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Getting GitHub branch name

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Chris Harris

22 Feb, 2017 04:34 PM

Is there a way to get access to the name of the branch that was pushed to GitHub for a given PR?

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Feodor Fitsner on 22 Feb, 2017 06:40 PM

   

   Yes, you can take it from APPVEYOR_REPO_BRANCH environment variable: https://www.appveyor.com/docs/environment-variables/

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2. 2 Posted by Chris Harris on 22 Feb, 2017 06:42 PM

   

   I saw that, but that is the name of the target branch ( for example master ), rather than the branch associated with the PR, for example my_super_cool_fix

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3. Support Staff 3 Posted by Feodor Fitsner on 22 Feb, 2017 06:43 PM

   

   Ah, I see. Well, I think the only way right now to grab that info is using GitHub API.

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4. 4 Posted by Chris Harris on 22 Feb, 2017 06:47 PM

   

   I'm not familiar with the GitHub API, but i'm not sure there is enough information to look that up? For example the is no pull request number exposed?

   Thanks,

   Chris

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5. Support Staff 5 Posted by Feodor Fitsner on 22 Feb, 2017 06:48 PM

   

   PR number is in APPVEYOR_PULL_REQUEST_NUMBER variable (from here: https://www.appveyor.com/docs/environment-variables/)

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6. 6 Posted by Chris Harris on 22 Feb, 2017 06:54 PM

   

   Awesome, thanks!

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7. 7 Posted by Ivailo Petrov on 22 Mar, 2017 06:42 PM

   

   Yes, it is possible to obtain the PR originating `repo` and `branch` using the GitHub API, but it is quite complicated (here is PS pseudo code):
   ```
   $PR_DATA = Invoke-WebRequest https://api.github.com/repos/$APPVEYOR_REPO_NAME/pulls/$APPVEYOR_PULL_REQUEST_NUMBER | ConvertFrom-Json
   $env:PR_REPO_NAME = $PR_DATA.head.repo.full_name
   $env:PR_REPO_BRANCH = $PR_DATA.head.ref
   ```

   Besides that, for `private` repos it requites GitHub token!

   And Bitbucket would need a separate solution...

   It would be best (like other CIs - Travis, Shippable, CircleCI) to simply provide the PR originating `repo` and `branch` environment variables.

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8. 8 Posted by Ilya Finkelshte... on 22 Mar, 2017 11:53 PM

   

   Right, we have to do that, please watch this GitHub issue.

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9. Ilya Finkelshteyn closed this discussion on 25 Aug, 2018 02:16 AM.