How to run github action job after all conditional jobs, even it's didn't ran?

Question

I want to create a GitHub Action with some conditional jobs. I want to run these conditional jobs paralell, but after all finished I want to continue with another job what needs to wait finish all conditional jobs.

This is my workflow what I want to implement:

1. Detect file changes in template folders
2. Run npm run prod in every template folder what changed
3. Wait until all template build finished
4. Coninue the deploy process

Here is my deploy.yml file:

name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - deploy

jobs:
  check-theme-changes:
    name: Check template changes
    outputs:
      run_job: ${{ steps.check_files.outputs.run_job }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          fetch-depth: 2

      - name: check modified files
        id: check_files
        run: |
          echo "=============== list modified files ==============="
          git diff --name-only HEAD^ HEAD
          
          echo "========== check paths of modified files =========="
          git diff --name-only HEAD^ HEAD > files.txt
          while IFS= read -r file
          do
            echo $file
            if [[ $file != laravel/resources/themes/project_a/* ]]; then
              echo "::set-output name=run_project_a_build::false"
              break
            else
              echo "::set-output name=run_project_a_build::true"
              break
            fi
          done < files.txt
            
          while IFS= read -r file
          do
            if [[ $file != laravel/resources/themes/project_b/* ]]; then
              echo "::set-output name=run_project_b_build::false"
              break
            else
              echo "::set-output name=run_project_b_build::true"
              break
            fi
          done < files.txt

  build-theme-project-a:
    name: Build project_a theme
    needs: check-theme-changes
    if: needs.check-theme-changes.outputs.run_project_a_build == 'true'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Read current version
      id: CURRENT
      run: echo "::set-output name=VERSION::$(cat /var/www/latest)"
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: |
        cd /var/www/${{steps.CURRENT.outputs.VERSION}}/laravel
        npm ci
    - name: npm run prod --theme=project_a
      run: |
        cd /var/www/${{steps.CURRENT.outputs.VERSION}}/laravel
        npm run prod --theme=project_a
    - name: Publish build
      run: # some git command here

  build-theme-project-b:
    name: Build project_b theme
    needs: check-theme-changes
    if: needs.check-theme-changes.outputs.run_project_b_build == 'true'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Read current version
      id: CURRENT
      run: echo "::set-output name=VERSION::$(cat /var/www/latest)"
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: |
        cd /var/www/${{steps.CURRENT.outputs.VERSION}}/laravel
        npm ci
    - name: npm run prod --theme=project_b
      run: |
        cd /var/www/${{steps.CURRENT.outputs.VERSION}}/laravel
        npm run prod --theme=project_b
    - name: Publish build
      run: # some git command here

  prepare:
    name: Prepare to clone a new version
    needs: [
      build,
      build-theme-project-a,
      build-theme-project-b
    ]
    runs-on: self-hosted
    steps:
    - name: Save current date
      run: echo "$(date +'%s')" > /var/www/latest

The problem is if a theme isn't changed the variable will be false and then the prepare job's need will also skip the proceduring and all next step too, because they expect previous job finish.

How can I run job after a skipped step, but wait for it to finish?

Answer 1

The answer is to use:

if: always()

on your prepare job.

You can then combine it with checking results, like this:

prepare:
    name: Prepare to clone a new version
    needs: [
       build,
       build-theme-project-a,
       build-theme-project-b
    ]
    if: ${{ always() && !cancelled() && needs.build.result == 'success' }}
    

To avoid running it in case job was cancelled.