Unexpected token 'var'

[tjbaker]

I am trying to comment on a PR via a workflow and keep getting this exception:

SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'var'
    at new AsyncFunction (<anonymous>)
    at callAsyncFunction (/home/runner/work/_actions/actions/github-script/v5/dist/index.js:4942:56)
    at main (/home/runner/work/_actions/actions/github-script/v5/dist/index.js:4997:26)
    at Module.272 (/home/runner/work/_actions/actions/github-script/v5/dist/index.js:4981:1)
Error: Unhandled error: SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'var'
    at __webpack_require__ (/home/runner/work/_actions/actions/github-script/v5/dist/index.js:24:31)
    at startup (/home/runner/work/_actions/actions/github-script/v5/dist/index.js:43:19)
    at /home/runner/work/_actions/actions/github-script/v5/dist/index.js:49:18
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/_actions/actions/github-script/v5/dist/index.js:52:10)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:959:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:995:10)

The code is really simple

      - name: Comment on PR
        uses: actions/github-script@v5
        if: failure()
        with:
          script: |
            github.rest.issues.createComment({
              issue_number: context.issue.number,
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              body: "foo"
            })

Github support asked me to log a bug report here as well.

[joshmgross]

👋 Hey @tjbaker

What event is this workflow triggering on?

It's possible that context.issue.number isn't valid.

If it's helpful, you can print out the full context.issue:

      - name: Comment on PR
        uses: actions/github-script@v5
        if: failure()
        with:
          script: |
            console.log(JSON.stringify(context.issue))
            github.rest.issues.createComment({
              issue_number: context.issue.number,
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              body: "foo"
            })

[tjbaker]

It is triggered on pull_request

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [ master ]

I can't try the additional debugging just yet...

[tjbaker]

Ok, I think the actual problem is with using a multiline output from a previous step's stdout as the body in createComment.

The problem is trying to make hashicorp/setup-terraform work with github-script@v5 and github.rest.issues.createComment. There is an example in the readme, but it is against actions/github-script@0.9.0
https://github.com/hashicorp/setup-terraform

[cemo]

@tjbaker did you resolve your issue?

[joshmgross]

Ok, I think the actual problem is with using a multiline output from a previous step's stdout as the body in createComment.

If you need to pass into multi-line outputs into the script block, you'll likely need to pass those values in as environment variables. Otherwise, newlines will be interpreted literally in the script and won't be valid JavaScript.

Example:

- uses: actions/github-script@v5
  env: 
    MULTILINE_VALUE: ${{ steps.my_step.outputs.value }}
  with:
    script: |
        github.issues.createComment({
          issue_number: context.issue.number,
          owner: context.repo.owner,
          repo: context.repo.repo,
          body: process.env.MULTILINE_VALUE
        })

[jsumners]

I am having this issue where the error message is:

SyntaxError: Invalid or unexpected token
    at new AsyncFunction (<anonymous>)
    at callAsyncFunction (/home/runner/work/_actions/actions/github-script/v6/dist/index.js:4797:16)
...

My step looks like:

      - name: Post comment
        uses: actions/github-script@v6
        with:
          script: |
            const comment = '
              Data for `${{ steps.get_id.outputs.an_id }}`:

              ```json
              ${{ steps.get_data.outputs.result }}
              ```';
            github.rest.issues.createComment({
              issue_number: context.issue.number,
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              body: comment
            })

Where steps.get_data.outputs.result is a large JSON object with formatting.

[joshmgross]

@jsumners are you able to pass that JSON object as an environment variable instead?

[jsumners]

No. I moved on to writing the data to a file with JavaScript and then curl -X POST ... -d @the.file in order to get around this problem.

[joshmgross]

Going to close this issue out. If anyone sees an error like this, it usually means that the JavaScript is invalid in some way.

Usually this occurs when using the Actions expression syntax (${{ }}) in input a value that's then interpreted by the action as invalid JavaScript (ex. newlines, semi-colons, quotes, etc).

The workaround is to process this input indirectly, rather than inserting it directly into your script. This can be done by writing it to a file or using an env variable and reading it with process.env, see #220 (comment)

Feel free to open a new issue if you're still having issues after trying those workarounds.

[salecharohit]

So I encountered this same issue and was able to resolve it using below as per @joshmgross's recommendation

  - name: Plan Output
    uses: actions/github-script@v6
    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
    env:
      PLAN: "terraform\n${{ steps.plan.outputs.stdout }}"
    with:
      github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      script: |
        const output = `## Terraform Prod Infra Plan
        #### Terraform Initialization \`${{ steps.init.outcome }}\`
        #### Terraform Validation \`${{ steps.validate.outcome }}\`
        #### Terraform Plan \`${{ steps.plan.outcome }}\`
        
        <details><summary>Show Plan</summary>
        ${process.env.PLAN}
        </details>

        *Pusher: @${{ github.actor }}, Action: \`${{ github.event_name }}\`*`;

        github.rest.issues.createComment ({
          issue_number: context.issue.number,
          owner: context.repo.owner,
          repo: context.repo.repo,
          body: output
        })