GitHub Action sonarqube-scan-action fails due to unbound scanner_args[0]

SonarQube Cloud
1

ALM used: GitHub
CI system used: GitHub Actions
Languages: JavaScript
Project: Public SonarCloud project

Error:
When running sonarqube-scan-action as-is (from official setup instructions), the workflow fails with:
/Users/runner/work/_actions/SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action/v5/scripts/run-sonar-scanner-cli.sh: line 80: scanner_args[0]: unbound variable

This seems to happen because scanner_args is not defined unless passed explicitly.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Follow the instructions to integrate SonarCloud with a JavaScript repo using GitHub Actions.
  2. Use the standard workflow template provided by the SonarCloud UI.
  3. Trigger the workflow.

Expected result:
The scan should complete successfully using default settings.

Actual result:
Fails with scanner_args[0]: unbound variable error.

Potential cause:
The script run-sonar-scanner-cli.sh references scanner_args[0] without checking whether scanner_args is defined.

Suggested fix:
Use a conditional or default value to avoid unbound variable access.

2

Hi,

Welcome to the community!

Could you share the pipeline?

 
Thx,
Ann

3

Thanks for the warm welcome, Ann!

Sure — here’s the relevant part of my pipeline:

jobs:
  sonarscan:
    name: SonarCloud
    runs-on: macos-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: SonarCloud Scan
        uses: SonarSource/sonarcloud-github-action@master
        with:
          projectBaseDir: .
        env:
          SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}

Just to clarify — I’m using sonarcloud-github-action@master, not sonarqube-scan-action@v5.
The error I described earlier occurred when trying the @v5 version without explicitly passing args.

4

Hi,

So that’s the reason you’re doing this?

Because without any args, you get an error, so you made one up?

Also, could we have that full error analysis log, please?

 
Thx,
Ann

5

Hi Ann,

Yes — that’s exactly why I added projectBaseDir: ..

I initially followed the official setup instructions using sonarqube-scan-action@v5, but the workflow failed with this error:

/Users/runner/work/_actions/SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action/v5/scripts/run-sonar-scanner-cli.sh: line 80: scanner_args[0]: unbound variable

Apparently, the script tries to access scanner_args[0] even when no args are passed at all. To avoid the crash, I tried passing something manually — just projectBaseDir: . — to make it work.

Eventually, I switched to sonarcloud-github-action@master, and everything started working smoothly without needing to define args.

Thanks again!
Denis

6

Hi,

For the sake of i-dotting, can I please have that full analysis log?

 
Thx,
Ann

8

0_SonarQube.txt (14.9 KB)

9

Hi,

Thanks!

I’ve flagged this for the experts.

 
Ann