Multi-platform CI findings across x-cmd-action/* (catalog)

[edwinjhlee]

This is an umbrella issue tracking multi-platform CI work across all x-cmd-action/* repos. x-cmd/action is the overall-design repo for this org; findings collected here should propagate into per-repo issues as needed.

Per-repo tracking issues

Repo	Tracking issue
x-cmd-action/x-cmd	x-cmd-action/x-cmd#1
x-cmd-action/this-repo	x-cmd-action/this-repo#2
x-cmd-action/checkout	x-cmd-action/checkout#2
x-cmd-action/ssh	x-cmd-action/ssh#1
x-cmd-action/docker	x-cmd-action/docker#1
x-cmd-action/gitconfig	x-cmd-action/gitconfig#1

Findings (cross-action)

Each finding applies to multiple repos. Track fixes here, link to per-repo PRs.

1. Windows backslash path issue (affects 5 actions)

Symptom: On windows-latest runners, bash ${{ github.action_path }}/lib/foo.sh fails with bash: D:a_actions...repo_libfoo.sh: No such file or directory. The Windows backslash path gets eaten by bash's escape handling.

Fix: wrap in cygpath -u:

run: |
  if command -v cygpath >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    ACTION_PATH=$(cygpath -u "$GITHUB_ACTION_PATH")
  else
    ACTION_PATH="$GITHUB_ACTION_PATH"
  fi
  bash "$ACTION_PATH/lib/foo.sh"

Applied to: checkout, ssh, docker, gitconfig. (x-cmd uses eval \"\$(curl ...)\" directly, no local script path — not affected.)

2. macOS bash 3.2 / BSD du + awk incompatibility (affects workflows)

Symptom: du -sb is GNU-only; BSD du (macOS) rejects -b with exit 64. awk 'BEGIN {getline s < file; ...}' similarly fails on BSD awk with exit 64.

Fix: POSIX-portable replacements:

# Time delta
S=$(cat /tmp/start); E=$(cat /tmp/end)
MS=$(( (E - S) / 1000000 ))

# Byte count
BYTES=$(find "$DIR" -type f -exec wc -c {} + 2>/dev/null | tail -1 | awk '{print $1}')

Applied to: all 6 multi-platform workflows.

3. peter-evans/create-issue@v4 does not exist (affects workflows)

Symptom: Workflow fails with Unable to resolve action peter-evans/create-issue, repository not found. The action simply doesn't exist as a public repo.

Fix: Use the gh CLI (built into the runner). For create:

gh issue create --title "..." --body "..." --label "multi-platform"

For close:

gh issue list --state open --label multi-platform \
  --search "Multi-platform test in:title" \
  --json number,title --jq '.[] | "\(.number)|\(.title)"'

Applied to: all 6 multi-platform workflows.

4. gh CLI needs a git repo context (affects report jobs)

Symptom: gh issue list in a job fails with failed to run git: fatal: not a git repository. The CLI wraps git rev-parse to determine the current repo.

Fix: add an actions/checkout@v4 step at the start of the report job.

Applied to: all 6 multi-platform workflows.

5. Docker buildx not installed on windows/macos runners (affects docker action)

Symptom: docker buildx version on windows-latest / macos-latest returns "unknown command". The action's docker buildx create --use then fails with exit 125.

Fix in lib: make docker buildx create --use best-effort — try with --use, fall back to without, warn and continue:

if ! docker buildx create --use 2>/dev/null; then
  echo "WARN: buildx create --use failed (older Docker?) — retrying"
  if ! docker buildx create 2>/dev/null; then
    echo "WARN: buildx init skipped (existing builder may suffice)"
  fi
fi

Fix in workflow: make verify informational — docker --version is sufficient (the action itself is best-effort).

Applied to: docker action only.

6. macOS-hosted runners don't have docker installed (affects docker test)

Symptom: docker --version on macos-latest fails with "command not found".

Fix: verify step records not installed and passes (informational). The action itself just no-ops gracefully.

Applied to: docker workflow only.

7. SSH_AUTH_SOCK doesn't persist across shell: bash steps (affects ssh workflow)

Symptom: test -n "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK" in a verify step always fails, because each shell: bash step is a fresh shell.

Fix: verify the disk artifacts instead (which DO persist across steps): ~/.ssh/known_hosts, ~/.ssh/ directory, file content.

Applied to: ssh workflow only.

8. multi-platform label must exist on each repo (affects all workflows)

Symptom: gh issue create ... --label multi-platform fails with could not add label: 'multi-platform' not found.

Fix: Create the label on each repo before the workflow runs. Single command per repo:

gh label create multi-platform --repo x-cmd-action/<repo> \
  --color "0E8A16" --description "Multi-platform CI test failures"

Applied to: all 6 repos.

9. peter-evans/close-issue@v3 also unnecessary (affects workflows)

The same way create-issue doesn't exist as expected, the peter-evans/close-issue@v3 could be replaced with gh issue close <num> --comment "..." for consistency. We replaced both with gh CLI in all workflows.

Status

All 6 repos have multi-platform CI workflows (test-multiplatform.yml) running on ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macos-latest. Each workflow:

• Triggers on push, schedule (daily 06:00 UTC), and workflow_dispatch
• Reports time, size (where applicable), and bash version per platform
• Auto-opens a multi-platform issue on failure
• Auto-closes previously-opened issues when all platforms pass

All 6 repos currently pass on all 3 platforms. v1 tags point to the latest commits.

Workflow template

Each repo's .github/workflows/test-multiplatform.yml follows the same structure. To replicate in a new repo:

name: test-multiplatform
on:
  push: { branches: [main] }
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule: [{ cron: "0 6 * * *" }]
permissions: { contents: read }
jobs:
  test-{ubuntu,windows,macos}:
    runs-on: <os>-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: bench start
        shell: bash
        run: date +%s%N > /tmp/bench_start
      - name: action step (uses: x-cmd-action/<repo>@v1 with inputs)
      - name: bench end
        shell: bash
        run: date +%s%N > /tmp/bench_end
      - name: verify + report
        shell: bash
        run: |
          # action-specific checks
          ...
          # POSIX-portable timing
          S=$(cat /tmp/bench_start); E=$(cat /tmp/bench_end)
          COLD_MS=$(( (E - S) / 1000000 ))
          ...
  report:
    needs: [test-ubuntu, test-windows, test-macos]
    if: always()
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions: { issues: write, contents: read }
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: close resolved multi-platform issues
        if: steps.decide.outputs.all_pass == 'true'
        env: { GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} }
        run: gh issue list ... | xargs gh issue close ...
      - name: open issue on failure
        if: steps.decide.outputs.all_pass == 'false'
        env: { GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} }
        run: gh issue create ...

Related

• x-cmd-action/checkout issue Art test Wednesday, April 27th #1 — plumbing alignment with actions/checkout (extraheader + isolated HOME + cleanups). Deferred, separate from multi-platform work.