Computer Infrastructure

---

1. Project Overview:

This project uses linux commands to automate and organise tasks such as creating timestamped files and downloading weather data via an API. A bash script is used to download and save the weather data in timestamped files within an assigned directory. Additionally, a Github Actions workflow further automates the execution of the script. This workflow runs the script daily and commits the updated data back to the repository, ensuring the weather data is regularly updated. The project was developed and run in Github Codespaces, a cloud based integrated development environment provided by Github. It allows users to create, edit and run code directly in the cloud.

2. Setup:

Clone the Github repository:

git clone https://github.com/lryan30/CI_assessment

3. Usage:

Once set up, the script will automatically run daily through Github Actions. However, the script can be manually run using:

./weather.sh

4. File Structure:

1. .github/workflows/weather-data.yml: This is the Github Actions workflow file that automates the weather.sh script to run daily and commits updates to the repository.
2. data/weather/: This directory contains timestamped weather data files downloaded by the script.
3. data/timestamps/: This directory is used to store timestamped files.
4. requirements.txt: A txt file that lists all python dependencies.
5. weather.ipynb: Jupyter notebook
6. weather.sh: Bash script used to download weather data from the API and store it in a timestamped file.

5. Github Actions Workflow:

Github Actions is a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform integrated directly into Github that automates tasks. In this project, the Github Actions workflow, located in the .github/workflows directory automates the execution of the weather.sh script. it runs daily at 10:00am UTC (adjusted to 22:00 on 18/12/24) but can also be triggered manually or by events like pushes to main branch. The workflow has write permissionsn enabling it to commit and push updated weather data back to the repository.

Workflow steps:

• Check out repository: Clones the repository using github/checkout@v3 with persist-credentials:true for git commands.
• Pull latest changes: Updates the local repository with any changes from the remote main branch to avoid conficts.
• Set up python: Installs python 3.x to run dependencies required for the script.
• Install dependencies: Installs libraries listed in the requirements.txt file to enable API interaction and data processing.
• Make weather.sh executable: Ensures the weather.sh script has executable permissions with chmod+x.
• Run the weather.sh script: Downloads weather data and saves as a timestamped file in data/weather.
• Commit and push changes: commits the updated weather data and pushes it to the repository with the following git commands.
  • git config: sets the github actions bot as the commit author.
  • git add .: stages changes.
  • git commit: commits changes.
  • git push: pushes updates to the repository

6. Acknowledgements:

• Met Eireann: API weather data.
• Github Codespaces: development environment.
• Github Actions: automation.
• ChatGPT: .yml workflow code.
• Adobe.com: Image source

References:

• https://github.com/ianmcloughlin/2425_computer_infrastructure/blob/main/README.md
• https://docs.github.com/en/codespaces/overview
• https://docs.github.com/en/actions/about-github-actions/understanding-github-actions
• https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/
• https://matplotlib.org/stable/index.html