actions/upload-pages-artifact fails at actions/upload-artifact with "No files were found with the provided path"

Question

I would like to create a GitHub Workflow that builds a C++ application using emscripten and cmake, and deploys it to GitHub Pages. My Workflow job looks like this.

environment:
  name: github-pages
  url: ${{steps.deployment.outputs.page_url}}

runs-on: ubuntu-latest

container:
  image: emscripten/emsdk
  
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- run: cmake -B $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=${{env.BUILD_TYPE}} -DEMSCRIPTEN=ON
- run: cmake --build $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/build --config ${{env.BUILD_TYPE}}

# actions/upload-pages-artifact uses this directory, but it doesn't exist in the image
- run: mkdir -p ${{runner.temp}}

- uses: actions/configure-pages@v1
- uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v1
  with:
    path: $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/build
- id: deployment
  uses: actions/deploy-pages@v1  

upload-pages-artifact runs tar and lists all the files to be deployed in the log. When running upload-artifact the log reads Warning: No files were found with the provided path: /__w/_temp/artifact.tar. No artifacts will be uploaded..

Note that the path in the warning is different from the one provided as a parameter to upload-artifact (path: /home/runner/work/_temp/artifact.tar).

upload-pages-artifact works as expected when running without the emscripten container.

I would have to either get upload-pages-artifact working inside the container, or somehow share the build with a second job running outside the container.

Answer 1

Split up the job into two jobs, one for building and one for deploying. Use actions/upload-artifact and actions/download-artifact to pass the build from one job to the next. Don't use $GITHUB_WORKSPACE, as it might not point to the right directory in your image.

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container:
      image: emscripten/emsdk
      
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    - run: cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=${{env.BUILD_TYPE}} -DEMSCRIPTEN=ON
    - run: cmake --build build --config ${{env.BUILD_TYPE}}
    - uses: actions/upload-artifact@master
      with:
        name: page
        path: build
        if-no-files-found: error
    
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: build
    environment:
      name: github-pages
      url: ${{steps.deployment.outputs.page_url}}
      
    steps:
    - uses: actions/download-artifact@master
      with:
        name: page
        path: .
    - uses: actions/configure-pages@v1
    - uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v1
      with:
        path: .
    - id: deployment
      uses: actions/deploy-pages@main