Github Action - how to reference env variable in the job and step if condition

Question

I am trying to use an env variable in both the job and step level if condition. Whatever I do, it errors or it does not show my expected behavior. Here is my code

name: CI/CD

on:
  push:
    branches: [ other, stable ]
env:
  BRANCH_NAME: ${{ github.head_ref || github.ref_name }}
  STABLE_BRANCH_NAME: stable
jobs:
  job1:
    name: test
    runs-on: [ self-hosted, linux, enterprise, .... ]
    container:
      image: some-image
    steps:
    - name: echo
      run: echo $BRANCH_NAME

if I am on a branch named stable it prints stable

Then I want to add if condition. I change the job to

jobs:
  job1:
    name: test
    runs-on: [ self-hosted, linux, enterprise, .... ]
    container:
      image: some-image
    if: env.BRANCH_NAME == env.STABLE_BRANCH_NAME
    steps:
    - name: echo
      run: echo $BRANCH_NAME

it fails. wrong syntax

Then I change the job if condition to if: ${{ env.BRANCH_NAME == env.STABLE_BRANCH_NAME }} again does not work

I need two if conditions. one on the job and one on the step level like this

name: CI/CD

on:
  push:
    branches: [ other, stable ]
env:
  BRANCH_NAME: ${{ github.head_ref || github.ref_name }}
  STABLE_BRANCH_NAME: stable
jobs:
  job1:
    name: test
    runs-on: [ self-hosted, linux, enterprise, .... ]
    if: #### need help here: check the branch name is stable - This one des not work
    container:
      image: some-image
    steps:
    - name: echo
      run: echo $BRANCH_NAME
      if: ${{ env.STABLE_BRANCH_NAME != env.BRANCH_NAME }}. # This one works

On the step level I can do if: ${{ env.STABLE_BRANCH_NAME != env.BRANCH_NAME }} and it works but the same does not work on the job level

How should I do this?

Found these two

• https://github.com/actions/toolkit/issues/299
• GitHub Actions - How to use environment variable at job level?

But isn't there an easier method?

Answer 1

According to context availability, the env context is not available with job level if.

The allowed contexts are:

jobs.<job_id>.if    github, needs, vars, inputs 

Alternatively, you can use the github and vars contexts here to achieve what you're trying to do.

Here's an example with the github context only:

if: ${{ github.ref_name == 'stable' }}

Or, with the vars context after configuring STABLE_BRANCH_NAME:

if: ${{ github.ref_name == vars.STABLE_BRANCH_NAME }}

You can use other operators to expand the condition according to your use case.