🔄 Rerun Action

This GitHub Action retries a command with configurable timeout handling, retry logic, and optional exponential backoff. It's designed to be lightweight, fast, and compatible across different environments! 🌍

✨ Features

• ⏱️ Configurable timeout in minutes or seconds.
• 📈 Exponential backoff support to gracefully handle rate limits or network issues.
• 🔄 Adjustable number of retry attempts.
• 🐚 Support for various shells (bash, sh, cmd, powershell).
• 🧹 Option to run cleanup commands between retries.
• ✨ Ability to swap the execution command on subsequent attempts.
• 🪶 Lightweight implementation using Bash in a minimal Alpine Docker container.

📥 Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
timeout_minutes	⏱️ Minutes to wait before attempt times out	No	N/A
timeout_seconds	⏱️ Seconds to wait before attempt times out	No	N/A
max_attempts	🔢 Number of attempts to make	Yes	N/A
command	💻 Command to execute	Yes	N/A
retry_wait_seconds	⏳ Seconds between retries (Base wait if using backoff)	No	10
exponential_backoff	📈 Wait time doubles after each failed attempt (true/false)	No	false
shell	🐚 Shell to use	No	bash
retry_on	🎯 Retry on error / timeout / any	No	any
on_retry_command	🧹 Command to run before retry (e.g., reset state)	No	N/A
new_command_on_retry	✨ Alternative command for subsequent attempts	No	N/A
continue_on_error	⏭️ Continue workflow on error (true/false)	No	false

📤 Outputs

Output	Description
total_attempts	🔢 Total attempts made
exit_code	🚪 Final exit code
exit_error	❌ Final error message

🛠️ Usage

🔄 Basic retry

- uses: harryvasanth/rerun@v1
  with:
    timeout_seconds: 30
    max_attempts: 3
    command: "apt-get update"

📈 Retry with Exponential Backoff

- uses: harryvasanth/rerun@v1
  with:
    max_attempts: 4
    command: "curl -f [https://api.flaky-service.com/data](https://api.flaky-service.com/data)"
    retry_wait_seconds: 5
    exponential_backoff: "true" # Waits 5s, then 10s, then 20s

🧹 Retry with cleanup

- uses: harryvasanth/rerun@v1
  with:
    max_attempts: 5
    command: "dpkg -i package.deb"
    on_retry_command: "dpkg --remove package"

✨ Different command on retry

- uses: harryvasanth/rerun@v1
  with:
    max_attempts: 3
    command: "apt-get install -y some-package"
    new_command_on_retry: "apt-get install -y some-package --no-install-recommends"

📝 Example Scenario

Retry a potentially flaky Debian package installation with a longer timeout and exponential backoff:

jobs:
  install:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: 📦 Update package lists
        run: sudo apt-get update
      - name: 🚀 Install package with smart retry
        uses: harryvasanth/rerun@v1
        with:
          timeout_minutes: 5
          max_attempts: 3
          command: sudo apt-get install -y potentially-flaky-package
          retry_wait_seconds: 15
          exponential_backoff: "true"

💻 Standalone Usage (via curl)

You don't have to be in GitHub Actions to use rerun.sh! You can download and run it directly in any terminal, script, or alternative CI/CD system.

Since the script relies on environment variables (prefixed with INPUT_), you can execute it like this:

# 1. Download the script and make it executable
curl -sO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harryvasanth/rerun/main/rerun.sh
chmod +x rerun.sh

# 2. Run your flaky command with environment variables
INPUT_MAX_ATTEMPTS=3 \
INPUT_RETRY_WAIT_SECONDS=5 \
INPUT_EXPONENTIAL_BACKOFF=true \
INPUT_COMMAND="npm test" \
./rerun.sh

Alternatively, you can run it entirely in one line without saving the file:

export INPUT_MAX_ATTEMPTS=3
export INPUT_COMMAND="curl -sS https://httpbin.org/delay/1"
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harryvasanth/rerun/main/rerun.sh | bash