Support the installation and use of act to test and run GitHub workflows

[greenc-FNAL]

No description provided.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR adds support for installing and using act, a tool for running GitHub Actions workflows locally. The changes enable developers to test workflows without pushing to GitHub.

• Adds an installation script for the act binary with architecture detection and error handling
• Provides default configuration for running act on the host machine
• Updates .gitignore to exclude act-generated artifacts and secrets

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 7 comments.

File	Description
scripts/install-act.sh	Installation script that downloads and installs the latest act release from GitHub with architecture detection for x86_64 and arm64 systems
.actrc	Configuration file specifying default container images, architecture, and artifact storage paths for local workflow testing
.gitignore	Adds entries to ignore act-generated artifacts directory and secrets file

[knoepfel]

@greenc-FNAL, why should the phlex repository have an install-act script?

[greenc-FNAL]

@greenc-FNAL, why should the phlex repository have an install-act script?

As a development helper: it can be used to install act locally for the user, enabling them to test and/or execute workflows in their current environment.

[knoepfel]

@greenc-FNAL, why should the phlex repository have an install-act script?

As a development helper: it can be used to install act locally for the user, enabling them to test and/or execute workflows in their current environment.

I'm skeptical that developer helpers like install-act belong here. I understand that .actrc files might reside best within the phlex repository (and corresponding adjustments to .gitignore), but extending phlex to contain such helpers results in increased maintenance on items that are not directly related to phlex. I'd have a similar argument if anyone wanted to introduce (e.g.) install-clang-format.sh.

So, I think the .actrc and .gitignore adjustments are fine, but I'd prefer to hold off on committing install-act.sh right now.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.