Action fails on environments that lack the gh cli about quarto-actions

[Robinlovelace]

Tested and to my surprise it worked 1st time: geocompx/geocompy@6545593

Do you have any other tips on this @cderv ? Many thanks!

[cderv]

is it easy to convert the book format to latex books like with bookdown (or indeed use bookdown)?

You should be able to set multiple output format for the book, including HTML and PDF.
https://quarto.org/docs/books/#getting-started

So building a book in both format should work. Like in bookdown but with some new features.

[cderv]

Yes currently the gh CLI is a requirement as we need it to download the latest release for Github release page.

When creating this action, I assumed it would be used in Github Actions runners which all have the gh CLI. Wrong assumptiom.

Using it makes it really easy to get the latest release from the release page.

Is getting the gh CLI not possible in your case ?

I can find a workaround but it is less easy - gh CLI makes it really convenient. So if it could work for you that is easier.

I can add a check and a useful error at least.

What would be the desired behavior for you ?

• Downloading the gh CLI directly in the action ?
• Or not using it at all ?

thanks !

[Robinlovelace]

All good questions.

Is getting the gh CLI not possible in your case ?

Yes that's possible and what I did. See here: https://github.com/geocompr/pytest/blob/main/.github/workflows/main.yaml#L17-L20

Is there a way to check if the gh tool is installed and install it with that if not? Also see the rest of that .yml file, as you'll see after going to the effort of installing the gh tool we just proceed to manually install quarto with a fixed version!

It's well worth making this action more robust IMO, lots of people will benefit who don't necessarily use vanilla GitHub images for their workflows.

[cderv]

Is there a way to check if the gh tool is installed and install it with that if not?

You mean inside quarto-install action ? I guess we can do that yes. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to install a tool that the user does not ask for. But I can also uninstall it maybe at the end, like cleaning.
Maybe that is not easier than not using the gh CLI tool for download.

we just proceed to manually install quarto with a fixed version!

This is now possible. It has been asked in #6 and just added in #7. You should now be able to do

    steps:
      - uses: quarto-dev/quarto-actions/install-quarto@main
        with:
          version: 0.3.63

[Robinlovelace]

This is now possible. It has been asked in #6 and just added in #7. You should now be able to do

Great! And that does not require gh?

[cderv]

Great! And that does not require gh?

It still does. But I can make it not use it in this case. Working on it ! 😅

[cderv]

Great! And that does not require gh?

It does not require gh now when a version is specified.

I'll probably try to remove the gh requirement or install it in the action but this is simpler to do this for now. (would require a broader rewrite otherwise)

Does this work for you ?

[Robinlovelace]

Not tested, but will aim to do so. Many thanks for the fix!

[cderv]

So it works ? cool !

other tips on your workflow ? what other tips to you need ? I am not sure to follow, sorry. 😅

[Robinlovelace]

Well any tips on using Quarto for newcomers to this rapidly evolving project, especially in relation to books. Specific (and I know off topic!) question: is it easy to convert the book format to latex books like with bookdown (or indeed use bookdown)?