Overriding template repo files

[TaffarelJr]

I have a CONTRIBUTING.md file in my template repo that I want to sync down to several child repos. In that file, there are links to the GItHub Issues, Discussions, etc. tabs -- and I need to override them in each child repo so they can each use their own URLs. However, if other changes are made to the original template file, I still want those changes to sync down to the child repos.

Currently, after syncing from the template repo, if I override the URLs in a child CONTRIBUTING.md file, then the next time actions-template-sync runs it tries to revert my changes. Why doesn't it recognize that the last commit from the template repo is applied and is part of my child repo history, but that I've just added additional commits on top?

[AndreasAugustin]

Hi @TaffarelJr and thanks for the question.
To verify your flow. When are you doing those changes? Already within the PR and then squash merge?
Or do you merge the sync PR and afterwards doing the change with a new commit?

[AndreasAugustin]

thanks for the details.
Can you please check if the actual remote git hash is present within your repository?

[TaffarelJr]

It is not.
Last commit in template repo: 229be0c

• First attempt, it created commit: 6120d2d
  • This is the one I would have expected to match the template commit
  • Added more commits to the PR; final merge commit: 1c37ed9
• Second attempt created new force-pushed commit: f69572c
  • Merge commit 47f54bc
• Third attempt created commit: ff4c079
  • This one essentially rolled back my overridden changes, which I later repaired in a separate PR

Is the problem that the CONTRIBUTORS.md file already existed in my child repo before I ever synced with the template? Do I need to allow the template repo to push down its files once, without any merging, so the actual commit hash gets replicated in the child repo?

[TaffarelJr]

To help answer my last question, I did the following:

• Created a brand-new repo
• Added the template sync workflow as the only file in the repo
• Manually executed the template sync
  • Files from the template repo were synced successfully
• Customized the CONTRIBUTORS.md file and pushed the change
• Ran the template sync again
  • It created a new PR reverting my files back

Is there any way to get this sync to allow my local changes to persist, as if on a newer branch?

[TaffarelJr]

Looks like this is the same as Issues #583 and #588, and discussion #282.
Sorry, I had searched before; but I didn't realize they were essentially the same topic!

[TaffarelJr]

Playing around with it some more, the only way I can get it to work is if I set my template repo as a literal upstream remote (locally) and rebase my child repo code on top of it (so the child code includes the actual template commits).

EDIT:

I take this back.
It worked initially; but as soon as I changed something small in the template repo, the child repo immediately wanted to roll back all its changes again.

Using my upstream remote again (on my local machine), I manually merged the changes together and pushed the child repo up again. And at that stage, the sync went back to being happy (since all the literal commits from the template/upstream are in my child repo again).

So it looks like if we want any of our files to be overridden, this Action won't work for us. We'll need to settle for manual upstream merges.