actions/checkout
Checkout
This is a GitHub Actions tool used to clone Git repositories into a workspace to provide source code for automated workflow steps. It functions as a repository manager that handles the orchestration of source code checkouts, including a dedicated authentication handler for persisting security tokens and credentials.
The project distinguishes itself through capabilities for managing complex repository structures, such as recursive submodule initialization and the retrieval of large binary assets via Git Large File Storage. It also supports multi-repository workspace management, allowing several remote repositories to be cloned into separate local paths within a single environment.
Additional capabilities include source control optimizations like shallow clones and sparse-checkout pattern matching to reduce data transfer. The tool also supports code change propagation, enabling the process of committing and pushing updates back to a remote repository.
Features
- Isolated Repository Cloning - Clones Git repositories into a workspace at specific versions or branches using authentication tokens.
- CI/CD Workflows - Provides the core mechanism for retrieving repository source code into CI/CD build environments.
- Git Repository Managers - Acts as a repository manager controlling clone depth, submodules, and sparse checkouts.
- Repository Path Mapping - Maps remote repository identifiers to specific local filesystem directories for multi-repository workspace management.
- Repository Cloning Tools - Automates the process of cloning remote repositories into a workspace to provide source code for workflow steps.
- Multi-Repository Cloning - Allows several remote repositories to be cloned into separate local paths within a single environment.
- Git Credential Helpers - Implements a credential handler that persists security tokens to authenticate Git commands.
- Credential Management - Manages the lifecycle of security tokens used to authenticate Git commands in automated jobs.
- Authentication Token Caching - Manages the local storage and persistence of authentication tokens to authorize Git operations during runner sessions.
- GitHub Actions - Provides a dedicated GitHub Action for cloning repositories into workflow workspaces.
- Full History Retrieval - Provides the ability to fetch all tags and branches instead of a single commit to enable operations requiring complete history.
- Sparse Checkouts - Implements sparse-checkout pattern matching to download only a subset of the repository files.
- Multi-Repository Workspaces - Enables cloning multiple remote repositories into a single environment to manage complex external dependencies.
- Shallow Cloning - Supports shallow cloning by limiting the number of fetched commits to reduce data transfer and setup time.
- Git Workflow Automation - Automates the process of authenticating and pushing code changes back to a remote repository.
- Submodule Management Tools - Provides recursive and shallow initialization and updates of git submodules to resolve project dependencies.
- Automated Code Propagation - Enables automated committing and pushing of updates back to the remote repository.
- Git Submodule Integration - Handles recursive initialization and updating of nested Git submodules to ensure all project dependencies are resolved.
- Git History Optimizations - Optimizes build speeds by controlling clone depth and the scope of retrieved version history.
- Git Large File Storage - Integrates Git LFS to retrieve large binary assets referenced by pointers during checkout.
- Sparse Checkouts - Supports sparse-checkout pattern matching to retrieve only specific files or directories and reduce data transfer.
- Large File Storage (LFS) - Provides integration with Git Large File Storage to retrieve oversized binary assets during the checkout process.
- Repository History Retrieval - Enables retrieval of specific commits or the entire version history including all branches and tags.
- Core Workflow Actions - Setup your repository on your workflow.
