GitHub CLI in Github Actions with GitHub Actions

A GitHub Release can be created within GitHub Actions in two steps:

1. Create one or more packages,
2. Create the release and upload packages.

Create packages

The build output are packaged on archive files (on the example below, Zip and 7z files). Files are then copied to a directory:

env:
  PACKAGE_VERSION: <package version, e.g. 1.0.0>
  APP_NAME: <package name>
  
  # ...

    - name: Package
      working-directory: './out/'
      run: |
        mkdir "../${{ env.APP_NAME }}-${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}/"

        mkdir "../${{ env.APP_NAME }}-${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}/linux-x64/"
        7z a ${{ env.APP_NAME }}-linux-x64.7z ./linux-x64/*
        zip -r ${{ env.APP_NAME }}-linux-x64.zip ./linux-x64/*

        cp -a ./${{ env.APP_NAME }}-linux-x64.* ../${{ env.APP_NAME }}-${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}/

        mkdir "../${{ env.APP_NAME }}-${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}/win-x64/"
        7z a ${{ env.APP_NAME }}-win-x64.7z ./win-x64/*
        zip -r ${{ env.APP_NAME }}-win-x64.zip ./win-x64/*

        cp -a ./${{ env.APP_NAME }}-win-x64.* ../${{ env.APP_NAME }}-${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}/

(option) Publish packages as artefact

Optionally, the directory to which the archives are copied can be published as an artifact:

env:
  PACKAGE_VERSION: <package version, e.g. 1.0.0>
  APP_NAME: <package name>
  
  # ...

    - name: Upload
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
      with: 
        name: ${{ env.APP_NAME }}-${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}
        path: '${{ env.APP_NAME }}-${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}'

Create release and upload packages

To create a version from a GitHub action, the GitHub CLI commands are used and require a GitHub token (cf. GitHub CLI in Github Actions). The token is stored in a step environment variable named GH_TOKEN.

In the following sample, two commands are used:

1. gh release create: to create the release.
2. gh release upload: to reference files in the release.

env:
  PACKAGE_VERSION: <package version, e.g. 1.0.0>
  APP_NAME: <package name>
  
  # ...

    - name: Create release
      env:
        GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PFX_IMAGES_GH_CLI_TOKEN }}
      run: |
        gh release create v${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}-$GITHUB_RUN_ID --target main --generate-notes 
        
        gh release upload v${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}-$GITHUB_RUN_ID ${{ env.APP_NAME }}-${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}/${{ env.APP_NAME }}-linux-x64.zip
        gh release upload v${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}-$GITHUB_RUN_ID ${{ env.APP_NAME }}-${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}/${{ env.APP_NAME }}-linux-x64.7z
        gh release upload v${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}-$GITHUB_RUN_ID ${{ env.APP_NAME }}-${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}/${{ env.APP_NAME }}-win-x64.zip
        gh release upload v${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}-$GITHUB_RUN_ID ${{ env.APP_NAME }}-${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}/${{ env.APP_NAME }}-win-x64.7z