Expose ports on a GithHub Docker Action

Question

Problem

I've been trying to setup a SurrealDB container within my test job in GitHub Actions. The step I am currently struggling with is that I can't find a way to expose the ports on my surreal-db custom docker action. Previously, I have also tried using a service container (my understanding is that the service container is usually used for that purpose).

Attempts to solve it

1. Running it as a service container:

  test:
    name: Test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      SURREAL_USER: ${{ secrets.SURREAL_USER }}
      SURREAL_PASS: ${{ secrets.SURREAL_PASS }}
      SURREAL_PORT: ${{ vars.SURREAL_PORT }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      ...

    services:
      db:
        image: surrealdb/surrealdb:latest
        # Problem here is that I can't use the entrypoint property to launch the server
        ports:
          - ${{ vars.SURREAL_PORT }:8000

2. Creating a custom GitHub action to run it

...
inputs:
  surreal-user:
    description: "Username for the account"
    required: false
    default: "root"
  surreal-pass:
    description: "Password for the account"
    required: false
    default: "root"
  surreal-port:
    description: "Port to expose on the host machine"
    required: false
    default: "8000"

runs:
  using: "docker"
  image: docker://surrealdb/surrealdb:latest
  entrypoint: "entrypoint.sh"
  args:
    - ${{ inputs.surreal-user }}
    - ${{ inputs.surreal-pass }}
    - ${{ inputs.surreal-port }}
  # ... and here I can't use the ports property

I am thinking that there must be a way to expose the ports somehow. Anyone know how? Or do you have an alternative way of working around that problem?

Answer 1

Can you try something like the following and let me know if that worked? Also use the official surrealdb/setup-surreal@v1 action.

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Test
      uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Start SurrealDB
      uses: surrealdb/setup-surreal@v1
      with:
        surrealdb_version: latest
        surrealdb_port: 8000
        surrealdb_username: root
        surrealdb_password: root
        surrealdb_auth: false
        surrealdb_strict: false
        surrealdb_log: info

Answer 2

Instead of creating a custom Docker action or using a service container, you can use the official surrealdb/setup-surreal@v1 action. This action is specifically designed to set up and run SurrealDB in GitHub Actions.

You can follow this step by step guide to Use SurrealDB in GitHub actions.