Please state the difference between fetch-depth and fetch_depth

[jackton1]

What is the difference between fetch-depth and fetch_depth? fetch-depth is mentioned here: IMPORTANT: For push events when configuring actions/checkout the fetch-depth should be set to either fetch-depth: 0 OR fetch-depth: 2 depending on your use case; and is in the examples. However when used, an unrecognized error is given and the you are informed to use fetch_depth. fetch_depth is in the Input Table and is defaulted to 50.

So which one are you supposed to use?

Reference Issue: #1410

[jackton1]

The distinction between the fetch-depth passed to the checkout action and the fetch_depth used by tj-actions/changed-files is as follows:

checkout action

This action checks-out your repository under $GITHUB_WORKSPACE, so the tj-actions/changed-files workflow can access it.

• fetch-depth: Indicates the number of commits to fetch.
  • 0: Represents all history for all branches and tags.
  • 1: Represents the current commit HEAD
  • 2: Represents the current commit and its parent HEAD^1

tj-actions/changed-files

Uses either the local git repository or Github's REST API to check for changes that have occurred to files.

• fetch_depth: Controls the number of additional commits that should be pulled when a shallow clone of the repository is performed by the checkout action.

Questions

• Q: I already pulled all the necessary history by setting fetch-depth to 0. Do I still need to pass additional depth information to tj-actions/changed-files?

No, since you already have all history locally, no additional history would be pulled.

• Q: When would I need to set tj-actions/changed-files fetch_depth input?

When you performed a shallow clone and still want to control the number of additional commits that tj-actions/changed-files should pull.

• Q: Can I prevent additional history from getting pulled for a shallow clone of the repository?

Yes, you can set skip_initial_fetch to true.

[rick-kenna]

@jackton1 Thank-you for an understandable and quick response.

[jackton1]

Anytime