Lab: Hello World Workflow

Introduction

In this lab, you will create a simple GitHub Actions workflow from scratch that echoes “Hello, World!” to the console. This will help you understand how to define and trigger a basic workflow in GitHub Actions.

Estimated Duration: 15–20 minutes

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Instructions

Step 1: Set up your repository

1. Navigate to the repository you created in the previous lab.

   • If you haven’t completed the previous lab, clone the template repository by following the instructions to clone the template repository.

Step 2: Create the workflow from scratch

1. In your repository, click the Code tab (if not already there).

2. Navigate to the .github folder. If it doesn’t exist, create it:

   • Click Add file > Create new file.
   • Name the new folder: .github/ (GitHub will treat it as a folder when followed by another folder or file).

3. Inside the .github folder, create a new folder named workflows:

   • Name the new file: .github/workflows/intro-hello-world-workflow.yml.

4. Paste the following YAML content into the editor:

   name: Intro - Hello World Workflow
   
   on: push
   
   jobs:
     run:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
       steps:
         - name: Say Hello to the World
           run: echo "Hello, World!"
   

5. Scroll down and click the Commit new file button to save the workflow.

Step 3: Understand the workflow

1. The workflow is named Intro - Hello World Workflow.
2. It is triggered by the push event, meaning it will run anytime you push changes to the repository.
3. It runs on the ubuntu-latest virtual machine.
4. It has a single job named run.
5. The job has one step that prints “Hello, World!” to the console.

Step 4: Trigger the workflow

1. Make a small change in your repository to trigger the workflow (since it runs on push).

   • For example, edit the README.md file and add a comment line.
   • Commit the change to the main branch.

2. Go to the Actions tab.

   • You should see a new workflow run listed for Intro - Hello World Workflow.

Step 5: View the results

1. Click on the workflow run to open its details.
2. Click on the run job.
3. Expand the step titled Say Hello to the World.
4. You should see the message Hello, World! in the logs.

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Summary

In this lab, you created a GitHub Actions workflow manually, without using any built-in templates. You learned how to define a basic workflow file, trigger it by pushing changes, and inspect its execution output.

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Additional Resources

1. GitHub Actions Documentation