Create a CI matrix for use in a GitHub Action

This repository represents a GitHub action that allows you to introspect a PHP project in order to build up a test matrix which can later be run by the laminas/laminas-continuous-integration-action.

It identifies jobs to run based on presence or absence of configuration files in the package. Currently, it identifies the following:

• PHP versions to run unit tests against based on the php constraint in the composer.json file.
• Whether to run against a "locked" set of dependencies based on the presence of a composer.lock file.
• PHPUnit tests based on the presence of phpunit.xml.dist or phpunit.xml files.
• phpcs checks based on the presence of phpcs.xml.dist or phpcs.xml files.
• Psalm checks based on the presence of psalm.xml.dist or psalm.xml files.
• phpbench benchmarks based on the presence of a phpbench.json.
• Markdown documentation based on the presence of a mkdocs.yml and/or markdown files in the doc/book/ or doc/books/ trees.
• Codeception checks based on the presence of codeception.yml.dist or codeception.yml files.

Further, when triggered by a pull_request event, it determines what checks are necessary based on which files were affected.

Usage

jobs:
  matrix:
    name: Generate job matrix
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      matrix: ${{ steps.matrix.outputs.matrix }}
    steps:
      - name: Gather CI configuration
        id: matrix
        uses: laminas/laminas-ci-matrix-action@v1

  qa:
    name: QA Checks
    needs: [matrix]
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.operatingSystem }}
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix: ${{ fromJSON(needs.matrix.outputs.matrix) }}
    steps:
      - name: ${{ matrix.name }}
        uses: laminas/laminas-continuous-integration-action@v1
        with:
          job: ${{ matrix.job }}

Generally, you will use this as a dependency of a job that uses laminas/laminas-continuous-integration-action, as demonstrated in the above configuration.

actions/checkout not required

An actions/checkout step prior to this action is not required, as it will perform a checkout into the WORKDIR on its own if none has been performed previously. We recommend using actions/checkout only if you need to access QA artifacts in a later step.

Outputs

It spits out a single output, "matrix", which is a JSON string in the following format:

{
  "include": [
    {
      "name": "(string) Name of the check being run",
      "operatingSystem": "(string) Name of the OS the job should be run on (generally ubuntu-latest)",
      "action": "(string) GHA to run the step on; currently ignored, as GHA does not support dynamic action selection",
      "job": "(string) JSON object detailing the job (more on this later)"
    }
  ],
  "exclude": [
    {
    }
  ]
}

The "exclude" element will only be present if the package using the action provides it via configuration. Each item in the "exclude" array will be an object, with one or more of the keys listed in the "include" objects; when a job matches all elements specified in the "exclude" array, it will be excluded from runs.

The "job" element is a string JSON object detailing the job to run. Note: it is not an object; it is a JSON string but it MUST have the structure as shown here.

Job Element

The "job" element will have the following elements, but is not restricted to them:

{
  "php": "(optional) string PHP minor version to run against",
  "extensions": [
    "(optional) extension names to install; names are from the ondrej PHP repository, minus the php{VERSION}- prefix"
  ],
  "ini": [
    "(optional) php.ini directives, one per element; e.g. 'memory_limit=-1'"
  ],
  "dependencies": "(optional) dependencies to test against; one of lowest, locked, latest. default: locked",
  "command": "(required) command to run to perform the check", 
  "ignore_platform_reqs_8": "(optional; deprecated) boolean; whether to add `--ignore-platform-req=php` to composer for PHP 8.0. default: true",
  "ignore_php_platform_requirement": "(optional) boolean; whether to add `--ignore-platform-req=php` to composer for this job."
}

Configuration

The package can include a configuration file in its root, .laminas-ci.json, which can provide the following:

{
  "extensions": [
    "extension names to install"
  ],
  "ini": [
    "php.ini directives"
  ],
  "checks": [
    {
    }
  ],
  "additional_checks": [
    {
    }
  ],
  "exclude": [
    {
    }
  ],
  "ignore_php_platform_requirements": {
      "8.0": true
  },
  "stablePHP": "7.4"
}

Providing specific checks to run

If you do not want to autodiscover checks to run, you can provide the "checks" configuration. Each element in that array should be in the same format as listed above for the outputs:

{
  "name": "(string) Name of the check being run",
  "operatingSystem": "(string) Name of the OS the job should be run on (generally ubuntu-latest)",
  "action": "(string) GHA to run the step on; currently ignored, as GHA does not support dynamic action selection",
  "job": "(string) JSON object detailing the job"
}

The "job" element can either be a JSON string representing a job, or an object. In each case, it MUST have the structure as shown here but the "php" element is mandatory in here and MUST contain the minor PHP version to run the check against.

The action validates each check and its job to ensure it is structured correctly, and will provide warnings if not, omitting any check that is malformed from the output.

If the checks element is populated, the matrix will not include any auto-detected checks, and will only output the jobs listed in that element.

Providing additional checks

The additional_checks key allows package authors to provide checks to run in addition to any discovered. This allows providing checks for tools the matrix discovery tools do not know about, or providing one-off checks (such as benchmarks or mutation tests).

The syntax for the additional_checks key is as follows:

{
    "additional_checks": [
        {
            "name": "(string; REQUIRED) name of the check to run",
            "job": "(object) JSON object detailing the job"
        }
    ]
}

A job per PHP version per dependency set will be created, and the "name" will be appended with "on PHP {VERSION} with {DEPS} dependencies" during an actual run. The "job" element MUST have the structure as shown here but the "php" element is mandatory in here and MUST contain either the minor PHP version to run the check against or a wildcard * to run the against all supported PHP versions. You can pass the wildcard, "*", for the "php" element; when you do, the ignore_php_platform_requirement element will be ignored. It is possible to provide per-version flags by adding the ignore_php_platform_requirements element instead.

The tool discovers checks first, then appends any additional_checks are concatenated, and then any exclude rules are applied.

Excluding specific jobs

The easiest way to exclude a single job is via the name parameter:

{
  "exclude": [
    {
      "name": "PHPUnit on PHP 8.0 with latest dependencies"
    }
  ]
}

Testing matrix generation locally using Docker

To test matrix generation in a local checkout on your own machine, you can do the following:

$ docker run -v $(realpath .):/github/workspace -w=/github/workspace ghcr.io/laminas/laminas-ci-matrix:1

This will run the action locally and detail what matrix will be produced; it can be particularly useful for debugging issues with your .laminas-ci.json configuration.