Cannot get deletion-only changes to auto-commit

[adamlui]

Hi,

For some reason my workflow successfully auto-commits on any push except if only file deletions were involved.

I've tried to run rsync with and without --delete, and tested add_options using '--all' and '--u', but just can't get the job to detect deletion-only changes:

Does anyone know why? This is the workflow:

name: Sync adamlui/duckduckgpt/src/greasemonkey to adamlui/userscripts/chatgpt/duckduckgpt

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
    paths:
      - 'src/greasemonkey/**'

jobs:
  sync-duckduckgpt:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:

      # Checkout adamlui/duckduckgpt
      - name: Checkout adamlui/duckduckgpt
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.REPO_SYNC_PAT }}
          repository: adamlui/duckduckgpt
          path: adamlui/duckduckgpt

      # Checkout adamlui/userscripts
      - name: Checkout adamlui/userscripts
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.REPO_SYNC_PAT }}
          repository: adamlui/userscripts
          path: adamlui/userscripts

      # Sync adamlui/duckduckgpt/src/greasemonkey to adamlui/userscripts/chatgpt/duckduckgpt
      - name: Sync duckduckgpt
        run: rsync -av ${{ github.workspace }}/adamlui/duckduckgpt/src/greasemonkey/ ${{ github.workspace }}/adamlui/userscripts/chatgpt/duckduckgpt/

      # Push to adamlui/userscripts
      - name: Push changes
        uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v4
        with:
          push_options: '--force'
          add_options: '--all'
          commit_message: 'Synced from adamlui/duckduckgpt: ${{ github.event.head_commit.message }}'
          file_pattern: 'chatgpt/duckduckgpt/*'
          repository: adamlui/userscripts

[stefanzweifel]

Hard to understand the problem without seeing the files that are synced.
My initial point would be, if you really need all those options. Especially file_pattern.

file_pattern is used both in git-status and git-add. So maybe the pattern doesn't match anything, even though you expect that something matches.

---

There was also a previous issue once about tracking deleted files. #137. Maybe there's something helpful for you in there too.

[adamlui]

Hard to understand the problem without seeing the files that are synced.

For example, adamlui/duckduckgpt/src/greasemonkey/README.md is deleted, and rsync runs on adamlui/userscripts/chatgpt/duckduckgpt where a README.md exists, so it removes it from that folder, then the git-auto-commit-action@v4 runs but says working tree is clean so no add/commit occurs.

But if I had added a file to the source repo, rsync runs and adds it to target repo, then git-auto-commit-action@v4 runs and successfully adds/commits that change instead of saying working tree is clean. (I tried asking ChatGPT, it mentioned deletions aren't indexed or something, I'm new to git/GitHub so don't know what to do)

My initial point would be, if you really need all those options. Especially file_pattern.

The workflow up to git-auto-commit-action@v4 already only ever runs rsync to chatgpt/duckduckgpt/* of target repo so it's unnecessary to specify that file_pattern to trigger an auto-commit w/ expected outcome, however ChatGPT said including it would save resources since less files/folders would be scanned (it actually recommended your action and claimed to have used it himself!)

file_pattern is used both in git-status and git-add. So maybe the pattern doesn't match anything, even though you expect that something matches

The rsync causes files in chatgpt/duckduckgpt/* to be deleted if source repo's latest commit involved a deletion, do you know if git-status is supposed to detect such changes? If not, then nothing is technically wrong with git-auto-commit-action@v4's logic, but a nice feature would be to somehow run a check to see if files disappeared

There was also a previous issue once about tracking deleted files. #137. Maybe there's something helpful for you in there too.

Interesting, in it you said 'If a step in your workflow removes a file or directory, git-auto-commit will detect that and create a commit where the file/directory is being deleted.' My Sync duckduckgpt step runs rsync between two repos where a file deletion occurs and no commit is created is the essential problem I can't solve.

@retorquere says 'if I give it a file-spec like *.gz, that won't match the missing files of course, so they don't get taken along in the commit. If I add the folder they're in, it works' ... do you know if he's referring to the file_pattern? (if so, mine being chatgpt/duckduckgpt/* seems like it should work)