Github Actions Mkdocs and Docker containers ? not playing nicely - docker

Question

I am having trouble getting mkdocs to work within a container being run by GitHub actions on commit.
Hi all,
I have been trying to get my python code documentation up on GitHub. I have managed to do this via GitHub actions running
mkdocs gh-deploy --force
using the below GitHub action workflow:
name: ci
on:
push:
branches:
- master
- main
permissions:
contents: write
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v3
- uses: actions/setup-python#v4
with:
python-version: 3.x
- run: pip install mkdocs
- run: pip install mkdocs-material
- run: pip install mkdocstrings[python]
- run: mkdocs gh-deploy --force --config-file './docs/mkdocs.yml'
The issue with this is that mkdocstrings did not work, and so no source code was shown on the webpage. I have made a docker container with access via volume binding to the .github folder on my local computer.
Dockerfile:
FROM ubuntu:20.04
# This stops being asked for geographical location with apt-get
ARG DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
WORKDIR /
COPY requirements.txt /
# TODO: #1 Maybe should not use update (as this can change environment from update to update)
RUN apt-get update -y
RUN apt-get install -y python3.10 python3-pip git-all expect
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
Docker compose:
version: "3.9"
services:
mkdocs:
build: .
container_name: mkdocs
ports:
- 8000:8000
env_file:
- ../.env
volumes:
- ../:/project
working_dir: /project/docs
command:
sh -c "./gh-deploy.sh"
This works when I run the docker container on my computer, but of course when it is run as a workflow on GitHub actions it does not have access to a .github folder. The GitHub action is:
name: dockerMkdocs
on:
push:
branches:
- master
- main
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
env:
GH_user: ${{ secrets.GH_user }}
GH_token: ${{ secrets.GH_token }}
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v2
- name: Build the Docker image and run
run: docker compose --file ./docs/Docker-compose_GA.yml up
Anyone know how mkdocs knows it is running in a github action when run in the first example above but it then does not have access to the same "environment" when running in a container in docker? If I could answer this, then I can get 'mkdocs gh-deploy --force' to work within github actions and speed up CI/CD.
My GitHub repo is at: https://github.com/healthENV/healthENVsandbox
Many thanks

Answer 1

I think you have two options:
1. Run the entire job inside of a container
In that case, the checkout action will get your repository and then the script you run can find the necessary files. This works because all steps in the job are executed inside of the container.
2. Mount the $GITHUB_WORKSPACE folder
Mount the folder with the checked out repo in the container. You already mount a folder to the project folder, but it seems that is not the correct folder. You can run a check to see what the current folder is before you run docker compose (and maybe an extra one inside of the script as well.