Github workflow does not read variables from environments

Question

Following is my simple github workflow. It is intended to print an environment variable.

name: verify

on:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  read_env_variables:
    environment: build 
    runs-on: [ self-hosted, onprem_dae, docker ]
    steps:
      - name: cat on branch file
        run: |
          echo ${{ env.SOME_VARIABLE }}

I have created an environment named "build". In this environment, I have an environment variable named SOME_VARIABLE set to xyz.

When the workflow is triggered, I expected to echo value xyz but actual value is "". Is there something missing?

Answer 1

Your issue here is related to the syntax.

To use the ${{ env.SOME_VARIABLE }} syntax, you need to set an env variable at the workflow, job or step level.

Here is an example:

name: Environment Workflow

on:
  workflow_dispatch:

env:
  WORKFLOW_VARIABLE: WORKFLOW

jobs:

  job1:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      JOB_VARIABLE: JOB
    steps:
      - name: Run Commands with various variables
        if: ${{ env.WORKFLOW_VARIABLE == 'WORKFLOW' }}
        env:
          STEP_VARIABLE: STEP
        run: |
          echo "Hello World"
          echo "This is the $WORKFLOW_VARIABLE environment variable"
          echo "This is the $JOB_VARIABLE environment variable"
          echo "This is the $STEP_VARIABLE environment variable"

---

Now, if you want to use the environment secrets for deployment, as explained here on the Github Documentation, the syntax would be different using the job_id.environment as you are already using following this doc.

Here is an example:

  job4:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment: build
    steps:
      - name: Show repo env secret
        run: |
          echo ${{ secrets.REPO_ENV_SECRET }}

Note that this variable is a secret, therefore you won't be able to see it through an echo command on the step (it will show ***)

---

Here is the workflow I used to validate all this implementation if you want to take a look:

• workflow yaml file
• workflow run