Get current date and time in GitHub workflows - github

Question

I have a GitHub workflow for releasing nightly snapshots of the repository. It uses the create-release action. This is how the workflow file looks right now:
name: Release Nightly Snapshot
on:
schedule:
- cron: "0 0 * * *"
jobs:
build:
name: Release Nightly Snapshot
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout master Branch
uses: actions/checkout#v2
with:
ref: 'master'
- name: Create Release
id: nightly-snapshot
uses: actions/create-release#latest
env:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
with:
tag_name: 'nightly snapshot'
release_name: 'nightly snapshot'
draft: false
prerelease: false
I want tag_name and release_name to use the current date and time, instead of hard-coded values. However, I couldn't find any documentation on it. How should I do it?

Answer 1

From this post you can create a step that set its output with the value $(date +'%Y-%m-%d')
Then use this output using ${{ steps.date.outputs.date }}. The following show an example for environment variables and for inputs :
on: [push, pull_request]
name: build
jobs:
build:
name: Example
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Get current date
id: date
run: echo "::set-output name=date::$(date +'%Y-%m-%d')"
- name: Test with environment variables
run: echo $TAG_NAME - $RELEASE_NAME
env:
TAG_NAME: nightly-tag-${{ steps.date.outputs.date }}
RELEASE_NAME: nightly-release-${{ steps.date.outputs.date }}
- name: Test with input
uses: actions/hello-world-docker-action#master
with:
who-to-greet: Mona-the-Octocat-${{ steps.date.outputs.date }}
Outputs :
* Test with environment variables
nightly-tag-2020-03-31 - nightly-release-2020-03-31
* Test with input
Hello Mona-the-Octocat-2020-03-31

Answer 2

Here's another way to do this via environment variables (from this post):
name: deploy
on: [push]
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Set current date as env variable
run: echo "NOW=$(date +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S')" >> $GITHUB_ENV
- name: Echo current date
run: echo $NOW # Gives "2022-12-11T01:42:20"
This sets the date as an environment variable, which is useful if you want to consume it in scripts / programs in subsequent steps.

Answer 3

A clean solution is to use ${{ github.event.repository.updated_at}} which is pretty close to current datetime$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M)
Format is ISO 8601
e.g 2022-05-15T23:33:38Z
Pros:
Doesn't require shell execution
Directly accessible from all your workflow
Allows cross-referencing with GitHub events
Cons:
Strict format
you can still modify the format in a shell
e.g. echo ${{ github.event.repository.updated_at}} | sed 's/:/./g'
Not available with Act testing framework
References:
Github context
Event object

Answer 4

Update
The set-output command is deprecated and will be disabled soon. Please upgrade to using Environment Files.
Documentation can be found here
name: deploy
on: [push]
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Get current date
id: date
run: |
echo "{date}={$(date +'%Y-%m-%d')}" >> $GITHUB_STATE
- name: Test with environment variables
run: echo $TAG_NAME - $RELEASE_NAME
env:
TAG_NAME: nightly-tag-${{ env.date }}
RELEASE_NAME: nightly-release-${{ env.date }}

Answer 5

if $GITHUB_ENV doesn't work, use $GITHUB_OUTPUT instead:
name: Flutter CI
run-name: ${{ github.actor }} is testing GitHub Actions 🚀
on:
push:
tags:
- '*'
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: "Set current date as env variable"
run: |
echo "builddate=$(date +'%Y-%m-%d')" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
id: version # this is used on variable path
- name: Publishing Release
uses: softprops/action-gh-release#v1
with:
tag_name: ${{ steps.version.outputs.builddate }}
name: ${{ steps.version.outputs.builddate }}
body: "your date"
- name: print date
run: |
echo $DEBUG
env:
DEBUG: ${{ steps.version.outputs.builddate }}-DEBUG
RELEASE: ${{ steps.version.outputs.builddate }}-RELEASE