A reverse engineered github actions compatible self-hosted runner using nektos/act to execute your workflow steps. Unlike the official actions/runner, this works on more systems like freebsd.
| Actions Type | Host | JobContainer (only Linux, Windows, macOS) |
|---|---|---|
| (composite) run steps | bash (preferred), sh or explicit shell in your PATH (prior running the runner). On windows are pwsh (preferred) and powershell the default shells instead of bash or sh |
Docker (*1), sh or explicit shell in your PATH (inside your container image) |
| nodejs actions | node (*2) in your PATH (prior running the runner) |
Docker (*1), node (*2) in your PATH (inside your container image) |
| docker actions | Not available | Docker (*1) |
| service container | Not available | Docker (*1) v0.7.0 |
| composite actions with uses | v0.1.0 | v0.1.0 |
| composite actions with if | v0.1.0 | v0.1.0 |
| composite actions with continue-on-error | v0.1.0 | v0.1.0 |
(*1) Reachable docker daemon use DOCKER_HOST to specify a remote host.
(*2) For best compatibility with existing nodejs actions, please add nodejs in version 20 to your PATH, newer nodejs versions might lead to workflow failures.
Follow the instruction of https://github.com/ChristopherHX/github-act-runner/releases/latest.
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/github-act-runner.list file:
deb https://gagis.hopto.org/repo/chrishx/deb all main
curl -sS https://gagis.hopto.org/repo/chrishx/pubkey.gpg | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/chrishx-github-act-runner.ascsudo apt update
sudo apt install github-act-runnergithub-act-runner new --url <url> --name <runner-name> --labels <labels> --token <runner-registration-token>where
<url>- github repository (e.g.https://github.com/user/repo), organization (e.g.https://github.com/organization) or enterprise URL<runner-name>- choose a name for your runner<labels>- comma-separated list of labels, e.g.label1,label2. Optional.<runner-registration-token>
The new runner will be registered and started as background service.
See help:
github-act-runner --helpFor more info about managing runners.
You need at least go 1.21 to use this runner from source.
git clone https://github.com/ChristopherHX/github-act-runner.git --recursive
git pull
git submodule update
go run . configure --url <github-repo-or-org-or-enterprise> --name <name of this runner> -l label1,label2 --token <runner registration token>
E.g. https://github.com/ChristopherHX/github-act-runner for this repo
E.g. Test
| You find the token in | |
|---|---|
| Repository | <github-repo>/settings/actions/runners/new |
| Organization | <github-url>/organizations/<github-org-name>/settings/actions/runners/new |
| Enterprise | In action runner settings of your enterprise |
E.g. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWAWWWWWWAWWWWWWW
Replace label1,label2 with a custom list of runner labels.
go run . run
runner.oschanged fromdarwintomacOSrunner.archchanged fromx86_64tox64runner.archchanged from386tox86runner.archchanged fromaarch64toarm64shellparameter might behave differently- based on
nektos/act@65ef31f102ceb75623973921099454637bab55b0 - the docker client has been removed from openbsd builds
- windows runners now prefers
pwshandpowershellas default shell, while running directly on windows - all other systems now fallback to
shif bash is not found - now requires go 1.18 to compile
protocol.JobLoggermoved to"protocol/logger"package
- based on
nektos/act@f3350e2acbd2812cf3dd9bd8324387be05fce755 - removed openbsd/mips binaries, because this prevents updates to go and dependencies
- go 1.21 now required
This runner ignores pre and post steps of javascript actionsIs now working in 0.6.0actions/cache is incompatible and won't be able to save your cacheUsing https://github.com/actions/toolkit/tree/main/packages/cache directly should allow you to save your cacheIs now working in 0.6.0, including hashfiles
You won't be able to run steps after a failure without usingImplemented since v0.2.0 via nektos/act contribution ( https://github.com/nektos/act/commit/1891c72ab158508e36009d16b24913fa5836422b )continue-on-error: trueThe expression interpreter of this runner doesn't always behave like you would expect and you might see errors or other expressions which shouldn't work are working here ( based on javascript, not on actions/runner )v0.2.0 uses rhysd/actionlint instead with much better compatibility nektos/act#908add-maskcommand not implementedRunning steps after cancellationIs now working in 0.6.0steps.timeout-minutes not implementedIs now working in 0.6.0Service Container are not implementedIs now working in 0.7.0- Step Summaries are not implemented (only file command is provided)
- Annotations are not implemented
- Problem Matcher are not implemented
- Expressions in
withandenv(also applies to workflow and job env blocks) keys / directly assign to a mapping expression are not implemented - Secret masking may leak more secrets than the one of actions/runner
- Job Outputs are sent regardless if they would leak secret data to non secret storage
- You need to provide the
nodeprogram yourself in all containers / host configurations - You need to manually update the runner
- Most issues of https://github.com/nektos/act/issues applies to this runner as well
This runner implements the same protocol as the actions/runner in a different way, as such it can be used as a self-hosted runner exactly like the official one. To get this working, I initially built an actions service replacement ChristopherHX/runner.server for the official actions/runner. My own actions service allowed me to implement the base protocol for this runner and debug how the protocol is serializeing and parsing json messages, while still being incompatible with github. After testing against github, the first thing happend was loosing the ability to run any github action workflows on my test repository. My invalid attempts to register a custom runner caused unrecoverable Internal Server Errors on githubs side, I decided to delete this test repository. After some work everything worked and finally it is safe to register this runner against github. To execute steps this runner translates the github actions job request to be compatible with a modified version of nektos/act ( ChristopherHX/act ), which adds a local task runner without the need for docker and increased platform support, also the log output of act gets redirected to github for live logs and storing log files.
Yes, you can use this runner together with ChristopherHX/runner.server locally on your PC without depending on compatibility with github. Also CI tests for this runner are using ChristopherHX/runner.server, this avoids requiring a PAT for github to run tests and enshures that you are always able to run it locally without github.
