Workflow Artifacts in GitHub Actions

In GitHub Actions, workflow artifacts are files or directories created during the execution of a workflow. They serve as a way to persist data across jobs and can be utilized for debugging, testing, and deployment purposes.

Artifacts are essentially the outputs of your workflows, which can include:

• Build outputs (e.g., compiled binaries)
• Test reports (e.g., JUnit XML files)
• Logs and other debugging information

Artifacts can be downloaded from the workflow run page and can be stored for later retrieval.

3.1 Uploading Artifacts

You can upload artifacts during a workflow run using the actions/upload-artifact action. Here's an example:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Build
        run: |
          mkdir output
          echo "Hello, World!" > output/hello.txt

      - name: Upload Artifact
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
        with:
          name: my-artifact
          path: output/hello.txt

3.2 Downloading Artifacts

To download artifacts in another job, use the actions/download-artifact action:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Download Artifact
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v2
        with:
          name: my-artifact

      - name: Use Artifact
        run: cat hello.txt

• Keep artifact names descriptive for easier identification.
• Use versioning in your artifact names to avoid conflicts.
• Regularly clean up old artifacts to save storage space.