What is the replacement for core.setOutput?

[collin-miller]

Describe the bug
I am receiving warnings on my actions for using the setOutput method on the core object. The documentation suggests this method used to pass variables between actions is deprecated. Is there a replacement coming for this behavior? If not do you have a migration guide?

[andyhasit]

I'm using this in the interim.

const os = require("os")
const fs = require("fs")

function setOutput(key, value) {
  // Temporary hack until core actions library catches up with github new recommendations
  const output = process.env['GITHUB_OUTPUT']
  fs.appendFileSync(output, `${key}=${value}${os.EOL}`)
}

[fmulero]

It seems fixed in version 1.10.0 #1178

[atoomic]

Just noticed the same warnings which point to recommendations from
https://github.blog/changelog/2022-10-11-github-actions-deprecating-save-state-and-set-output-commands/

Current notification message:

The set-output command is deprecated and will be disabled soon.
Please upgrade to using Environment Files.
For more information see:
https://github.blog/changelog/2022-10-11-github-actions-deprecating-save-state-and-set-output-commands/

The current function logic is in packages/core/src/core.ts

export function setOutput(name: string, value: any): void {
  const filePath = process.env['GITHUB_OUTPUT'] || ''
  if (filePath) {
    return issueFileCommand('OUTPUT', prepareKeyValueMessage(name, value))
  }

  process.stdout.write(os.EOL)
  issueCommand('set-output', {name}, toCommandValue(value))
}

[mboudreau]

Is there any updates on this? I've updated @actions/core to the latest version as mentioned in the blog, but I'm still seeing this warning everywhere. Does the runner need to update to? Why would you show this warning if the runner is still the old version that doesn't support the new method yet?

[mrfelton]

Also still seeing this issue with the latest release.

[ataylorme]

It seems fixed in version 1.10.0 #1178

#1178 was merged on September 29 in b00a9fd033f4b30f2355acd212f531ecbbb9b38f

The @actions/[email protected] tag was created on September 5, which is prior.

It seems there hasn't been a release with the setOutput improvement. Perhaps @jclem can advise on when there will be a new release?

[bendrucker]

This is definitively fixed in @actions/[email protected] as described in the blog post

npm info @actions/core

@actions/[email protected] | MIT | deps: 2 | versions: 25
Actions core lib
https://github.com/actions/toolkit/tree/main/packages/core

keywords: github, actions, core

dist
.tarball: https://registry.npmjs.org/@actions/core/-/core-1.10.0.tgz
.shasum: 44551c3c71163949a2f06e94d9ca2157a0cfac4f
.integrity: sha512-2aZDDa3zrrZbP5ZYg159sNoLRb61nQ7awl5pSvIq5Qpj81vwDzdMRKzkWJGJuwVvWpvZKx7vspJALyvaaIQyug==
.unpackedSize: 78.1 kB

dependencies:
@actions/http-client: ^2.0.1
uuid: ^8.3.2

maintainers:
- chrispat <[email protected]>
- bryanmacfarlane <[email protected]>
- hross <[email protected]>
- thboop <[email protected]>
- konradpabjan <[email protected]>

dist-tags:
latest: 1.10.0
preview: 1.6.0-beta.0

published 2 months ago by thboop <[email protected]>

And then you can dig into the package contents and find:

function setOutput(name, value) {
    const filePath = process.env['GITHUB_OUTPUT'] || '';
    if (filePath) {
        return file_command_1.issueFileCommand('OUTPUT', file_command_1.prepareKeyValueMessage(name, value));
    }
    process.stdout.write(os.EOL);
    command_1.issueCommand('set-output', { name }, utils_1.toCommandValue(value));
}

So v1 of @actions/core works with the new file commands where available, falling back to the old echo commands for backward compatibility.

[atoomic]

note that #1336 should provide a fix for it

[paolorevillosa]

Just noticed the same warnings which point to recommendations from https://github.blog/changelog/2022-10-11-github-actions-deprecating-save-state-and-set-output-commands/

Current notification message:

The set-output command is deprecated and will be disabled soon.
Please upgrade to using Environment Files.
For more information see:
https://github.blog/changelog/2022-10-11-github-actions-deprecating-save-state-and-set-output-commands/

The current function logic is in packages/core/src/core.ts

export function setOutput(name: string, value: any): void {
  const filePath = process.env['GITHUB_OUTPUT'] || ''
  if (filePath) {
    return issueFileCommand('OUTPUT', prepareKeyValueMessage(name, value))
  }

  process.stdout.write(os.EOL)
  issueCommand('set-output', {name}, toCommandValue(value))
}

its not working for me, already upgrade my action/core to latest, warning still shown

[rentziass]

@paolorevillosa this was fixed in actions/core 1.10.0 as @bendrucker said. You should only be seeing those warnings if:

• GITHUB_OUTPUT is not set
• something in the job issuing the command using STDOUT (i.e. echo "::set-output name={name}::{value}")

Can you verify that's not the case please? Is your action public?

[gugaiz]

I am using actions/core version 1.10.1 and I am still getting the deprecation warning. You can see the code here

[mukundmckinsey]

I was able to fix it in a github workflow step as below as suggested in docs

    - name: Get Id Token
      uses: actions/github-script@v7
      with:
        script: |
          let id_token = await core.getIDToken()
          core.exportVariable("ID_TOKEN", id_token);
    - name: Read env
      shell: bash
      run: echo ${{ env.ID_TOKEN }}

[de-jcup]

Currently outputs seem to work only for echo statements but not for core API calls.
I created following issue (with details) for this.

• GITHUB_OUTPUT variables work from workflow echo but not by core API call #1906