Abusing version control and CI service as database sounds like a way for ruining it for open source projects that actually need it. The recent Travis thing didn't happen without reason.
Why not just use a dedicated uptime service with a free tier? I've been using UptimeRobot [1] in the past - they give you 50 free checks at the same refresh rate of 5 minutes.
I would think it should be rather efficient to run a github action.
So if this is your org’s only action. Then you’re probably spinning up a VM. If you have other options. You’re probably not adding any overhead.
(Edit: grammar)
> I don't think you really have full access to everything
You do.
> their software runs that yaml which could easily exclude any dangerous commands
Categorizing dangerous commands is impossible to do accurately by just looking at a yaml file.
> Plus, github offers a hosted runner service where you pay for a dedicated VM to run your actions in. So that makes it seem like actions are probably run together on larger VMs by default.
I'm not sure what this means. The paid hosted runners are not any different from the free hosted runners, but free runners can only be used on public repos.
Edit: from https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/actions/crea... "Actions can run directly on a machine or in a Docker container".
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/compute/container-reuse-in-lamb...
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/funct...
Microsoft had much deeper pockets, but if people start using GH Actions as free Lambda, basically... the gravy train can't go on forever.
I figure it would be a better medium for GH to throttle CI workflows to something more reasonable, like 1/hour at minimum.
They made 2000 action-minutes-per-month for free for a specific reason. I think they can bare the cost and the potential 'abuse' inhibited by free orgs.
A small price to pay, it seems, to lock more people into GitHub/GitHub Actions. We're talking pennies, here.
They probably don't care about one person doing this, but if tens of thousands of repositories start doing this it becomes a problem.
> They run all of Azure, after all.
They get paid for that.
I suspect Microsoft is less interested in making a profit on every single part of the github ecosystem, and less likely to change the pricing/limits for actions. But of course only time will tell.