workflows: replace softprops/action-gh-release with gh CLI (main)

[harshita-gupta]

Summary

Supply-chain hardening: softprops/action-gh-release is a single-maintainer third-party action pinned to the mutable @v1 tag. If that account is compromised or the tag is re-pointed, every workflow depending on it runs whatever the new code does. Replacing it with the first-party gh CLI (pre-installed on GitHub-hosted runners, maintained by GitHub) removes that dependency from the release-upload path.

This is a follow-up to #18, which migrated build-node-packages.yml. It migrates the remaining three workflows that still used softprops/action-gh-release@v1 on main:

• .github/workflows/build-node.yml
• .github/workflows/build-node-fibers.yml
• .github/workflows/build-node-openssl-fips.yml

After this PR: zero references to third-party release-upload actions on main.

Canary + downstream PRs

This is the canary PR. It must be merged and end-to-end validated before any of the downstream per-branch PRs:

branch	PR	files migrated
main (this PR)	#20	build-node, build-node-fibers, build-node-openssl-fips
v22.21.1	#21	build-node, build-node-fibers, build-node-openssl-fips, build-node-packages
v22.21.1-profiler	#22	build-node, build-node-fibers, build-node-openssl-fips, build-node-packages
v24.13.0	#23	build-node, build-node-fibers, build-node-packages
v20.18.3	#24	build-node, build-node-fibers, build-node-packages

Each downstream PR is draft and references this PR's validation requirement. They are not yet ready for review.

Validation steps to complete on this PR before unblocking #21–#24

• Merge this PR.
• Manually trigger Build Node on main via workflow_dispatch. Both matrix arms (linux-x64, linux-arm64) succeed without a race failure on gh release create.
• Verify the asset appears in the node-${NODE_VERSION}-release release and that the release title is node-${NODE_VERSION}-LATEST.
• Verify the downstream Build Node-Packages (already on gh CLI from workflows: swap softprops for gh CLI, add CloudFront reachability check, remove --acl #18) succeeds end-to-end.
• Manually trigger Build node-fibers with prebuilt Node via workflow_dispatch. Verify the fibers archive appears in the same release.
• Manually trigger Build Node with options around OpenSSL dynamic linking and FIPS via workflow_dispatch (needs a BUILD_REF input). Verify the asset appears in node-${NODE_VERSION}-fips-static-release with title node-${NODE_VERSION}-fips-static-LATEST.
• Byte-identity check: download one asset uploaded pre-merge via softprops and one uploaded post-merge via gh CLI; confirm sha256sum matches.
• Concurrency smoke: the matrix runs linux-x64 and linux-arm64 in parallel — confirm no step fails when both try to create the release at the same time.

Once all of those pass, mark #21–#24 ready for review and merge them in any order.

Replacement shape

Each softprops step becomes (shell-quoted, set -euo pipefail):

- name: Upload <...> archive to releaseenv:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}run: | set -euo pipefail TAG="node-${NODE_VERSION}-release" RELEASE_NAME="node-${NODE_VERSION}-LATEST" FILE="./artifacts/${NODE_ARCHIVE_LATEST}" if ! gh release view "$TAG" --repo "$REPO" >/dev/null 2>&1; then gh release create "$TAG" --title "$RELEASE_NAME" --notes "" --repo "$REPO" \ || gh release view "$TAG" --repo "$REPO" >/dev/null fi gh release upload "$TAG" "$FILE" --clobber --repo "$REPO" gh release edit "$TAG" --title "$RELEASE_NAME" --repo "$REPO"

Each job also picks up REPO: ${{ github.repository }} in its job-level env:, matching the pattern from #18.

Behavior deltas vs. softprops/action-gh-release@v1

Based on reading the source of both tools — softprops at the v1 tag SHA (de2c0eb8, src/main.ts + src/github.ts) and gh CLI at the installed v2.90.0 (pkg/cmd/release/{upload,create}/*.go).

#	delta	class	notes
1	softprops creates-if-missing in one call; gh release upload requires release to exist	replaceable	added view || create preamble
2	softprops has internal 3× retry on create (comment says "presume a race with competing matrix runs"); gh release create has no retry	replaceable	create || view idiom: the loser of the race falls through via view
3	softprops always deletes-then-uploads on same-name conflict; gh release upload default errors, --clobber matches softprops	no-op	we pass --clobber
4	softprops always sets name on upload (via updateRelease); gh release upload doesn't touch name	preserved via gh release edit --title after upload
5	softprops updateRelease also resets body/draft/prerelease to existing values; gh release edit without those flags is a no-op for them	no-op	neither approach modifies body; both leave draft/prerelease false
6	softprops glob-expands files:; gh release upload also glob-expands via GlobPaths	no-op	all call-sites pass a single explicit filename
7	softprops logs warning on missing files (opt-in to fail); gh release upload fails on missing literal path via os.Stat	stricter, beneficial	no action required
8	tag auto-creation: both create lightweight tag from default-branch HEAD when missing	no-op	identical
9	retries on upload: softprops has Octokit throttling plugin (1 retry on rate-limit); gh release upload retries 3× on 5xx or network error	no-op	gh is slightly more robust
10	step outputs url, id, upload_url, assets are not set by run: blocks	no-op	no consumers of these outputs anywhere in the repo
11	auth: softprops uses GITHUB_TOKEN; gh accepts either GH_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN	no-op	we keep GITHUB_TOKEN for consistency with #18

Out of scope

• build-node-packages.yml is not touched here — workflows: swap softprops for gh CLI, add CloudFront reachability check, remove --acl #18 already migrated it (with a simpler pattern that omits the gh release edit --title postamble, because it's not the first uploader and the title is set by this PR's build-node.yml step running earlier in the pipeline). Note that the downstream version-branch PRs (workflows: replace softprops/action-gh-release with gh CLI (v22.21.1) #21–workflows: replace softprops/action-gh-release with gh CLI (v20.18.3) #24) use the full pattern on build-node-packages.yml because those workflows are not chained off build-node.yml via workflow_run (they fire directly on push or workflow_dispatch).

[skeggse]

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