Excluding struct from matrix doesn't work

Describe the bug I have a workflow like this:

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        attr1:
          - key1: val1
            key2: val2
          - key1: val3
            key2: val4
        attr2:
          - key1: val5
            key2: val6
            key3: val7
          - key1: val8
            key2: val9
            key3: val10
    steps:
      - run: |
          echo ${{ matrix.attr1.key1 }}
          echo ${{ matrix.attr1.key2 }}
          echo ${{ matrix.attr2.key1 }}
          echo ${{ matrix.attr2.key2 }}
          echo ${{ matrix.attr2.key3 }}

That is to say, there are two attributes attr1 and attr2 (can be more in practice) in the matrix, with each one using “structs” as alternatives rather than string literals. This allows me to tie additional information with the key. The syntax is legal according to https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/343#issuecomment-590634907 and works well in practice. Note that the jobs (attr1.key1, attr1.key2, attr2.key1, attr2.key2, attr2.key3) triggered are:

• (val1, val2, val5, val6, val7)
• (val1, val2, val8, val9, val10)
• (val3, val4, val5, val6, val7)
• (val3, val4, val8, val9, val10)

However, I’m unable to exclude configurations from the matrix. For example, the following doesn’t work:

exclude:
  - attr1:
    - key1: val1
      key2: val2

To Reproduce Run the above workflow with the excluding rule added.

Expected behavior Only

• (val3, val4, val5, val6, val7)
• (val3, val4, val8, val9, val10)

get triggered.

Runner Version and Platform

2.284.0 (Github hosted runner)

OS of the machine running the runner? ubuntu-20.04 20211122.1

What’s not working?

All four jobs got triggered.

[MoetaYuko]

Thanks for the response, feel free to close this issue.

[exsesx]

Hey! Excuse me for writing here. I have a similar issue (well, at least it’s the closest I could find).

strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        include:
          - service: my-service-1
            repository: string
            executor: string
            # build: false

          - service: my-service-2
            repository: string
            executor: string
            # build: true

          - ...
            
        exclude:
          # - build: false # doesn't work

I’m using the “include” syntax to build multiple services (in this case, two). Is there any way to exclude some of them? I was thinking about adding the shouldBuild boolean flag and then checking it. I could’ve just added if to my job, but I don’t think it’s clean.

Should I create a new issue for this?..