Malnati/ops-errors

Centralized error logging for GitHub Actions, with reusable Bash helpers automatically loaded via BASH_ENV.

---

What it does

• Creates (or ensures) an error log file on disk.
• Exports ERRORS_PATH to $GITHUB_ENV.
• Exports BASH_ENV so every subsequent shell: bash step automatically loads helper functions.
• Provides helpers like append_error_log and with_error_log to capture stderr and persist it in a single log file.

Why

Composite actions often repeat the same append_error_log() function across multiple steps. This action eliminates that duplication by shipping a shared Bash library and auto-sourcing it for you.

---

Quick start

Add this as the first step in your job (or before any step that should log errors):

- name: "🧯 Setup error logging"
  uses: Malnati/ops-errors@v1.0.0
  with:
    errors_path: .github/workflows/errors.log

From this point on, all subsequent shell: bash steps automatically have:

• ERRORS_PATH available
• append_error_log available
• with_error_log available

---

Example usage

name: "Example - ops-errors"

on:
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  demo:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: "🧯 Setup error logging"
        uses: Malnati/ops-errors@v1.0.0
        with:
          errors_path: .github/workflows/errors.log

      - name: "✅ Command with logged stderr (success)"
        shell: bash
        run: |
          set -euo pipefail
          err="$(mktemp)"
          echo "This goes to stderr (but command succeeds)" >&2
          append_error_log "demo: manual stderr capture" "$err" || true

      - name: "❌ Command with logged stderr (failure)"
        shell: bash
        run: |
          set -euo pipefail
          with_error_log "demo: failing command" bash -lc 'echo "Boom" >&2; exit 1'

      - name: "📄 Show the first lines of the error log"
        shell: bash
        run: |
          set -euo pipefail
          echo "ERRORS_PATH=$ERRORS_PATH"
          test -f "$ERRORS_PATH"
          head -n 50 "$ERRORS_PATH" || true

---

Helpers

append_error_log <context> <stderr_file>

• Appends a timestamped section with context and the content of stderr_file into $ERRORS_PATH.
• Safe no-op if ERRORS_PATH is empty or the file is empty.

with_error_log <context> <command...>

• Runs the command, captures stderr to a temp file, appends to $ERRORS_PATH if it fails, then re-throws the error (exit 1).
• On success, it cleans up and returns 0.

---

Inputs

• errors_path (optional): Path to the error log file. Default: .github/workflows/errors.log

Outputs

• errors_path: Resolved error log file path.
• bash_env: The library file used as BASH_ENV.

---

Notes

• Use shell: bash for steps that rely on BASH_ENV auto-loading.
• The error log is appended; you can rotate it in your workflow if desired.

---

_{Made for consistent, low-noise, reusable error logging across composite actions and workflows.}