[BUG] <Error: Can't find local .git directory> about changed-files

[jackton1]

Hi @bbaral07 can you provide details of your workflow file. Include sections of both the checkout action and the changed-files action

[jackton1]

Hi @bbaral07 I'll suggest specifying the correct path input if you're checking out the repository in another folder.

You can search for "Get all changed files for a repository located in a different path" in the Examples section.

[bbaral07]

Hallo Jackton1,
thanks for your reply,
Below is the workflow part, where I do a checkout and then use the tj-actions/changed-files.
I followed the examples, but not sure if I am missing anything. Any hint or help is appreciated.
This is the point where I get the error (as in the original post)

  - name: Repo Checkout
    uses: actions/checkout@v4
    with:
      repository: org/tf_accounts
      ref: 'feature'
      fetch-depth: 0
      clean: 'false'

  - name: List the checkedout folders
    shell: bash
    run: |
      pwd
      ls -al
      printf "\n%s\n" "${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}"

  - name: Get all changed account json files
    id: changed-account-files
    if: contains(fromJson('["push", "pull_request"]'), github.event_name)
    uses: tj-actions/changed-files@v41
    with:
      files: accounts/*.{json}  # Alternatively using: `accounts/**`
      files_ignore: accounts/schema.json
      json: "true"
      write_output_files: true
      path: .

[jackton1]

Hi @bbaral07, thanks for sharing a couple of things to point out.

files: You might want to use accounts/*.json since you don’t need braces here.
path: defaults to . so no need to specify the same value.

---

Question: Is there a reason you have set clean: 'false'?

---

Request: To fully get to a solution. Can you include the debug logs of the workflow not a picture or snippet but if possible the entire logs. To obtain the debug logs you’ll need to rerun the workflow and ensure debug logging is enabled prior to rerunning the workflow.

[bbaral07]

Thanks, Jackton01 for your response.
Sorry for the delayed response.
I tried to hardcode the path, but still, it could not process the result to find the changed files.
I used (clean: 'false') to retain the .git folder as I received an error that it could not find the correct .git folder.
Alternatively, I wrote a short shell script to get the changed files instead of using the action.

Though I could not use it, I truly appreciate the purpose and functionality of this action.
Great Job. 👏
Maybe I will try in some other workflow.

[jackton1]

Sounds good, FYI the changed-files action doesn't only check that the .git folder exists but also validates the output of

git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree which should return "true".

If you run into this issue in the future this would help you determine what's wrong.