Migrating from Travis CI to GitHub Actions

Introduction

This guide helps you migrate from Travis CI to GitHub Actions. It compares their concepts and syntax, describes the similarities, and demonstrates their different approaches to common tasks.

Before you start

Before starting your migration to GitHub Actions, it would be useful to become familiar with how it works:

For a quick example that demonstrates a GitHub Actions job, see Quickstart for GitHub Actions.
To learn the essential GitHub Actions concepts, see Understanding GitHub Actions.

Comparing job execution

To give you control over when CI tasks are executed, a GitHub Actions workflow uses jobs that run in parallel by default. Each job contains steps that are executed in a sequence that you define. If you need to run setup and cleanup actions for a job, you can define steps in each job to perform these.

Key similarities

GitHub Actions and Travis CI share certain similarities, and understanding these ahead of time can help smooth the migration process.

Using YAML syntax

Travis CI and GitHub Actions both use YAML to create jobs and workflows, and these files are stored in the code's repository. For more information on how GitHub Actions uses YAML, see Understanding GitHub Actions.

Custom variables

Travis CI lets you set variables and share them between stages. Similarly, GitHub Actions lets you define variables for a workflows. For more information, see Store information in variables.

Default variables

Travis CI and GitHub Actions both include default environment variables that you can use in your YAML files. For GitHub Actions, you can see these listed in Store information in variables.

Parallel job processing

Travis CI can use stages to run jobs in parallel. Similarly, GitHub Actions runs jobs in parallel. For more information, see About workflows.

Status badges

Travis CI and GitHub Actions both support status badges, which let you indicate whether a build is passing or failing. For more information, see Adding a workflow status badge.

Using a matrix

Travis CI and GitHub Actions both support a matrix, allowing you to perform testing using combinations of operating systems and software packages. For more information, see Running variations of jobs in a workflow.

Below is an example comparing the syntax for each system.

Travis CI syntax for a matrix

matrix:
  include:
    - rvm: '2.5'
    - rvm: '2.6.3'

GitHub Actions syntax for a matrix

jobs:
  build:
    strategy:
      matrix:
        ruby: ['2.5', '2.6.3']

Targeting specific branches

Travis CI and GitHub Actions both allow you to target your CI to a specific branch. For more information, see Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions.

Below is an example of the syntax for each system.

Travis CI syntax for targeting specific branches

branches:
  only:
    - main
    - 'mona/octocat'

GitHub Actions syntax for targeting specific branches

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - 'mona/octocat'

Checking out submodules

Travis CI and GitHub Actions both allow you to control whether submodules are included in the repository clone.

Below is an example of the syntax for each system.

Travis CI syntax for checking out submodules

git:
  submodules: false

GitHub Actions syntax for checking out submodules

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    submodules: false

Using environment variables in a matrix

Travis CI and GitHub Actions can both add custom variables to a test matrix, which allows you to refer to the variable in a later step.

In GitHub Actions, you can use the include key to add custom environment variables to a matrix. In this example, the matrix entries for node-version are each configured to use different values for the site and datacenter environment variables. The Echo site details step then uses env: ${{ matrix.env }} to refer to the custom variables:

name: Node.js CI
on: [push]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
       include:
         - node-version: '14.x'
           site: "prod"
           datacenter: "site-a"
         - node-version: '16.x'
           site: "dev"
           datacenter: "site-b"
    steps:
      - name: Echo site details
        env:
          SITE: ${{ matrix.site }}
          DATACENTER: ${{ matrix.datacenter }}
        run: echo $SITE $DATACENTER

Key features in GitHub Actions

When migrating from Travis CI, consider the following key features in GitHub Actions:

Storing secrets

GitHub Actions allows you to store secrets and reference them in your jobs. GitHub Actions organizations can limit which repositories can access organization secrets. Deployment protection rules can require manual approval for a workflow to access environment secrets. For more information, see Using secrets in GitHub Actions.

GitHub Actions includes integrated support for artifact storage, allowing you to share files between jobs in a workflow. You can also save the resulting files and share them with other workflows. For more information, see Understanding GitHub Actions.

Hosting your own runners

If your jobs require specific hardware or software, GitHub Actions allows you to host your own runners and send your jobs to them for processing. GitHub Actions also lets you use policies to control how these runners are accessed, granting access at the organization or repository level. For more information, see Hosting your own runners.

Concurrent jobs and execution time

The concurrent jobs and workflow execution times in GitHub Actions can vary depending on your GitHub plan. For more information, see Usage limits, billing, and administration.

Using different languages in GitHub Actions

When working with different languages in GitHub Actions, you can create a step in your job to set up your language dependencies. For more information about working with a particular language, see the specific guide:

Executing scripts

GitHub Actions can use run steps to run scripts or shell commands. To use a particular shell, you can specify the shell type when providing the path to the script. For more information, see Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions.

For example:

steps:
  - name: Run build script
    run: ./.github/scripts/build.sh
    shell: bash

Error handling in GitHub Actions

When migrating to GitHub Actions, there are different approaches to error handling that you might need to be aware of.

Script error handling

GitHub Actions stops a job immediately if one of the steps returns an error code. For more information, see Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions.

Job error handling

GitHub Actions uses if conditionals to execute jobs or steps in certain situations. For example, you can run a step when another step results in a failure(). For more information, see Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions. You can also use continue-on-error to prevent a workflow run from stopping when a job fails.

Migrating syntax for conditionals and expressions

To run jobs under conditional expressions, Travis CI and GitHub Actions share a similar if condition syntax. GitHub Actions lets you use the if conditional to prevent a job or step from running unless a condition is met. For more information, see Evaluate expressions in workflows and actions.

This example demonstrates how an if conditional can control whether a step is executed:

jobs:
  conditional:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: echo "This step runs with str equals 'ABC' and num equals 123"
        if: env.str == 'ABC' && env.num == 123

Migrating phases to steps

Where Travis CI uses phases to run steps, GitHub Actions has steps which execute actions. You can find prebuilt actions in the GitHub Marketplace, or you can create your own actions. For more information, see Sharing automations.

Below is an example of the syntax for each system.

Travis CI syntax for phases and steps

language: python
python:
  - "3.7"

script:
  - python script.py

GitHub Actions syntax for steps and actions

jobs:
  run_python:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.7'
          architecture: 'x64'
      - run: python script.py

Caching dependencies

Travis CI and GitHub Actions let you manually cache dependencies for later reuse.

These examples demonstrate the cache syntax for each system.

Travis CI syntax for caching

language: node_js
cache: npm

GitHub Actions syntax for caching

- name: Cache node modules
  uses: actions/cache@v3
  with:
    path: ~/.npm
    key: v1-npm-deps-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
    restore-keys: v1-npm-deps-

env:
  - MAVEN_PATH="/usr/local/maven"

GitHub Actions workflow with an environment variable

jobs:
  maven-build:
    env:
      MAVEN_PATH: '/usr/local/maven'

Building with Node.js

Travis CI for building with Node.js

install:
  - npm install
script:
  - npm run build
  - npm test

GitHub Actions workflow for building with Node.js

name: Node.js CI
on: [push]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Use Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '16.x'
      - run: npm install
      - run: npm run build
      - run: npm test

Next steps

To continue learning about the main features of GitHub Actions, see Writing workflows.

Migrating from Travis CI to GitHub Actions

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