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Run github action locally with act

Pre-requisite​

  • A github project repository with github action setup.

Installations​

Docker​

  • Install docker desktop

  • config the environment variable in ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc file by adding the following line:

export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Docker.app/Contents/Resources/bin

source ~/.zshrc

act​

brew install act
  • Update act configuration file.
~/.actrc (create one if not yet have one)
--container-daemon-socket -
-P ubuntu-latest=node:18.20.4
--container-architecture linux/arm64
--container-options "--memory=16g"
--container-options "--cpus=8"
info

  • If you are using Apple M series chip or other ARM-based chips, you can use linux/arm64 as the architecture.

  • About --container-daemon-socket -, see the detail here. It is a work around for docker ws mounting issue.

  • Define the node version if needed using -P ubuntu-latest=node:18.20.4

  • Use --container-options to define the memory and cpu for the container. We will also need to config docker desktop to allow more memory and cpu for containers. top-right-corner-gear-icon -> Resources -> Advanced -> Memory: 16.0 GiB, CPUs: 8`

Run the github action locally​

act -W .github/workflows/<workflow-name>.yml
tip

Here is a very simple git action workflow .yml file:

name: Unit Test

on:
  pull_request:
    types:
      - opened
      - reopened
      - synchronize
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 30 # default is 360 minutes

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '18'

      - name: Install dependencies & build project
        run: |
          npm cache clean --force
          rm -rf node_modules
          npm install
          npm run build

      - name: Run Node tests
        run: npm run test:node