Pushing to protected branch | --force not working

[nrl240]

Context

In two GitHub workflows (push-to-staging and push-to-master), I use stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v4 to commit changes from updating a k8s image tag in my deployment.yaml.
Recently, I added the following branch protection rules to develop (staging) and master:

In adding those rules, I added the '--force' flag to the push_options.

- name: Commit changes to k8s manifest
  if: github.run_attempt == 1 # don't try to commit on re-runs
  uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v4
  with:
      commit_message: Update container image
      tagging_message: 'k8s/${{ github.sha }}'
      file_pattern: k8s
      push_options: '--force'

Issue/Error

Below is the error I'm seeing within the GitHub Action dashboard for that step:

remote: error: GH006: Protected branch update failed for refs/heads/develop.        
remote: error: 5 of 5 required status checks are expected.        
To https://github.com/MockCompany/some-app
 ! [remote rejected] develop -> develop (protected branch hook declined)
 ! [remote rejected] k8s/<some-hash>[68](https://github.com/MockCompany/some-app/actions/runs/xxxxxx/jobs/xxxxxx#step:8:69) <some-hash> -> k8s/<some-hash> (atomic transaction failed)
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/MockCompany/some-app'
Error: Invalid status code: 1
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/_actions/stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action/v4/index.js:17:19)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:390:28)
    at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1064:16)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:301:5) {
  code: 1
}
Error: Invalid status code: 1
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/_actions/stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action/v4/index.js:17:19)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:390:28)
    at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1064:16)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:301:5)

Would kindly love some advice, please.

[nrl240]

I think we've (colleagues and I) answered the question above.

GitHub Docs: Allow force pushes

Enabling force pushes will not override any other branch protection rules. For example, if a branch requires a linear commit history, you cannot force push merge commits to that branch.

Basically, the force flag is moot since it doesn't override the fact that the "Require status checks to pass before merging"/"Require branches to be up to date before merging" rules have not passed (i.e. the Action's commit does not go through the upstream workflow steps [tests]).

[stefanzweifel]

Had this question open the whole day but couldn't find the time answering your question … until now. :)

To use this Action in combination with protected branches and git push --force you have to use a personal access token. See https://github.com/stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action#push-to-protected-branches.

In the past we had several issues about protected branches and required status checks. You can find them below.

• Not working on a protected branch #87 (comment)
• action cannot be used with required status checks #163 (comment)
• action cannot be used with required status checks #163

Hope this helps resolving your issue.

[nrl240]

Fantastic! Going to dive into the links you shared now, Stefan! Thank you:)