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).

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.

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

You will need to generate a personal API token:

• Go to GitHub Personal Access Tokens
• Generate a new token, selecting "Repo" as the scope.
• Copy the 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.

The name of the destination repository.

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

(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).

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

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

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

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

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

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