SFTP Upload GitHub Action

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This action uploads files to a remote server using the SFTP protocol. Unlike other implementations, this action has tests and supports more options.

Table of Contents

1. Action Inputs
2. Examples
3. Contributions
4. Testing

Inputs

Input	Required	Description
server	true	The SFTP server (e.g. sftp.server.com)
username	true	The SFTP username
password	false	The SFTP password
key	false	The SFTP private key
passphrase	false	The SFTP private key passphrase (if applicable)
port	false	The SFTP port, defaults to port 22
uploads	true	The folders to upload. In the format of folder/ => upload_folder/
ignore	false	A list of glob patterns for files that should be ignored. (Like the patterns you would find in .gitignore)
ignore-from	false	The path to a file containing a list of glob patterns for files that should be ignored. (Like the patterns you would find in .gitignore)
dry-run	false	If true, outputs the results of the upload, without actually uploading.
delete	false	If true, any existing files in the remote upload directories are deleted.

Examples

Upload everything with password

uses: actions/checkout@v4
uses: Dylan700/sftp-upload-action@latest
with:
  server: sftp.server.com
  username: jason-bourne
  password: ${{secrets.password}}
  port: 22
  uploads: |
  ./ => ./www/public_html/

Upload everything with password, ignoring .git

uses: actions/checkout@v4
uses: Dylan700/sftp-upload-action@latest
with:
  server: sftp.server.com
  username: jason-bourne
  password: ${{secrets.password}}
  port: 22
  uploads: |
    ./ => ./www/public_html/
  ignore: |
    *.git
    */**/*git*

Upload multiple folders with private key

uses: actions/checkout@v4
uses: Dylan700/sftp-upload-action@latest
with:
  server: sftp.server.com
  username: jason-bourne
  key: ${{secrets.key}}
  passphrase: ${{secrets.passphrase}}
  port: 22
  uploads: |
    ./html/ => ./www/public_html/
    ./src/ => ./www/src/

Upload multiples folders and delete existing files in those folders

uses: actions/checkout@v4
uses: Dylan700/sftp-upload-action@latest
with:
  server: sftp.server.com
  username: jason-bourne
  key: ${{secrets.key}}
  passphrase: ${{secrets.passphrase}}
  port: 22
  uploads: |
    ./html/ => ./www/public_html/
    ./src/ => ./www/src/
  delete: 'true'

Upload Specific Files

Specific files can be uploaded be negating the ignore inputs with an exclamation ! character. The example below will only upload files that have a name matching index.html or .htaccess.

uses: actions/checkout@v4
uses: Dylan700/sftp-upload-action@latest
with:
  server: sftp.server.com
  username: jason-bourne
  key: ${{secrets.key}}
  passphrase: ${{secrets.passphrase}}
  port: 22
  uploads: |
    ./html/ => ./www/public_html/
  ignore: |
    !index.html
    !.htaccess

Contributions

Contributions are welcome! If you have something to add or fix, just make a pull request to be reviewed.

Running Without Actions

If you'd like to run this script without an action for troubleshooting or testing purposes, you can set all the inputs as environment variables and run the node file directly. For example:

#!/bin/bash

export INPUT_USERNAME=username
export INPUT_PASSWORD=password
export INPUT_PORT=2222
export INPUT_SERVER=localhost
export INPUT_UPLOADS="./ => ./"
export INPUT_DELETE=false

env "INPUT_DRY-RUN=true" bash -c "node ./dist/index.js"

When you're testing e2e, don't forget to start the SFTP server with docker-compose up -d.