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delete old nightly releases to unpollute our release page #8501

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Merged
jay-418 merged 5 commits into from
Feb 27, 2026
Merged

delete old nightly releases to unpollute our release page #8501

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626530e
automatically remove old nightly releases
jay-418 Feb 27, 2026
2c439bd
Potential fix for code scanning alert no. 15: Workflow does not conta…
jay-418 Feb 27, 2026
3a6092c
Merge branch 'main' into jay/release-cleanup
jay-418 Feb 27, 2026
6b013da
Merge branch 'main' into jay/release-cleanup
jay-418 Feb 27, 2026
e8eeec6
remove temp push branch for testing
jay-418 Feb 27, 2026
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48 changes: 48 additions & 0 deletions .github/workflows/release-cleanup.yml
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
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# Nightly builds are helpful validation, but useless when old.
# This script deletes any "nightly" titled release older than DAYS_OLD.
# Dry run is default, and must be explicitly passed as 'false' to act.
name: Release cleanup

on:
schedule:
- cron: "30 3 * * *"

workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
dry_run:
description: "Dry run (no deletions)"
type: boolean
default: true

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Copilot AI Feb 27, 2026

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The workflow is missing explicit permissions declaration. All other workflows in this repository explicitly declare permissions (e.g., release.yml has 'contents: write', update-issue-status.yml has 'contents: write', etc.). This workflow needs 'contents: write' permission to delete releases. Add a 'permissions:' section at the workflow level after the 'on:' section, before 'jobs:', with 'contents: write'.

Suggested change
permissions:
contents: write

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jobs:
cleanup:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
permissions:
contents: write
steps:
- name: Clean up old nightly releases
env:
GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
DRY_RUN: ${{ github.event_name != 'schedule' && (github.event_name != 'workflow_dispatch' || inputs.dry_run) }}
run: |
set -euo pipefail

DAYS_OLD=7
CUTOFF_DATE=$(date -u -d "${DAYS_OLD} days ago" +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)

gh release list -R "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" \
--limit 1000 \
--json tagName,publishedAt,name \
--jq ".[] | select(.name | test(\"nightly\"; \"i\")) | select(.publishedAt < \"${CUTOFF_DATE}\") | .tagName" |
while read -r tag; do
if [[ "$DRY_RUN" == "true" ]]; then
echo "DRY-RUN: $tag"
else
if ! gh release delete "$tag" -R "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" --yes; then
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Copilot AI Feb 27, 2026

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The 'gh release delete' command only deletes the GitHub release but leaves the git tag intact. For nightly builds with timestamp-based tags (e.g., v9.0.12-abc1234-20260227T040000Z), this will result in orphaned tags accumulating in the repository over time. Consider adding the '--cleanup-tag' flag to also delete the associated tag, or document this as intentional behavior if you want to preserve the tag history.

Suggested change
if ! gh release delete "$tag" -R "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" --yes; then
if ! gh release delete "$tag" -R "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" --cleanup-tag --yes; then

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echo "Error: release deletion: $tag" >&2
exit 1
else
echo "Release deleted: $tag"
fi
fi
Comment on lines +33 to +47
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Copilot AI Feb 27, 2026

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The limit of 1000 releases may not be sufficient if the repository has more than 1000 total releases. Since 'gh release list' returns releases in reverse chronological order by default, older nightly releases beyond the 1000th release would never be deleted. Consider either using pagination to fetch all releases, or documenting this limitation. However, given that nightly builds are created daily and kept for 7 days, this limit should be adequate for most cases unless the repository has hundreds of non-nightly releases per day.

Suggested change
gh release list -R "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" \
--limit 1000 \
--json tagName,publishedAt,name \
--jq ".[] | select(.name | test(\"nightly\"; \"i\")) | select(.publishedAt < \"${CUTOFF_DATE}\") | .tagName" |
while read -r tag; do
if [[ "$DRY_RUN" == "true" ]]; then
echo "DRY-RUN: $tag"
else
if ! gh release delete "$tag" -R "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" --yes; then
echo "Error: release deletion: $tag" >&2
exit 1
else
echo "Release deleted: $tag"
fi
fi
PAGE=1
PAGE_SIZE=100
while :; do
TAGS=$(gh release list -R "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" \
--limit "$PAGE_SIZE" \
--page "$PAGE" \
--json tagName,publishedAt,name \
--jq ".[] | select(.name | test(\"nightly\"; \"i\")) | select(.publishedAt < \"${CUTOFF_DATE}\") | .tagName")
# If no tags were returned on this page, we're done.
if [[ -z "$TAGS" ]]; then
break
fi
while read -r tag; do
# Skip empty lines just in case
[[ -z "$tag" ]] && continue
if [[ "$DRY_RUN" == "true" ]]; then
echo "DRY-RUN: $tag"
else
if ! gh release delete "$tag" -R "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" --yes; then
echo "Error: release deletion: $tag" >&2
exit 1
else
echo "Release deleted: $tag"
fi
fi
done <<< "$TAGS"
PAGE=$((PAGE + 1))

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done
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