Can not upload a directory that is a symlink to a directory

[arianvp]

Describe the bug
The nix package manager drops a symlink to the build artifact in your local directory called result which links
to the content-adressed build-directory e.g.:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 arian users 50 Jul  6 15:10 result -> /nix/store/qk0wg6wv073bz78llr582by4x3n59kgk-jekyll

but uploading that directory fails using the following workflow:

    - name: "Build"
      run: nix-build -A website
    - name: "Upload artifact to github"
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
      with:
        name: website
        path: result/**/*

However as a workaround, if you create a directory inside that symlink then it does work:

    - name: "Build"
      run: nix-build -A website
    - name: "Upload artifact to github"
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
      with:
        name: website
        path: result/dummy-directory/**/*

Version

• V1
• V2

Environment

• self-hosted
• Linux
• Windows
• Mac

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Run/Repo Url
https://github.com/minvws/nl-covid19-notification-app-community-website/runs/841910187?check_suite_focus=true

How to reproduce
If applicable, add information on how to reproduce the problem.

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

[arianvp]

Funnily enough; the code does detect that it's a directory, and even tells me how many files will be uploaded; to only later fail:

With the provided path, there will be 11 files uploaded
##[error]Provided rootDirectory /home/runner/work/nl-covid19-notification-app-community-website/nl-covid19-notification-app-community-website/result is not a valid directory

The fix seems like we should first resolve symlinks before checking with lstat whether the file is a directory

[rpearce]

Same issue here: https://github.com/rpearce/robertwpearce.com/pull/68/checks?check_run_id=1109884668

@arianvp Is the workaround to have a directory inside the symlinked dir?

Edit: Yes, that worked for me.

[grigorye]

Just in case, another workaround (that works in my case) might be using glob pattern instead of the exact name for the directory. Given the orginal example, something like this:

    - name: "Upload artifact to github"
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
      with:
        name: website
        path: result*/**/*

In case the glob does match extra (irrelevant) directories, I wonder if you could use ! to filter out non-related stuff e.g. like below:

    - name: "Upload artifact to github"
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
      with:
        name: website
        path: |
          result*/**/*
          !result?*

[gebn]

I'm also running into this with Bazel, which symlinks bazel-bin in the workspace directory:

- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
  with:
    name: archive
    path: bazel-bin/archive.tar.gz

Run actions/upload-artifact@v2
With the provided path, there will be 1 file(s) uploaded
Error: Provided rootDirectory /home/runner/work/slug/slug/bazel-bin is not a valid directory

Bazel provides bazel info bazel-bin to get the real path, however it looks like command substitution isn't supported within path.

[SCOTT-HAMILTON]

I can reproduce this same exact issue with a nix result folder symlink.

    - name: "Upload artifact to github"
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
      with:
        name: Test-driver screenshots
        path: result/screen*

With the provided path, there will be 9 files uploaded
Error: Provided rootDirectory /home/runner/work/tabbed/tabbed/result is not a valid directory

By the way, the result* fix didn't work for me. It does remove the error but the files don't get uploaded.

[RachelXGanon]

Is this bug fixed?
I'm using a symbolic link in windows, with this action and get
Error: Provided rootDirectory<path> is not a valid directory

[zhangguanzhang]

Is this bug fixed?
I'm using a symbolic link in actions, with this action and get

Error: Provided rootDirectory /home/runner/work/Actions-OpenWrt/Actions-OpenWrt/openwrt is not a valid directory

[finolacahill]

+1 on this issue. Failing out for a symlinked directory

[n8henrie]

Running into this error (Error: Provided rootDirectory /tmp is not a valid directory) on a macos builder, trying to upload /tmp/qs_build_settings.

https://github.com/quicksilver/Quicksilver/runs/5321405744?check_suite_focus=true

Run actions/upload-artifact@v2
  with:
    name: BUILD_SETTINGS
    path: /tmp/qs_build_settings
    if-no-files-found: warn
  env:
    QS_BUILD_ONLY: 1
With the provided path, there will be 1 file uploaded
Starting artifact upload
For more detailed logs during the artifact upload process, enable step-debugging: https://docs.github.com/actions/monitoring-and-troubleshooting-workflows/enabling-debug-logging#enabling-step-debug-logging
Artifact name is valid!
Error: Provided rootDirectory /tmp is not a valid directory

Trying to debug:

+ ls -l /tmp/qs_build_settings
-rw-r--r--  1 runner  wheel  27668 Feb 24 16:02 /tmp/qs_build_settings
+ ls -ldh /tmp
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root  wheel    11B Jan  1  2020 /tmp -> private/tmp

EDIT: Changing path from /tmp/qs_build_settings to /private/tmp/qs_build_settings seems to work.

[exFalso]

Note, workaround is to dereference the symlink with readlink and pass it through with $GITHUB_ENV:

      - run: nix-build XXX # produces `result` symlink
      - run: echo "UPLOAD_PATH=$(readlink -f result)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
        with:
          name: XXX
          path: ${{ env.UPLOAD_PATH }}

[konradpabjan]

actions/toolkit#1190 has been merged in but a new version of @actions/artifact needs to be published and the changes pulled into upload-artifact with the next release

[jdcole]

For anybody searching for an answer, this is huge problem for bazel builds due all the symlinking in build-* directories. Looking forward to it hitting upload-artifact!