GitHub Action that returns a dynamic test matrix. Currently, it supports projects using:
python
andtox
min_python
- Minimal version of python to be tested against, default is"3.8"
. The maximum value is currently"3.13"
other_names
- A list of other tox environments to include in the matrix. We plan to read them from envlist field intox.ini
.platforms
- Default tolinux
only but can belinux
,windows
,macos
or a combination of them (comma separated).linux
: matrix expansion strategy for Linux,full
orminmax
.windows
: matrix expansion strategy for Windows,full
orminmax
.macos
: matrix expansion strategy for MacOS,full
orminmax
.skip_explode
: pass 1 if you want to avoid generating implicit pyXY jobs.
The returned tox environment name from returned passed_name
was replaced by
command
which would now contain the full command to be executed like
tox -e py39
.
# old v2 syntax:
- run: tox -e ${{ matrix.passed_env }}
# new v3 syntax:
- run: ${{ matrix.command }}
Simple workflow using coactions/dynamic-matrix
# .github/workflows/tox.yml (your workflow file)
---
jobs:
pre: # <-- this runs before your real matrix job
name: pre
runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
outputs:
matrix: ${{ steps.generate_matrix.outputs.matrix }}
steps:
- name: Determine matrix
id: generate_matrix
uses: coactions/dynamic-matrix@v3
with:
other_names: |
lint
pkg
py39-all:tox -f py39
build:
name: ${{ matrix.name }}
runs-on: ${{ matrix.os || 'ubuntu-24.04' }}
needs: pre
strategy: # this the magic part, entire matrix comes from pre job!
matrix: ${{ fromJson(needs.pre.outputs.matrix) }}
steps: # common steps used to test with tox
- uses: actions/checkout@main
with:
fetch-depth: 0
- name: Set up python ${{ matrix.python_version }}
uses: actions/setup-python@v4
with:
python-version: ${{ matrix.python_version }}
- name: Install tox
run: |
python -m pip install -U pip
pip install tox
- run: ${{ matrix.command }}
If your tox envlist is simple, like lint,packaging,py{36,37,38,39}
you are among the best candidates to make use of it as that is the primary usage case it covers. If you use environments combining multiple factors, you will need to specify them in other_names
argument.
We plan to add support for this in the future but it might not be
as simple as one would assume. For historical reasons, envlist
does very often already include Python versions instead of generic py
entry or
they are outdated. The repository code is not available at the
time this action runs.
Linux runners are the fastest ones and many Python projects do not need to support platforms like Windows or macOS. That is why the default platform contains only lines. Still, you can enable all of them by specifying platforms: linux,windows,macos
in the action arguments.
The defaults for macOS and Windows are minmax
while for Linux is full
. This limit resource usage low while still providing a good level of testing. If your pythons are py38,py39,py310,py311
unless you specify windows: full
you will see only two Windows based jobs in the generated matrix: py38 and py311.
We wanted to allow users to chain (group) multiple tox environments in a single command like tox run -e lint,packaging
, and this means that we needed to allow users to use commas as part of a valid name, without
splitting on it.
In v3 we allow users to add entries like py39-all:tox -f py39
inside other-names
. This would be translated into returning the job name py39-all
and the command tox -f py39
.
This is especially useful as it allows users to make use of labels (-m
) and factor filtering (-f
) to select groups of tox environments instead of just using the environments (-e
) selector.
This allows running other test frameworks instead of tox.
In some cases, you might want to have separate test steps inside the same job, as this makes it easier to debug them. As GHA does not have any support for step looping, you are forced to manually add several steps if you want to use this feature.
Use ;
as a separator inside the other_names to achieve this:
# Return two commands instead of one for `all-tests` job
uses: coactions/dynamic-matrix@v3
with:
other_names: |
all-tests:tox -e unit;tox -e integration
# ^ job-name ':' 1st command ';' 2nd command ...
---
# Inside matrix job:
steps:
- run: "${{ matrix.command }}"
# Execute second command *if* it does exist
- run: "${{ matrix.command2 }}"
if: "${{ matrix.command2 || false }}"
In v3 we allow users to add entries like py39-all:tox -f py39
inside other-names
. This would translated into returning the job name py39-all
and the command tox -f py39
.
This is especially useful as it allows users to make use of labels (-m
) and factor filtering (-f
) to select groups of tox environments instead of just using the environments (-e
) selector.
This allows running other test frameworks instead of tox.