`pages_build_version` (GITHUB_SHA) is not unique for events that use last commit e.g. `release`, `workflow_dispatch`, etc.

[iamazeem]

Currently, pages_build_version is always being set using GITHUB_SHA:

deploy-pages/src/internal/context.js

Line 8 in 854d7aa

buildVersion: process.env.GITHUB_SHA,

and, it also represents the deployment ID.

However, for events that use the last commit SHA e.g. release, workflow_dispatch, etc., GITHUB_SHA will not be unique.

Example:

push

Fetching artifact metadata for "github-pages" in this workflow run
Found 1 artifact(s)
Creating Pages deployment with payload:
{
	"artifact_id": 2351475241,
	"pages_build_version": "ae0b6be8565bc05ecef5aaa6c88c48ac2877ce46",
	"oidc_token": "***"
}
Created deployment for ae0b6be8565bc05ecef5aaa6c88c48ac2877ce46, ID: ae0b6be8565bc05ecef5aaa6c88c48ac2877ce46
Getting Pages deployment status...
Reported success!

workflow_dispatch (after push)

Fetching artifact metadata for "github-pages" in this workflow run
Found 1 artifact(s)
Creating Pages deployment with payload:
{
	"artifact_id": 2351476924,
	"pages_build_version": "ae0b6be8565bc05ecef5aaa6c88c48ac2877ce46",
	"oidc_token": "***"
}
Created deployment for ae0b6be8565bc05ecef5aaa6c88c48ac2877ce46, ID: ae0b6be8565bc05ecef5aaa6c88c48ac2877ce46
Getting Pages deployment status...
Reported success!

Observe ID: ae0b6be8565bc05ecef5aaa6c88c48ac2877ce46 in both cases.

Its impact (or side effect) is being observed as that sometimes the artifact is not updated at all.
The previous deployed artifacts is served instead.
Maybe, CDN caching also plays some role here, not sure though.

According to the Create a GitHub Pages deployment API, pages_build_version is supposed to be:

A unique string that represents the version of the build for this deployment.

It is suggested that instead of GITHUB_SHA, artifact_id (or some other unique combination) may be used for pages_build_version (deployment ID).

Let me know if more information is needed. Thanks!

[davidrg]

I've just run into this myself. The contents of the generated github pages artifact in my workflow differs depending on if the trigger was a tag or simply a push to a branch. I spent all of yesterday evening trying to figure out why pushing a commit would result in a deploy to github pages but pushing a tag would seem to do nothing even though the artifact generated by the workflow appeared to be correct. Only noticed tonight that the pages_build_version was the same for both workflow runs which seemed suspicious.

Looking forward to a fix as I don't see a way to achieve what I'm trying to do with this bug in the way.

[iamazeem]

@davidrg: Hi! For the time being, you may directly use the Create a GitHub Pages deployment API to unblock you.

[sindresorhus]

Glad to see this issue with an explanation. This has been driving me crazy. I generate a page after a release and it never updated until I actually committed a change to the repo, and I spent so many hours trying to figure out why it didn't work...

[TheBigRoomXXL]

Thank you! I spent days trying to understand why my GitHub Pages didn't update with tags and cron triggers. What really drove me mad is that the action succeeded and didn't report any errors, even though nothing updated.