[Question] Clarification on GitHub Actions Runner User Setup and checkout@v4 Cleanup Errors

[limJhyeok]

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Example Code

Permission denied issue in checkout@v4 in .github/workflows/deploy-production.yml
to give the 'github' account for the superuser, I applied this command for deployment.

sudo chown -R github:github /home/github/actions-runner

but it works only once time

./svc.sh install root

So I changed the account for github runner as a root not 'github' account like the above.

Description

Hi full stack fastapi template project team,

First off, thanks for maintaining this project — it’s been really helpful.

I'm setting up a production deployment workflow using a self-hosted GitHub Actions runner as deployment.md wirtten, and I encountered an issue related to file permissions when using actions/checkout@v4.

The project documentation mentions creating a github user for the runner and running the GitHub Actions service under that account. However, during initial setup, I installed the runner with superuser (root) privileges. As a result, some Python .pyc files generated inside a Docker container (running as root) are owned by root, which leads to this error during the checkout@v4 cleanup step:

Error: File was unable to be removed
Error: EACCES: permission denied, unlink '/home/github/actions-runner/_work/.../__pycache__/__init__.cpython-310.pyc'

After some investigation, I traced the issue back to a mismatch in ownership — the github user (running the Actions runner) doesn't have permission to remove files created by root.

To fix it, I ran:

sudo chown -R github:github /home/github/actions-runner

but it works only once time, so I changed the acount for github action runner

./svc.sh install root

This resolved the issue, but I wanted to clarify a couple of things:

1. Is this issue caused by not strictly following the instructions in deployment.md, or is it something other users are also likely to encounter in similar setups?
2. Aside from running the runner process non-root, is there a specific reason for creating and using a separate github user account for the self-hosted runner?
3. If this is a common or valid issue, are there recommended solutions besides either changing file ownership after each job or running the runner as root (which has its own security risks)?

Appreciate any thoughts or guidance you can offer!

Operating System

Linux

Operating System Details

ubuntu 22.04 in AWS EC2

Python Version

4.10

Additional Context

github action checkout issue: actions/checkout#1720
my github issue: limJhyeok/Essay-Feedback-Writer#25