Uncertain behavior of local `source`

[ModerNews]

Contributing guidelines

• I've read the contributing guidelines and wholeheartedly agree

I've found a bug, and:

• The documentation does not mention anything about my problem
• There are no open or closed issues that are related to my problem

Description

The documentation claims:

| source | String | Context to build from. Can be either local (.) or a remote bake definition |

Expected behaviour

According to this, the source can be either a (git) remote bake definition, or a directory (at least I'd assume . to mean CWD).

Actual behaviour

However with definition like this (repo name censored out):

  with:
    source: /home/runner/work/###############/###############
    push: true
    files: ./docker-bake.hcl
  /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-mzMN4H/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json
  /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-mzMN4H/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json
  /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-t6S7zL/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json
  /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-t6S7zL/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json
  /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-jFIRMF/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json
  /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-jFIRMF/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json

It produces command looking like this

  /usr/bin/docker buildx bake --file ./docker-bake.hcl --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-mzMN4H/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-mzMN4H/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-t6S7zL/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-t6S7zL/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-jFIRMF/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-jFIRMF/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json --file /home/runner/work/###############/############### --push --print

Notice the source was added at the end --file /home/runner/work/###############/###############.

This is a huge discrepancy in the documentation, and while not a big hassle to fix between runs, it should be either replaced in documentation, to reflect that it cannot be a directory, or behave like context in docker/build-push-action, which is how the documentation states it right now.

Repository URL

No response

Workflow run URL

No response

YAML workflow

name: Build and Push Docker Images

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  build-for-ghcr:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      packages: write
      contents: read
      statuses: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up QEMU
        uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v3
      - name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3
      - name: Login to GHCR
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{github.actor}}
          password: ${{secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN}}
      - name: Prepare Docker metadata
        id: meta
        uses: docker/metadata-action@v5
        with:
          images: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}-api-gateway
          bake-target: api-gateway
          tags: |
            type=sha
      - name: Build and push Docker images
        uses: docker/bake-action@v6
        with:
          source: ${{ github.workspace }}
          push: true
          files: |
            ./docker-bake.hcl
            ${{ steps.meta.outputs.bake-file-tags }}
            ${{ steps.meta.outputs.bake-file-labels }}

Workflow logs

No response

BuildKit logs

  #1 [internal] load local bake definitions
  #1 reading ./docker-bake.hcl 798B / 798B done
  #1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-mzMN4H/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json 393B / 393B done
  #1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-mzMN4H/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json 624B / 624B done
  #1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-t6S7zL/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json 408B / 408B done
  #1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-t6S7zL/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json 627B / 627B done
  #1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-jFIRMF/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json 376B / 376B done
  #1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-jFIRMF/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json 623B / 623B done
  #1 reading /home/runner/work/###############/############### 0B / 4.10kB done
  #1 DONE 0.0s
  ERROR: read /home/runner/work/###############/###############: is a directory
Error: cannot parse bake definitions: ERROR: read /home/runner/work/###############/###############: is a directory

Additional info

No response

[ModerNews]

And the second command this action generates apparently treats source as a target, which also is stated nowhere.

  /usr/bin/docker buildx bake /home/runner/work/###############/###############/docker-bake.hcl --allow fs=* --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-Z2cqBt/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-Z2cqBt/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-pCHnXl/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-pCHnXl/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-PivyFR/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json --file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-PivyFR/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json --metadata-file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-cvYHl2/bake-metadata-f19969bd5c.json --provenance mode=min,inline-only=true,builder-id=https://github.com/ModerNews/###############/actions/runs/18287774222/attempts/1 --push default --print

Which results in

Error: #1 [internal] load local bake definitions
#1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-Z2cqBt/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json 393B / 393B done
#1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-Z2cqBt/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json 624B / 624B done
#1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-pCHnXl/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json 408B / 408B done
#1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-pCHnXl/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json 627B / 627B done
#1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-PivyFR/docker-metadata-action-bake-tags.json 376B / 376B done
#1 reading /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-PivyFR/docker-metadata-action-bake-labels.json 623B / 623B done
#1 DONE 0.0s
ERROR: failed to find target /home/runner/work/###############/###############//docker-bake_hcl

Updated action defined in workflow:

      - name: Build and push Docker images
        uses: docker/bake-action@v6
        with:
          source: ${{ github.workspace }}/docker-bake.hcl
          push: true
          targets: default
          files: |
            ${{ steps.meta.outputs.bake-file-tags }}
            ${{ steps.meta.outputs.bake-file-labels }}

[ModerNews]

Update: providing path is just undefined behavior. Providing literal . is fully functional.

Expected behavior

Either paths in source should result in both buildx commands being functional, or the . being literal should be explicitly stated in documentation.

[polarathene]

I'm also a bit curious why it was called source instead of context to be aligned with build-push-action and the terminology of Path vs Git contexts 🤔

[crazy-max]

I put this issue to our v7 milestone to rework these inputs