GitHub Workflow User don't exist

March 2, 2023

with Workflow GitHub Actions, I want to set up a script to automatically trigger the deployment from github of a python django application on an ubuntu-server with apache2 wsgi, the script must allow to be able to initiate a new installation or if the installation already exists update the application.

Error on STEP : Set Project – Env path

USER_RUN: www-datas
chown: invalid user: ‘www-datas:www-datas’
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

name: Django-wsgi

env:
  PROJECT_NAME: 'myproject'
  PROJECT_DOMAIN: 'myproject.tld'
  PROJECT_ENV: 'venv_myproject'
  PROJECT_PATH: '/var/www/vhosts'
  PROJECT_GIT_REPO: 'github.com/xxxx/plop.git'
  PYTHON_VERSION: '3.10'
  USER_RUN: 'www-datas'

on:
  push:
    branches: [ "main" ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ "main" ]

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    strategy:
      max-parallel: 4

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: 'Set Project - Env path'
        run: |
          sudo mkdir -p '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs'
          chown -R ${{ env.USER_RUN }}:${{ env.USER_RUN }} '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs'
          cd '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs'

      - name: 'Set Project - Prerequisites'
        run: |
          sudo apt-get update
          sudo apt-get install python3-pip -y
          sudo apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3 -y
          sudo apt-get install libpq-dev python-is-python3 python3-dev -y

      - name: Configure Apache2 WSGI
        run: |
          if [ -f ${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}.conf ]; then cp ${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}.conf; fi

      - name: 'Set up Python version'
        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
        with:
          python-version: ${{ env.PYTHON_VERSION }}
          check-latest: true
          cache : 'pip'

      - name: 'Create and start virtual environment'
        run: |
          cd '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs'
          python -m venv ${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}
          source ${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/bin/activate

      - name: 'Install Dependencies'
        run: |
          cd '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs'
          python -m pip install --upgrade --force pip
          if [ -f requirements.txt ]; then pip install -r requirements.txt; fi

      - name: Run migrations
        run: |
          python '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs/manage.py' makemigrations
          python '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs/manage.py' migrate
          python '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs/manage.py' migrate --run-syncdb
          python '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs/manage.py' check

  deploy:
      permissions:
        contents: none

      runs-on: ubuntu-latest

      needs: build

      environment:
        name: 'Development'
        url: ${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}

      steps:
        - name: 'Deploy Web App'
          id: deploy-to-webapp
          run: if [ -d .git ]; then git pull; else; git clone 'https://${{secrets.GIT_USR}}:${{secrets.GIT_PWD}}@${{ env.PROJECT_GIT_REPO }}' ; fi

        - name: Run migrations
          run: |
            python '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs/manage.py' makemigrations
            python '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs/manage.py' migrate
            python '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs/manage.py' migrate --run-syncdb
            python '${{ env.PROJECT_PATH }}/${{ env.PROJECT_ENV }}/${{ env.PROJECT_DOMAIN }}/httpdocs/manage.py' check

>Solution :

You’re running on the ubuntu-latest GitHub Hosted runner. That code doesn’t run on your ubuntu Django server, but it runs on a VM hosted by Github somewhere in Azure. That user that you’re trying to assign rights to does not exist on the GitHub Hosted Runners.

If you have a self-hosted runner installed on the target server, then change the runs-on to something like: