Cache created in `ubuntu-latest` cannot be restored in Docker container - docker

Question

Here's my workflow file:
name: Build Pipeline
on: push
env:
NODE_VERSION: 11
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v2
- uses: actions/setup-node#v2
with:
node-version: ${{ env.NODE_VERSION }}
- id: cache-node-modules
uses: actions/cache#v2
with:
path: ${{ github.workspace }}/node_modules
key: node_modules-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json') }}
restore-keys: node_modules
- uses: actions/cache#v2
with:
path: ${{ github.workspace }}/build
key: build-${{ github.sha }}
restore-keys: build
- if: steps.cache-node-modules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
run: npm install
- run: npm run build -- --incremental
npm-scripts:
needs: [build]
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
strategy:
matrix:
script: ['lint:pipeline', 'lint:exports', 'i18n:pipeline', 'schema:validate']
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v2
- uses: actions/setup-node#v2
with:
node-version: ${{ env.NODE_VERSION }}
- id: cache-node-modules
uses: actions/cache#v2
with:
path: ${{ github.workspace }}/node_modules
key: node_modules-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json') }}
- if: steps.cache-node-modules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
run: |
echo 'Expected to have a cache hit for "node_modules", since this job runs after the "build" job, which caches the latest version of "node_modules". Not having a cache hit means probably there is a bug with the workflow file.'
exit 1
- id: cache-build-output
uses: actions/cache#v2
with:
path: ${{ github.workspace }}/build
key: build-${{ github.sha }}
- if: steps.cache-build-output.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
run: |
echo 'Expected to have a cache hit for the build output folder, since this job runs after the "build" job, which caches the latest version of the "build" folder. Not having a cache hit means probably there is a bug with the workflow file.'
exit 1
- run: npm run ${{ matrix.script }}
jest-tests:
needs: [build]
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
container: node:11
services:
postgres:
image: postgres
env:
POSTGRES_DB: localhost
POSTGRES_USER: postgres
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: password
redis:
image: redis
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v2
- id: cache-node-modules
uses: actions/cache#v2
with:
path: ${{ github.workspace }}/node_modules
key: node_modules-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json') }}
- if: steps.cache-node-modules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
run: |
echo 'Expected to have a cache hit for "node_modules", since this job runs after the "build" job, which caches the latest version of "node_modules". Not having a cache hit means probably there is a bug with the workflow file.'
exit 1
- id: cache-build-output
uses: actions/cache#v2
with:
path: ${{ github.workspace }}/build
key: build-${{ github.sha }}
- if: steps.cache-build-output.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
run: |
echo 'Expected to have a cache hit for the build output folder, since this job runs after the "build" job, which caches the latest version of the "build" folder. Not having a cache hit means probably there is a bug with the workflow file.'
exit 1
- run: echo
node_modules and build folders are cached in the build job. These caches are able to be restored without a problem in the npm-scripts job. However, they are not able to be restored in the jest-tests job, where it gets a Cache not found for input keys error.
I don't know how this is possible, since the exact same cache keys are able to be restored without a problem in all of the npm-scripts jobs.
When I remove the:
container: node:11
services:
postgres:
image: postgres
env:
POSTGRES_DB: localhost
POSTGRES_USER: postgres
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: password
redis:
image: redis
part (and hence let the job run on ubuntu-latest, instead of a Docker container), the cache is able to be restored again properly. So not sure what's going on here.

Answer 1

It seems that the #actions/cache job silently fails if there is no zstd binary available in the PATH in the container that you are running in. This may be the case for your Node container.
I found this out by setting ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG to true in the repository secrets. The debug log shows that the action tries to run zstd and can't, but it is instead reported as a cache miss. Once I figured that out, I found that there is a bug report open for it: https://github.com/actions/cache/issues/580

Answer 2

It is a weird bug. The workaround that I found is not running the jest-tests job in a container. That is, running the jest-tests job in a regular, ubuntu-latest machine, and mapping the service container ports like:
jest-tests:
needs: [build]
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
services:
postgres:
image: postgres
ports:
- 5432:5432
env:
POSTGRES_DB: localhost
POSTGRES_USER: postgres
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: password
redis:
image: redis
ports:
- 6379:6379

Answer 3

I'm using a custom image and just by adding zstd package to the image, it made the action/cache to work.