Answer by Schwern for Compilation using GitHub workflow

Why is there no hello executable found in the repo while the workflow clearly includes the compilation step (g++ -std=c++17 hello.cpp -o hello)? Since there was no errors, why isn't the executable file "produced" as a workflow "conclusion"?

Like any untracked and uncommitted changes, they are simply thrown away.

You could commit them, but it's inappropriate to commit executables to a source repository. Instead, store them as "artifacts" attached to the workflow.

Add a call to upload-artifact to your build-and-test job.

      - name: Archive production artifacts        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4        with:          name: compiled executable          path: hello

You can then use the executable in other parts of your workflow, or download your executable as an artifact of the workflow.