How to update versions of github actions with renovate?

[fhg-isi]

What would you like help with?

I would like help with my configuration

How are you running Renovate?

Mend Renovate hosted app on github.com

If you're self-hosting Renovate, tell us which platform (GitHub, GitLab, etc) and which version of Renovate.

No response

Please tell us more about your question or problem

I use renovate as App on GitHub and it successfully updates my package.json.

I would like to have a similar feature for the action files themselves under .github/workflows

For example a step

steps:

• uses: actions/checkout@v3

should be updated to use current version of action:

steps:

• uses: actions/checkout@v4

=> Is renovate able to do so?

If yes: how to get it working/how to configure correctly to do so?

If no: is there another tool for it? Or do I need to do this manually? (Then I exchanged manual update of package.json with manual update of *.yml)

At

https://docs.renovatebot.com/modules/manager/github-actions/

It states

"Renovate supports updating Github Actions dependencies."

but I do not understand how to activate it.

I also asked this question at

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/78380016/how-to-automatically-update-versions-of-gitlab-actions-with-renovate

Logs (if relevant)

Logs

Replace this text with your logs, between the starting and ending triple backticks

[github-actions[bot]]

Hi there,

Get your discussion fixed faster by creating a minimal reproduction. This means a repository dedicated to reproducing this issue with the minimal dependencies and config possible.

Before we start working on your issue we need to know exactly what's causing the current behavior. A minimal reproduction helps us with this. Discussions without reproductions are less likely to be converted to Issues.

To get started, please read our guide on creating a minimal reproduction.

Good luck,

The Renovate team

[rarkins]

It should already work without need for configuration.

[HonkingGoose]

Please use the default Renovate configuration first, before you start changing things. Copy/paste this into your renovate.json file, and remove all other configuration you may have.

{
  "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
  "extends": ["config:recommended"]
}

With this configuration Renovate should find your GitHub Action files (and your package.json file) and update them.

Your GitHub Actions files must be in the default location, so for example: .github/workflows/test.yml.

[fhg-isi]

Thank you. Below is my config and settings. Renovate seems to be able to determine what needs to be updated. However, the update is rejected. I checked the App permissions. Is there something else I could do?

INFO: Dependency extraction complete (repository=fraunhofer-isi/micat-next, baseBranch=main)
"stats": {
"managers": {
"github-actions": {"fileCount": 9, "depCount": 33},
"npm": {"fileCount": 1, "depCount": 57}
},
"total": {"fileCount": 10, "depCount": 90}
}
INFO: Workflows update rejection - aborting branch. (repository=fraunhofer-isi/micat-next, branch=renovate/actions-setup-node-4.x)

https://github.com/fraunhofer-isi/micat-next/blob/main/renovate-config.js

module.exports = {
  "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
  "extends": ["config:recommended"],
  "onboarding": false,
  "requireConfig": "optional",
  "platform": "github",
  "forkProcessing": "enabled",
  "dryRun": null, //"full",  // use full to only log messages instead of creating pull requests
  "autodiscover": true,
  "packageRules": [
    {
     "description": "lockFileMaintenance",
     "matchUpdateTypes": [
       "pin",
       "digest",
       "patch",
       "minor",
       "major",
       "lockFileMaintenance"
     ],
     "automerge": true,
     "automergeType": "branch",
     "ignoreTests": true, // set to false if you want updates only to be installed if tests pass
     "dependencyDashboardApproval": false,
     "minimumReleaseAge": null
    },
    {
      // eslint 9 is not supported by some packages, yet, for example
      // https://github.com/typescript-eslint/typescript-eslint/issues/8211
      // https://github.com/eslint-recommended/eslint-config/issues/5
      "matchPackageNames": ["eslint"],
      "allowedVersions": "8.56.0"
    },
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["eslint-plugin-n"],
      "allowedVersions": "16.6.2"
    },
    {
      // eslint-recommended/eslint-config@16.0.3 requires eslint-plugin-unicorn@"48.0.0"
      "matchPackageNames": ["eslint-plugin-unicorn"],
      "allowedVersions": "48.0.0"
    },
    {
      // eslint-recommended/eslint-config@16.0.3 requires  eslint-plugin-jsdoc@"^46.0.0"
      "matchPackageNames": ["eslint-plugin-jsdoc"],
      "allowedVersions": "46.9.1"
    }
  ]
};

[fhg-isi]

Uninstalling renovate app and installing new version somehow solved the issue.