Is there a URL to download the latest release of GHA runner?

[vitalyk-multinarity]

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For launching self-hosted runner we should download GHA runner tarball from https://github.com/actions/runner/releases. Is there a way to download the latest v2 release instead of updating download URL every few months?

[hrishikesh-kocharekar-dev]

Yes, there is a URL that always points to the latest release of the self-hosted GitHub Actions runner. You can use the following URL to download the latest release tarball: https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/latest/download/actions-runner-linux-x64-.tar.gz

Replace <version> with the specific version of the runner you want to download (e.g., v2.278.0), and the URL will always download the latest release of the runner with that version number.

Keep in mind that using the latest tag may not always be suitable for production environments, as new releases can potentially introduce breaking changes or bugs that may affect your workflows. So it's a good practice to test the latest release in a staging environment before upgrading your production environment.

[vitalyk-multinarity]

Thank you! Agree that using the latest may be problematic, so ideally I'd like to get the latest v2 build.

[kiloforce]

Did I misunderstand the directions? URL above doesn't seem to download latest. The directory resolved the latest version correctly, but the filename did not...

$ wget https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/latest/download/actions-runner-linux-x64-.tar.gz
--2023-10-02 11:17:15--  https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/latest/download/actions-runner-linux-x64-.tar.gz
Resolving github.com (github.com)... 140.82.112.4
Connecting to github.com (github.com)|140.82.112.4|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/download/v2.309.0/actions-runner-linux-x64-.tar.g [following]
--2023-10-02 11:17:16--  https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/download/v2.309.0/actions-runner-linux-x64-.tar.gz
Reusing existing connection to github.com:443.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found
2023-10-02 11:17:16 ERROR 404: Not Found.

[kiloforce]

This little script worked for me, based on the latest directory redirecting:

LATEST=`curl -s -i https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/latest | grep location:`
LATEST=`echo $LATEST | sed 's#.*tag/v##'`
LATEST=`echo $LATEST | sed 's/\r//'`
curl -L -s "https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/download/v${LATEST}/actions-runner-linux-x64-${LATEST}.tar.gz" -o actions-runner-linux-x64-${LATEST}.tar.gz

[audunmg]

That's a nice script.

You can compact it by running it all through a single sed:

LATEST=`curl -s -I https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/latest | sed -n '/^location:/{ s#.*tag/v##; s/\r//g; p; }' ` 
curl -L -s "https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/download/v${LATEST}/actions-runner-linux-x64-${LATEST}.tar.gz" -o actions-runner-linux-x64-${LATEST}.tar.gz

• sed -n makes sed not print every line by default
• /^location:/ will match the line starting with location: and execute the statement in the { } block
• Then I just copypasted your sed expressions after each other in the block, end each with semicolon ; and lastly, printing the line with p;

Sed is nice :)

[shekhfaisal2110]

yes — you can automate downloading the latest GitHub Actions Runner (v2) release without manually updating the URL every time.

GitHub provides a consistent latest release endpoint that you can use to always fetch the most recent runner version programmatically.

Option 1: Use the “latest” release URL
Instead of hardcoding a specific version (e.g., v2.317.0), you can use this URL pattern:

https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/latest/download/actions-runner-linux-x64.tar.gz

This link always points to the latest stable release of the runner for your platform.
You can replace the platform part (linux-x64) depending on your environment:

• actions-runner-win-x64.zip (Windows)
• actions-runner-osx-x64.tar.gz (macOS)
• actions-runner-linux-arm64.tar.gz (Linux ARM)

Option 2: Fetch latest release dynamically via GitHub API
If you want to script it more robustly:

curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/actions/runner/releases/latest
| grep "browser_download_url.*linux-x64.tar.gz"
| cut -d '"' -f 4
| wget -qi -

This script uses the GitHub REST API to get the latest release metadata and download the corresponding file automatically.

Option 3: Use version pinning for production

If you manage many self-hosted runners, it’s still recommended to pin to a specific tested version for stability, and then update intentionally when a new release is verified.

[audunmg]

Option 1 results in 404 not found. Did you test it?