github-action: does the IF have an ELSE? - github-actions

Question

in github action
I have an if, but I still need to run someother thing if I'm in the else case. Is there a clean way to do it or do I have to do another step with the same condition at false?
- if: contains(['SNAPSHOT'],env.BUILD_VERSION)
name:IF
run: echo ":)"
- if: false == contains(['SNAPSHOT'], env.BUILD_VERSION)
name: Else
run: echo ":("

Answer 1

GitHub Actions doesn't have else statement to run a different command/action/code. But you're right, all what you need to do is to create another step with reversed if condition. BTW, you can just use ! instead of false ==, if you surround your statement with ${{ }}.
Here are some links: if statement, operators

Answer 2

You can do the following which would only run the script where the condition passes:
job_name:
runs-on: windows-latest
if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, 'SKIP SCRIPTS')" <--- skips everything in this job if head commit message does not contain 'SKIP SCRIPTS'
steps:
- uses: ....
- name: condition 1
if: "contains(github.event.head_commit.message, 'CONDITION 1 MSG')"
run: script for condition 1
- name: condition 2
if: "contains(github.event.head_commit.message, 'CONDITION 2 MSG')"
run: script for condition 2
and so on. Of course you would use your own condition here.

Answer 3

You may consider using the haya14busa/action-cond action. It is useful when the if-else operation is needed to set dynamic configuration of other steps (don't need to duplicate the whole step to set different values in a few parameters).
Example:
- name: Determine Checkout Depth
uses: haya14busa/action-cond#v1
id: fetchDepth
with:
cond: ${{ condition }}
if_true: '0' # string value
if_false: '1' # string value
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout#v2
with:
fetch-depth: ${{ steps.fetchDepth.outputs.value }}

Answer 4

Alternative solution to github actions based commands, is to use shell script commands for if else statement.
On Ubuntu machine,example workflow to check if commit has a tag or not,
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v2
- run: |
ls
echo ${{ github.ref }}
ref='refs/tags/v'
if [[ ${{ github.ref }} == *${ref}* ]]; then
v=$(echo ${{ github.ref }} | cut -d'/' -f3)
echo "version tag is ${v}"
else
echo "There is no github tag reference, skipping"
fi

Answer 5

You can also do something like this if you want to check for some data type value without using built in functions
- name: Notify Team on Slack
if: ${{github.repository == 'calebcadainoo/cascade-img'}}
run: |
# some command
Over here, I'm triggering event on each push.
I'm pushing to two repos at the same time but I only want to run my command once.
Read More on Expressions Here:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/expressions