content/code-security/code-scanning/troubleshooting-code-scanning/unnecessary-step-found.md

metadata

title: >-
  Warning: "1 issue was detected with this workflow: git checkout HEAD^2 is no
  longer necessary"
shortTitle: Unnecessary step found
intro: >-
  If you see this warning, you should update your workflow to follow current
  best practice.
allowTitleToDifferFromFilename: true
versions:
  fpt: '*'
  ghes: '*'
  ghec: '*'

About this warning

Warning: 1 issue was detected with this workflow: git checkout HEAD^2 is no longer
necessary. Please remove this step as Code Scanning recommends analyzing the merge
commit for best results.

If you're using an old {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} workflow you may receive this warning from the "Initialize {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %}" action.

Confirm the cause of the problem

Check for the following lines from the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} workflow. These lines were included in the steps section of the Analyze job in initial versions of the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} workflow.

        with:
          # We must fetch at least the immediate parents so that if this is
          # a pull request then we can checkout the head.
          fetch-depth: 2

      # If this run was triggered by a pull request event, then checkout
      # the head of the pull request instead of the merge commit.
      - run: git checkout HEAD^2
        if: {% raw %}${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' }}{% endraw %}

Fixing the problem

Remove the lines from the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} workflow. The revised steps section of the workflow should now look like this:

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: {% data reusables.actions.action-checkout %}

      # Initializes the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} tools for scanning.
      - name: Initialize {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %}
        uses: {% data reusables.actions.action-codeql-action-init %}

      # ...

For more information about editing the {% data variables.product.prodname_codeql %} workflow file, see AUTOTITLE.