:
    python-version: ${{ env.PYTHON_VERSIONS }}

[gforcada]

Thanks 🙏🏾 but seems that it still does not work 😕

Error when evaluating 'strategy' for job 'test'. shared-workflows/tests.yml (Line: 16, Col: 13): Unexpected type of value '"ubuntu,ubuntu-20.04"', expected type: Sequence.

[brianjmurrell]

Perhaps this will work:

strategy:
  matrix:
    python-version: [${{ env.PYTHON_VERSIONS }}]

[ChristopherHX]

You can use fromJSON to parse your variable (json array) into an Array object for the matrix.

...
jobs:
  test:
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: ${{ fromJSON(vars.TEST_OS_VERSIONS) }}
...

You may run into issues with pull_request workflows, because vars.TEST_OS_VERSIONS might currently end up undefined.

[SergkeiM]

Hi @gforcada ${{ fromJSON(vars.TEST_OS_VERSIONS) }} works for you?

Can you be so kind and share the format you store VERSIONS inside Repo var?

[gforcada]

@SergkeiM as a JSON:

["ubuntu-latest", "macosx-latest"]

🎉

[SergkeiM]

Hi @gforcada

Strange for some reason I can't get it worked:

strategy:
      matrix: 
        domain: ${{ fromJson(vars.DOMAINS) }}

Error when evaluating 'strategy' for job 'deploy'. /actions/.github/workflows/domain.yml@master (Line: 52, Col: 17): Error parsing fromJson,/actions/.github/workflows/domain.yml@master (Line: 52, Col: 17): Error reading JToken from JsonReader. Path '', line 0, position 0.

[ChristopherHX]

@SergkeiM is your workflow run triggered by on: pull_request? That could explain why vars.DOMAINS is still empty as GitHub doesn't support this scenario

[SergkeiM]

Hi @ChristopherHX

no is set to on: workflow_dispatch, but I use vars.DOMAINS inside Reusable Workflow, as workaround, I save DOMAINS as comma separated string and in job before do:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      domains: ${{ steps.domains.outputs.domains }}
     - name: Set up domains
        id: domains
        run: |
          domains=$(echo ${{ vars.DOMAINS }} | jq -Rrc 'split(",")')
          echo "domains=$domains" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
   deploy:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix: 
        domain: ${{ fromJson(needs.build.outputs.domains) }}