How to test if build project is compiling successfully on CI side

[IT-VBFK]

Hi

I recently had following situation:
I have implemented some detection for changed files.
To achieve this, I've had to add a parameter and pass github.event.pull_request.base.ref into the NUKE build pipeline.
On my local dev device all is running well (with parameter and parameter omitted), in the PR of the project I am contributing to as well.

Now here is the problem: After merging into the develop branch github.event.pull_request.base.ref was not set to an expected value (had assumed to be null), but actually it was an empty string. Thus, the build was failing.

Is there a neat way to previously check all different possibilities and "unit test" the behavior?

[sandrofigo]

I'm not yet fully familiar with the API from GitHub so correct me if I'm completely wrong here, but I would assume that github.event.pull_request.base.ref is only available when the triggering event is related to a pull request (see https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/contexts#github-context). Since you stated that you encounter the behavior after merging, the merge commit might not be in the context of the original pull request anymore, therefore the base ref is not available.
There might be another property in the github context that fits your needs.

[IT-VBFK]

Yes.. that is correct.

But my question was, if I can check this beforehand, and not have to wait until the PR is merged and then have to see that the pipeline is failing.

Now I know that I have to check for null or empty/whitespace string.