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Action pull request copy to another repo

This GitHub Action copies files from the current repository to a branch in another repository and creates a pull request.

This was developed primarily to assist developers who cannot develop in the open on public repositories. Once private content has been approved for publication, it is otherwise a manual task to copy files over to an existing public repository.

This action heavily borrows from push-to-another-repository, action-pull-request-another-repo and copycat-action.

It is different in that it allows the user to easily copy over the entire contents of one repo and raise a pull request on another repo, without copying over GitHub workflow files (or any other files you want to exclude).

Workflow

The user has two repositories in mind:

  1. Source repository: where files originate.
  2. Destination repository: where the files will be copied and raised as a pull request.

On a push to a specified branch of repository 1, the files from a directory of the repository are copied to a new branch of repository 2, and a pull request is raised. Any files that you do not want to copy can be listed in .github/workflows/ci_ignore.txt.

Arguments

API_TOKEN_GITHUB

This GitHub action needs credentials in order to push to the destination repository.

You will need to generate a personal API token:

For this GitHub Action, you will need to make the token available to the source repository:

  • Go to the GitHub page for the source repository. Click on "Settings"
  • On the left_hand pane click on "Secrets" then "Actions"
  • Click on "New repository secret", giving the name API_TOKEN_GITHUB and the value of the token you copied in the steps above.

destination_repository_name

The name of the destination repository.

destination_owner

The owner name e.g. owner_name/repository_name, of the destination repository.

source_directory

(Optional) The location of the files in the source repository that you want to include in the pull request. Defaults to /., which includes all files (with exceptions listed via the files_to_remove_path argument).

destination_directory

(Optional) Directory where the source directory is copied to. Defaults to "{source_directory}".

destination_base_branch

(Optional) The branch into which you want your code merged. Defaults to "main".

user_email

(Optional) The email used for the commit & pull request. Defaults to "{user_name}@users.noreply.github.com".

user_name

(Optional) The name that will be used for the commit and pull request. Defaults to the user triggering the action.

files_to_remove_path

(Optional) Relative file path including list of files to not include in PR. Recommended to use .github/workflows/ci_ignore.txt.

Example Workflow

name: Create PR

name: copy-to-pr

on:
    push:
        branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  pull-request:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container: pandoc/latex
    name: A job to create a PR in a separate repo
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Repo PR step
        uses: ./ 
        env:
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.API_TOKEN_GITHUB }}
        with:
            source_directory: ./ 
            destination_repo: 'repository_name'
            destination_owner: 'user_name'
            destination_base_branch: final_branch_name