Export global environment variables to github actions with mage

[iancardosozup]

I'm currently working on horusec using mage and trying to export environment variables to my action pipeline, but it's not working. Using github set environments variables documentation i was able to reproduce it.

but when i try it with mage, i can't.

and here it's my mage function

func SetPotatoVariable() error {
	println("echo potato=fried_potato >> $GITHUB_ENV ")
	fmt.Println("echo potato=fried_potato >> $GITHUB_ENV ")
	return sh.Run("echo", "potato=fried_potato", ">>", "$GITHUB_ENV")
}

and my actions step

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Set up Go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v2
        with:
          go-version: 1.17
      - name: Install Mage
        run: go install github.com/magefile/mage@v1.11
      - name: Set the value
        id: step_one
        run: |
          echo "action_state=yellow" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: Use the value
        id: step_two
        run: |
          echo "${{ env.action_state }}" # This will output 'yellow'
      - name: Set the value
        id: set_potato
        run: |
          mage -v setPotatoVariable
      - name: Use the value
        id: use_potato
        run: |
          echo "${{ env.potato }}" # This will output 'fried_potato'

Anyone knows the reason why it's happening?

anyway this project is amazing, keep up with the good job

###EDIT

i found a solution by using the output feature for github actions if someone needs it, you can check on horusec-devkit with another mage functions.

[mirogta]

Based on my own challenges with exporting env vars, I think the main difference is that in the echo example above, the command is ran in the context of the same shell where the env vars are set and where a following GitHub action/command can access it, but mage and sh.Run are ran in a different sub-shell context, which inherits env vars from the parent shell but cannot export env vars to it upwards. So whatever env vars you set in the sub-shell context will be discarded once the mage process ends.

While not ideal, you can always store your env vars in a file (e.g. .env) and source this file before you run the next command. Would this work for you?

[natefinch]

You can't really export environment variables from inside a program. That's not a mage or go thing, that's an OS thing. It would be the same in python or bash or anything else.

[iancardosozup]

You can't really export environment variables from inside a program. That's not a mage or go thing, that's an OS thing. It would be the same in python or bash or anything else.

Ty for the answer, i found a solution by using the output feature for github actions if someone needs it.