actions-sync

Sync GitHub repositories via templates and scripts

Scripts

To run scripts, just create some files in the scripts/ directory of your sync repository. These will be executed in alphabetical order in the repository being synced. For this reason, we recommend you prefix your files with a number like so:

.
└── scripts/
    ├── 001.setup-template-variables.sh
    ├── 002.template-some-files.js
    ├── 003.run-some-commands.ex
    └── 004.more-commands.py

Every file in the scripts/ directory should be executable (chmod +x) and include a shebang so it can be ran directly.

Every script will be ran sequentially and pass on any exported output to the next script in the form of environment variables. Setting these variables works very similar to how GitHub actions environment files work. The only difference is that you will use the $TEMPLATE_ENV variable.

echo "MY_KEY=value" >> "$TEMPLATE_ENV"

You will then be able to use the variable in other scripts and templates.

echo $MY_KEY

Templates

All files in your templates/ directory will be rendered with Handlebars and placed in your repository. Handlebars will have access to any template key that was saved in the scripts step above.

Conditional Rendering

In some instances you may want to allow only certain files to be rendered. This can be achieved by calling the denyRender handlebars function. This helper will prevent the file from being rendered and can be called from anywhere in the file (though we recommend up top.)

{{denyRender}}

{{~#if DO_NOT_RENDER_THIS_FILE}}{{denyRender}}{{/if~}}

JSON Variables

Normal variables are basic strings. In some cases you want to use JSON objects or arrays so you can loop over them. This can be achieved by using the jsonParse helper.

{{jsonParse MY_JSON_ARRAY}}

{{#each (jsonParse MY_JSON_ARRAY)}}
  {{this}}
{{/each}}

Alternatives

There are many other git sync type actions currently on GitHub, however most of them only handle static files. This action was created where some files are dynamic and should be templated or scripted before synced.