FAQ: how to use this action with ACT

[Erriez]

name: CI
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build image
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - uses: kohlerdominik/docker-run-action@v1
        with:
          image: alpine:latest
          run: |
            echo "hello world"
            uname -a

Running with act displays:

...
[CI/Build image] ⭐  Run kohlerdominik/docker-run-action@v1
INFO[0000]   ☁  git clone 'https://github.com/kohlerdominik/docker-run-action' # ref=v1 
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker cp src=/home/a/.cache/act/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/ dst=/var/run/act/actions/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker exec cmd=[mkdir -p /var/run/act/actions/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/] user=
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker exec cmd=[node /var/run/act/actions/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/dist/index.js] user=
[CI/Build image]   ❗  ::error::ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/home/runner/work/_temp/759878e4-631e-4f34-bc43-89dcd12e2365.sh'
[CI/Build image]   ❌  Failure - kohlerdominik/docker-run-action@v1
Error: exit with `FAILURE`: 1

Any idea?

[kohlerdominik]

Looks like for some reason the run-command didn't get copied in the file. Let me investigate.

[kohlerdominik]

@Erriez I think the issue is, that act runs in a container. Therefore it should mount a file from one container to another, which most likely doesn't work. The command failing is something like:
docker run --volume /home/runner/work/_temp/759878e4-631e-4f34-bc43-89dcd12e2365.sh:/tmp/759878e4-631e-4f34-bc43-89dcd12e2365.sh [more options]

Docker now tries to access the file /home/runner/work/_temp/759878e4-631e-4f34-bc43-89dcd12e2365.sh on the host, but the file exists only in the action container.

Maybe @catthehacker can confirm this and has an idea how it would work with ACT?

[Erriez]

@kohlerdominik Thanks for your fast reply. I think you're right: I've created a test case in branch docker-run-action:
https://github.com/Erriez/act-testcase/blob/docker-run-action/.github/workflows/CI.yml
And the Github Action was successful: https://github.com/Erriez/act-testcase/actions/runs/1136905928 and won't run with act.

[kohlerdominik]

If you're interessted in contributing a solution, you could investigate whether act supports a shared directory between action container and host.

If it does, we can adjust dockerRun.ts::8 to allow a variable, which then can point to that directory.

[catthehacker]

You should not hardcode paths to /home/runner

[catthehacker]

...
[CI/Build image] ⭐  Run kohlerdominik/docker-run-action@v1
INFO[0000]   ☁  git clone 'https://github.com/kohlerdominik/docker-run-action' # ref=v1 
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker cp src=/home/a/.cache/act/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/ dst=/var/run/act/actions/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker exec cmd=[mkdir -p /var/run/act/actions/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/] user=
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker exec cmd=[node /var/run/act/actions/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/dist/index.js] user=
[CI/Build image]   ❗  ::error::ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/home/runner/work/_temp/759878e4-631e-4f34-bc43-89dcd12e2365.sh'
[CI/Build image]   ❌  Failure - kohlerdominik/docker-run-action@v1
Error: exit with `FAILURE`: 1

It doesn't work probably because you are using container with root user while the action expects runner due to hardcoded paths.

[kohlerdominik]

Thanks @catthehacker! I can try to resolve the home dir from the environment variable.

[catthehacker]

You can use ghcr.io/catthehacker/ubuntu:runner-latest or ghcr.io/catthehacker/ubuntu:full-latest to have runner user
First image is based on ghcr.io/catthehacker/ubuntu:act-latest but uses runner user, 2nd image is built from GitHub Action runner template and is about 40GB in size.
After that you would need to chmod/chown the docker socket

bad perms /var/run/docker.sock

fix

[kohlerdominik]

I published a release which now imports the TEMP-path from the given environment variable.

However, as I understood, this was not the root cause for this issue; in the unix runner it should've worked either way.
@Erriez could you make it work with the instructions from @catthehacker ? As I understood, the only change you have to make is to run this before the actual action:

- run: sudo chmod 0777 /var/run/docker.sock

[Erriez]

@kohlerdominik Now I understand the change:

name: CI
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build image
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - run: sudo chmod 0777 /var/run/docker.sock

      - uses: kohlerdominik/docker-run-action@v1
        with:
          image: alpine:latest
          run: |
            echo "hello world"
            uname -a

$ act -P ubuntu-latest=ghcr.io/catthehacker/ubuntu:runner-latest

[CI/Build image] 🚀  Start image=ghcr.io/catthehacker/ubuntu:runner-latest
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker run image=ghcr.io/catthehacker/ubuntu:runner-latest platform= entrypoint=["/usr/bin/tail" "-f" "/dev/null"] cmd=[]
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker exec cmd=[mkdir -m 0777 -p /var/run/act] user=root
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker cp src=/home/erwin/src/kohlerdominik_docker-run-action_issues_19/. dst=/home/erwin/src/kohlerdominik_docker-run-action_issues_19
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker exec cmd=[mkdir -p /home/erwin/src/kohlerdominik_docker-run-action_issues_19] user=
[CI/Build image] ⭐  Run Checkout
[CI/Build image]   ✅  Success - Checkout
[CI/Build image] ⭐  Run sudo chmod 0777 /var/run/docker.sock
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker exec cmd=[bash --noprofile --norc -e -o pipefail /home/erwin/src/kohlerdominik_docker-run-action_issues_19/workflow/1] user=
[CI/Build image]   ✅  Success - sudo chmod 0777 /var/run/docker.sock
[CI/Build image] ⭐  Run kohlerdominik/docker-run-action@v1
INFO[0000]   ☁  git clone 'https://github.com/kohlerdominik/docker-run-action' # ref=v1 
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker cp src=/home/erwin/.cache/act/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/ dst=/var/run/act/actions/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker exec cmd=[mkdir -p /var/run/act/actions/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/] user=
[CI/Build image]   🐳  docker exec cmd=[node /var/run/act/actions/kohlerdominik-docker-run-action@v1/dist/index.js] user=
| 
| These instructions are passed to the container:
| ----- START OF FILE -----
| echo "hello world"
| uname -a
| ----- END OF FILE -----
| [command]/usr/bin/docker run --volume=/home/runner/work/_temp/efa60418-7a39-4f28-9c5f-01aee88f6bac.sh:/tmp/efa60418-7a39-4f28-9c5f-01aee88f6bac.sh alpine:latest sh -e /tmp/efa60418-7a39-4f28-9c5f-01aee88f6bac.sh
[CI/Build image]   ✅  Success - kohlerdominik/docker-run-action@v1

Option -P is also required, because the same error occurs with act command only. This explained the issue.

Thanks!