Any way to use GitHub real name instead of username as the commit author?

[ruohola]

Currently if a workflow step doesn't specify author_name, and I trigger the workflow, the Git commit author will show up as:

ruohola <ruohola@users.noreply.github.com>

This is of course already much nicer than having it just be some random GitHub bot email, so this is not a massive issue.

But, I'm still wondering is there any way to make it instead be?

Eero Ruohola <ruohola@users.noreply.github.com>

(naturally without harcoding author_name since that would defeat the whole purpose)

This would be nice in Git logs where the author name would then match the name that is in my other commits as well.

[EndBug]

At the moment the action just uses the github.actor variable, but we could try to get the user's name with the GitHub API
Do you think that this should be done by default or that this should be opt-in, with a particular option?

[ruohola]

At the moment the action just uses the github.actor variable, but we could try to get the user's name with the GitHub API
Do you think that this should be done by default or that this should be opt-in, with a particular option?

Hard to say, I guess for not breaking anyone's existing flows a new boolean option would be best, where the default would be the existing behavior, e.g.

real_name_as_commiter_name: false

This boolean would only have an effect when auth_user would be its default empty value.

[EndBug]

Another idea would be letting users use a placeholder like, idk, actor_name, and if that's the case the action will try to fetch the name of the GitHub actor

[ruohola]

Maybe the boolean would be less confusing.

[EndBug]

@all-contributors please add @ruohola for their idea

[allcontributors]

@EndBug

I've put up a pull request to add @ruohola! 🎉

[EndBug]

Ok, I've added a default_author option that allows you to control how the action will fill missing author name and email.
If you set it to user_info the action will use your display name and your actual email (if it's public) to create the commit.
Thanks again for your contribution! I'll publish it in the next minor version

[ruohola]

Ok, I've added a default_author option that allows you to control how the action will fill missing author name and email.
If you set it to user_info the action will use your display name and your actual email (if it's public) to create the commit.
Thanks again for your contribution! I'll publish it in the next minor version

I think the email should still be the repo specific email though.