Options to have variables in GitHub Actions - github-actions

Question

I know that I can use Runner's Linux environment variables in GitHub Actions.
Do I have any other options to have variables and use them in workflow steps?

Answer 1

This is how variables are designed to work in GitHub Actions. I mean declared variables are mapped to env variables, like here:
name: Show env
on:
push:
branches:
- '*'
env:
somevar: 'lastvar'
jobs:
show:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Is variable exported?
run: |
echo "${{ env.somevar }}"
However, you can't use them everywhere - please check this topic:
env:
pluginId: 'plugin-fn-xml-node'
on:
push:
paths:
- ${{env.pluginId}}/**
- .github/workflows/**
pull_request:
paths:
- ${{env.pluginId}}/**
- '.github/workflows/**'
jobs:
build:
env:
working-directory: ${{env.pluginId}}
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
strategy:
matrix:
node-version: [8.x, 10.x, 12.x]
steps:
This will not work because you can't use workflow variable at job level.
So if you define variable at workflow level you should be able to use it across steps.
I added also dynamically set variable based on documentation
env:
somevar: 'lastvar'
jobs:
show:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Is variable exported?
run: |
echo "${{ env.somevar }}"
echo "action_state=yellow" >> $GITHUB_ENV
- name: PowerShell script
# You may pin to the exact commit or the version.
# uses: Amadevus/pwsh-script#25a636480c7bc678a60bbf4e3e5ac03aca6cf2cd
uses: Amadevus/pwsh-script#v2.0.0
continue-on-error: true
with:
# PowerShell script to execute in Actions-hydrated context
script: |
Write-Host $env:somevar
Write-Host $env:action_state
- name: Read exported variable
run: |
echo "$action_state"
echo "${{ env.action_state }}"