Github/actions: GetError: Can't use 'tar -xzf' extract archive file return code: 2

[bdoublet]

Hi,

I use github action with self hosted runners and I don't get problem until now.

name: CI mirroring

# Controls when the action will run. 
on:
  push:
  pull_request:
  schedule:
    # * is a special character in YAML so you have to quote this string
    - cron:  '30 2 * * *'

# A workflow run is made up of one or more jobs that can run sequentially or in parallel
jobs:
  # This workflow contains a single job called "build"
  build:
    # The type of runner that the job will run on
    runs-on: self-hosted
    timeout-minutes: 15
    
    # Steps represent a sequence of tasks that will be executed as part of the job
    steps:          
      # Checks-out your repository under $GITHUB_WORKSPACE, so your job can access it
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2

I want to checkout my private github repo to execute action but get error that I haven't before:

 Current runner version: '2.278.0'
Runner name: 'runner_1'
Runner group name: 'Default'
Machine name: '2526d86f2a75'
GITHUB_TOKEN Permissions
Prepare workflow directory
Prepare all required actions
Getting action download info
Download action repository 'actions/checkout@v2'
Error: Can't use 'tar -xzf' extract archive file: /tmp/runner/_actions/_temp_0207f89a-ccec-4204-a7b6-533817e1094e/cef27ea4-0563-40a2-ac70-c94e38e49e4d.tar.gz. return code: 2.

When I use github runner with ubuntu-latest, it's working so I think there is something wrong with my self hosted runner.
I use docker self hosted runner from this project https://github.com/myoung34/docker-github-actions-runner
All working well, runners start, connect to github and get idle state.
When I execute pipeline, runner take the job and execute but get this error. I don't know what change.

I have tar binary and the error means that tar was executed but failed so maybe the download of tar.gz file failed.

which tar
/usr/bin/tar

Can you help me to debug this ? debug logs, some checks, any idea.

Thanks you

Best regards

[myoung34]

Return code 2 for tar means there was a file read error. You'll want to check permissions for the file and extract path

[bdoublet]

Thanks for your quick answer !
yeah, I read this on tar documentation.

here my workdir_runner:

ls -ahl /tmp/runner/_actions/
total 12K
drwxr-xr-x 3 nobody nogroup 4.0K May 26 21:27 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 nobody nogroup 4.0K May 26 21:27 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 nobody nogroup 4.0K May 26 21:27 actions

seems like folder are created because I have Folder with my repo name but there is no tar.gz file.
Could be deleted after the job failed ? or doesnt exist ?

Do you know what is this tar.gz file ?

There is some command I can reproduce to test the download of tar.gz file manually ?

[myoung34]

This is not something I'm familiar with, the tar usage I've had has had no issues locally or in testing

[bdoublet]

Ok I'll dig this problem and do a feedback it I find a solution.
Thanks

[bdoublet]

OK found it.

    volumes:
      - '/tmp/runner:/tmp/runner'
      # needs to be the same path on host and inside the container,

I thought this setting was necessary if you use docker command in github-runner. So I set up the host path and container path differently and this error occured. So I rollback and it's ok now.

Just a question ? If I don't use docker command, why did this happen ? I mean, why I can't use different path for host and container for workdir runner ?

The issue can be closed. Thanks

[myoung34]

Just a question ? If I don't use docker command, why did this happen ? I mean, why I can't use different path for host and container for workdir runner ?

I think this is internal to the way github runners work outside their infra more than it is docker, but I'm not completely sure.

[bdoublet]

Ok, anyway, thanks you for your job about this project.

[ozgurnevres]

I'm getting the same error right now.

[Kenneth Lynne]

This started happening for us this morning too. No changes in code between the working and breaking state

[Michael Findlater]

Started happening to us in the past couple of hours too.

Although we're using a different self hosted runner.

[Niraj Kamdar]

The same is happening to us, we aren't even using hosted runners

[Simon Meysman]

We're having the same issue, it fails sometimes on all our workflows, using the github hosted runners

[Julius de Bruijn]

Same error here. Randomly failing test runs with the error given in the issue. Restarting the run might help, but not always.

[Antti Rapa]

Same error here also 👋

[Lukasz Mentel]

Bump

[이주환 Juhwan Lee]

Same problem. It happened since this morning. 🥲

[Remi Gacogne]

actions/runner#1923 seems like a better place to track this issue, though.

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Avuthu]

raised issue : actions/runner#1923

[Razvan Bertea]

Still happening here without any changes on our end

[Yih-Dar]

It happens randomly for me (for a few CI runs this morning)

[tomgazitbc]

looks like it's working now..

[myoung34]

Thanks for all the quick info. Looks like something upstream was definitely broken. It's worth leaving feedback on actions/runner#1923