Trigger a GitHub Action on a foreign repo update (push) - github

Question

I'm trying to mirror a public repo that I don't own, and more importantly mirror their pushes (to trigger another action).
Right now, the sync actions I have seen seem to copy paste a repo into a repo I own, but that repo's pushes don't trigger actions.
Is there a way to do this ?
I don't know the foreign repo's owner. I'm aware that the owner could send a dispatch event, but I want a solution that doesn't rely on the goodwill of someone.
Basically, I want this to happen:
My repo synchronizes with a foreign one every hour, and if there was an update in the last hour then another action gets triggered.
Is there a way to do this ?

Answer 1

For people with the same problem, I found a way through a cron schedule:
Create an empty text file in your repo
Check the original repo's commit id
If that id is different from the one in the text file, then trigger a sync Action (and optionally any other Action), and then add the commit id in a small text file
Otherwise, do nothing
Repeat from 2 on a cron schedule
Updates on the foreign repo will trigger on the cron schedule.
It's not exactly what I wanted, but close enough.
Edit:
Here is a complete .yml file example from my repo, decommented to make it shorter
name: Sync+build+push TTRSS
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 0 * * *'
workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
get_commits:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
outputs:
LOCAL: ${{ steps.commits.outputs.SETLOCAL }}
REMOTE: ${{ steps.commits.outputs.SETREMOTE }}
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout#v2
with:
ref: 'TTRSS-docker'
- name: set local and remote latest commit as environment variables
id: commits
run: |
echo "::set-output name=SETREMOTE::$(git ls-remote https://git.tt-rss.org/fox/ttrss-docker-compose.git HEAD | awk '{ print $1 }')"
echo "::set-output name=SETLOCAL::$(cat last_sync_with_original_repo_commit_id)"
repo_sync:
needs: [get_commits]
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: needs.get_commits.outputs.LOCAL != needs.get_commits.outputs.REMOTE
steps:
- name: repo-sync
uses: wei/git-sync#v3
with:
source_repo: "https://git.tt-rss.org/fox/ttrss-docker-compose.git"
source_branch: "master"
destination_repo: "git#github.com:schklom/Mirror-workflows.git"
destination_branch: "TTRSS-docker"
ssh_private_key: ${{ secrets.GITSYNCACTION }}
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout#v2
with:
ref: 'TTRSS-docker'
- name: get most recent commit id on original repo, for next comparison on sync
run: git ls-remote https://git.tt-rss.org/fox/ttrss-docker-compose.git HEAD | awk '{ print $1 }' > last_sync_with_original_repo_commit_id
- name: Commit and push the change
uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action#v4
with:
commit_message: Add last_sync_with_original_repo_commit_id
build_push:
needs: [repo_sync]
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout#v2
with:
ref: 'TTRSS-docker'
- name: Set up QEMU
uses: docker/setup-qemu-action#v1
- name: Set up Docker Buildx
id: buildx
uses: docker/setup-buildx-action#v1
- name: Login to Docker Hub
uses: docker/login-action#v1
with:
username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
- name: Build and push TTRSS app
uses: docker/build-push-action#v2
with:
context: ./app
file: ./app/Dockerfile
platforms: linux/386,linux/amd64,linux/arm/v6,linux/arm/v7,linux/arm64
pull: true
push: true
tags: |
schklom/ttrss-app:latest
- name: Build and push TTRSS web-nginx
uses: docker/build-push-action#v2
with:
context: ./web-nginx
file: ./web-nginx/Dockerfile
platforms: linux/386,linux/amd64,linux/arm/v6,linux/arm/v7,linux/arm64
pull: true
push: true
tags: |
schklom/ttrss-web-nginx:latest
build_push_filelogging:
needs: [build_push]
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout#v2
with:
ref: 'TTRSS-docker-with-filelogging'
- name: Set up QEMU
uses: docker/setup-qemu-action#v1
- name: Set up Docker Buildx
id: buildx
uses: docker/setup-buildx-action#v1
- name: Login to Docker Hub
uses: docker/login-action#v1
with:
username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
- name: Build and push TTRSS app (with file logging)
uses: docker/build-push-action#v2
with:
context: ./
file: ./Dockerfile
platforms: linux/386,linux/amd64,linux/arm/v6,linux/arm/v7,linux/arm64
pull: true
push: true
tags: |
schklom/ttrss-app:with-filelogging-latest