Getting the source branch on a pull_request event and the pushed branch on a push event

[elongl]

I want a way to get the branch name (not <NUM>/pull, or <NUM>/merge, etc.) of the source branch on a PR and the pushed branch when pushing.

Initially I thought that github.ref_name would give me that but instead it returned 270/merge and not the PR's branch name.
I then started using github.head_ref, but it only applies to PRs and not to pushed branches.

What's an expression that would evaluate to github.head_ref on PR and to the pushed branch on a push event?

Thanks.

[Yuri05]

github.event.pull_request.head.ref ?

[ViacheslavKudinov]

Hi,
maybe
github.base_ref - The base_ref or target branch of the pull request in a workflow run. This property is only available when the event that triggers a workflow run is either pull_request or pull_request_target

You can check github context to see what else is available https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/contexts#github-context.

[elongl]

I ended up using BRANCH_NAME: ${{ github.head_ref || github.ref_name }} but I'm not sure if this is the best way, works for now.

[alexjanckilagc]

This does not work and is an empty value on PR merge.

[krebemm]

is there any fix for this? push request would be a lot more useful with github.head_ref variable :)

[aghand0ur]

any update on this matter?

[McBlankenburg]

i need it too, i want scrap branch name to set labels in pull request template

[syedammadiqbal]

To get source branch Name : ${{github.ref_name}}
For Target branch Name : ${{github.event.pull_request.base.ref}}

[recroviral]

I have tired to retrieve Branch name from the merge commit message on a push event and it's working for me.

# Get the Branch Name
MERGE_COMMIT_MESSAGE=$(git log --format=%B -n 1 "${GITHUB_SHA}")
BRANCH_NAME=$(echo "$MERGE_COMMIT_MESSAGE" | grep -oP '(?<=from ).*' | awk -F/ '{print $NF}')
echo "Branch Name: $BRANCH_NAME"

[rkochar]

I have tired to retrieve Branch name from the merge commit message on a push event and it's working for me.

# Get the Branch Name
MERGE_COMMIT_MESSAGE=$(git log --format=%B -n 1 "${GITHUB_SHA}")
BRANCH_NAME=$(echo "$MERGE_COMMIT_MESSAGE" | grep -oP '(?<=from ).*' | awk -F/ '{print $NF}')
echo "Branch Name: $BRANCH_NAME"

How do you set the value in ${GITHUB_SHA}?

[recroviral]

"${GITHUB_SHA}": the SHA hash of the commit provided by GitHub Actions as the SHA of the commit that triggered the workflow.

You can directly use GITHUB_SHA without needing to set it yourself.

[rkochar]

"${GITHUB_SHA}": the SHA hash of the commit provided by GitHub Actions as the SHA of the commit that triggered the workflow.

You can directly use GITHUB_SHA without needing to set it yourself.

Thank you for your response. I think merge queues break this workaround.

[rhombl4]

Keep in mind that GITHUB_SHA is the sha of merge-commit, not the commit in head branch. You won't find this sha in a repository after referencing it somewhere; in the case of "${{ github.event_name }}" == "pull_request".

[avelinoappfire]

i was able to do it with this solution from stack overflow: https://stackoverflow.com/a/58035262
hope it helps

[avelinoappfire]

oh but no when the branch is merged after a PR, has someone managed to get the source branch name after it has been merged?

[pi3k14]

gh api repos/${{ github.repository }}/commits/${{ github.sha }}/pulls --jq '.[0].head.ref' is the proper spell I think