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github ⚓︎

Getting started⚓︎

Setup SSH connection with GitHub⚓︎

When you set up SSH, you will need to generate a new SSH key and add it to the ssh-agent. You must add the SSH key to your account on GitHub before you use the key to authenticate.

Check for existing keys⚓︎

First of all, check if there is any existing key supported by GitHub: 

ls -al ~/.ssh | grep -E 'id_rsa.pub|id_ecdsa.pub|id_ed25519.pub'

Create a new key⚓︎

If no supported key is available, create a SSH key with: 

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"
It will prompt you for a secure passphrase. Then start the SSH agent: 
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
and add your SSH private key to your SSH agent (replace id_ed25519 if different). This ensure you won't have to reenter your passphrase every time you use your SSH key. 
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
Add your newly created SSH key to your GitHub account from the browser, by copying the whole content of cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub (replace ed25519 if different) in Your GitHub profile > Settings > SSH and GPG keys > New SSH key, giving it a Title and confirming with Add SSH key

Test your SSH connection⚓︎

Test your connection with ssh -T git@github.com. A successful response should be like: 

Hi USERNAME! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

Danger

If it doesn't work, troubleshoot the Error: permission denied (publickey) error.

Github Actions⚓︎

Set up a self-hosted runner⚓︎

Add a self-hosted runner on your repository⚓︎

  • Go on Your GitHub profile > Your repo > Settings > Actions > Runners > New self-hosted runner
  • Choose your OS (macOS, Linux, Windows) and architecture
  • cd in the path where you will store the runner
  • Download the runner with 
    # Create a folder
$ mkdir actions-runner && cd actions-runner
# Download the latest runner package
$ curl -o actions-runner-linux-x64-2.284.0.tar.gz -L https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/download/v2.284.0/actions-runner-linux-x64-2.284.0.tar.gz
# Optional: Validate the hash
$ echo "1ddfd7bbd3f2b8f5684a7d88d6ecb6de3cb2281a2a359543a018cc6e177067fc  actions-runner-linux-x64-2.284.0.tar.gz" | shasum -a 256 -c
# Extract the installer
$ tar xzf ./actions-runner-linux-x64-2.284.0.tar.gz
  • Configure the runner with: 
    # Create the runner and start the configuration experience
$ ./config.sh --url https://github.com/<YOUR_USERNAME>/<YOUR_REPOSITORY> --token <YOUR_TOKEN>
# Last step, run it!
$ ./run.sh
    When the runner is actually running, you will see it with the :green-circle: Idle label in Settings > Actions > Runner.

Configure your runner as a service⚓︎

In the runner folder (actions-runner),

  • Stop the runner if it is running
  • Install the service with 
    sudo ./svc.sh install
  • Start the service with 
    sudo ./svc.sh start
  • Check the service status with 
    sudo ./svc.sh status

Use the self-hosted runner in a workflow⚓︎

To use the runner, add in your .github/workflows/WORFLOW_NAME.yml file: 

# Use this YAML in your workflow file for each job
runs-on: self-hosted

Define a workflow⚓︎

Generic env variables⚓︎

  • ${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}: the project root folder (i.e. the one containing the .github\workflows subfolder)
  • ${{ github.event.repository.name }}: the project name, in our case the-notebook
  • ${{ github.repository_owner }}: the repository owner, in our case sannae (i.e. myself!)

Use the secrets as env variables⚓︎

Once you've defined a GitHub Secret, you can access it in your workflow as an environment variable from the step/job/workflow scope:

      - name: Your step name

        # Define an environment variable ACCESS_TOKEN 
        # whose value is read from the GitHub Secret with the same name
        env:
          ACCESS_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.ACCESS_TOKEN }}"
        run: python3 ${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/scripts/lang-tracker.py

In the example above, the script lang-tracker.py is able to see the environment variable with the os.environ[] function:

g = Github(os.environ['ACCESS_TOKEN'])

Github API⚓︎

Test the API via console (using curl)⚓︎

Details of the user:⚓︎

user=$"YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME"
token=$"YOUR-GITHUB-PERSONAL-ACCESS-TOKEN"
curl -i -u "$user:$token" https://api.github.com/users/$user`
The switch -i will display also the HTTP headers: notice the content-type header (it should be application/json) and the x-ratelimit-limit header (maximum amount of available request per hour, it should be 5000 for authenticated requests - usage is tracked by the x-ratelimit-remaining).

Details of the user's repos (both public and private):⚓︎

user=$"YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME"
token=$"YOUR-GITHUB-PERSONAL-ACCESS-TOKEN"
curl -i -H "Authorization: token $token" https://api.github.com/users/$user/repos

Details of a specific repo⚓︎

user=$"YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME"
token=$"YOUR-GITHUB-PERSONAL-ACCESS-TOKEN"
repo=$REPO_NAME
curl -i -H "Authorization: token $token" https://api.github.com/repos/$user/$repo

Commits of a specific repo⚓︎

user=$"YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME"
token=$"YOUR-GITHUB-PERSONAL-ACCESS-TOKEN"
repo=$REPO_NAME
curl -i -H "Authorization: token $token" https://api.github.com/repos/$user/$repo/commits

Language statistics of a specific repo⚓︎

user=$"YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME"
token=$"YOUR-GITHUB-PERSONAL-ACCESS-TOKEN"
repo=$REPO_NAME
curl -i -H "Authorization: token $token" https://api.github.com/repos/$user/$repo/languages

Calling the API with PyGithub⚓︎

Simply install with 

pip install PyGithub

Then use it by calling all the supported Github objects: 

from github import Github

g = Github("YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN_HERE")

for repo in g.get_user().get_repos():
  print(repo_name)