GITHUB-ACTIONS Practice Questions

GITHUB_WORKSPACE is a default environment variable in GitHub Actions that points to the directory

on the runner where your repository is checked out. This variable allows you to access files within

your repository during the workflow.

The GITHUB_REPOSITORY environment variable contains the owner and repository name in the

format owner/repository. It is automatically provided by GitHub Actions and can be used to

reference the repository in workflows.

The workflow_dispatch event is used to manually trigger a workflow run in GitHub Actions. You can

specify this event in the workflow file to allow users to manually trigger the workflow from the

GitHub UI, often with optional input parameters.

The GITHUB_ACTOR environment variable indicates the name of the person or app that initiated the

workflow. This variable is automatically provided by GitHub in the workflow and can be used to

identify the user or application triggering the workflow.

To prevent reaching the storage limit for GitHub artifacts and packages, you should manage and

clean up artifacts and packages stored in repositories owned by your organization. This includes

deleting unnecessary artifacts and managing the lifecycle of packages, as they contribute directly to

your organization's storage quota.

Using a tag is a best practice because tags are immutable and represent a fixed version of your

action. By referencing tags, consumers of your action can be assured they are using a stable and

specific version of the action, which helps in avoiding issues with breaking changes.

The commit SHA is another reliable way to specify a particular version of an action. By referencing a

specific commit SHA, consumers can ensure they are using exactly the code that was written at that

moment, avoiding the potential for changes in the future.

The GITHUB_TOKEN is automatically provided by GitHub in workflows and can be used to

authenticate API requests to GitHub, including publishing packages to GitHub Packages.

The GITHUB_TOKEN is also used to authenticate API requests for actions like creating issues,

commenting, or interacting with pull requests within the same repository.

Workflow files must be stored in the .github/workflows/ directory of the repository. This is the

standard location for GitHub Actions workflow files, and workflows in this directory are automatically

triggered by events defined in the file, such as pushes, pull requests, or other GitHub events.

The best way for an enterprise to control which GitHub Actions run is by creating a list of approved

actions as an enterprise policy. This approach restricts workflows to only use the actions that are

explicitly allowed, ensuring security and compliance within the organization.

If a workflow depends on an external service that is down, disabling the workflow temporarily will

prevent it from running and sending requests to the service, thus avoiding failed requests or

unnecessary retries.

If a workflow is causing a negative impact on external services by generating too many requests or

incorrect data due to a bug, temporarily disabling the workflow will stop this behavior while the

issue is fixed.