GitHub Actions: how to target all branches EXCEPT master?
There is now a branches-ignore
option:
on:
push:
branches-ignore:
- master
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#onpushpull_requestbranchestags
Update: There is a newer filter described in Samy's answer that provides a more succinct way of achieving this.
The documentation has been updated with more information now:
When you specify a
branches
ortags
filter, the workflow only runs if at least one pattern matches. Any changes to branches or tags that don't match a defined pattern will not trigger a workflow. The order that you define patterns matters:
- A matching negative pattern after a positive match will exclude the ref again.
- A matching positive pattern after a negative match will include the ref again.
So in order to exclude master
, you need to ensure that a pattern matching everything is included first:
on:
push:
branches:
- '*' # matches every branch that doesn't contain a '/'
- '*/*' # matches every branch containing a single '/'
- '**' # matches every branch
- '!master' # excludes master