deploy-github-actions.md

Deploy GCR Cleaner to GitHub Actions

This document describes how to invoke GCR Cleaner via cron in GitHub Actions. GitHub Actions is a CI/CD solution provided by GitHub, and it is free for open source projects. There are multiple triggers for GitHub Actions worklflows, including cron scheduler.

The easiest way to use GCR Cleaner with GitHub Actions is via the pre-built gcr-cleaner-cli container and a scheduled cron GitHub Actions workflow.

# .github/workflows/gcr-cleaner.yml
name: 'gcr-cleaner'

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 */1 * *' # runs daily
  workflow_dispatch: # allows for manual invocation

jobs:
  gcr-cleaner:
    runs-on: 'ubuntu-latest'
    steps:
      # configure based on your registry
      - uses: 'docker/login-action@v2'
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_PASSWORD }}

      # customize based on the gcr-cleaner flags
      - uses: 'docker://us-docker.pkg.dev/gcr-cleaner/gcr-cleaner/gcr-cleaner-cli'
        with:
          args: >-
            -repo=us-docker.pkg.dev/my-repo/my-thing
            -repo=ghcr.io/myuser/my-image
            -grace=48h

Authentication

In order to actually delete images in the upstream registry, you will need to authenticate to the upstream registry. The easiest way to authenticate is to use the docker/login-action. The documentation has detailed configuration instructions for other types of repositories.

You must grant the authenticated principal permission to read and delete resources in the registry. See Permissions for more information.