Refactor duplication by creating a generic linting script

.github/lint-files.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+#! /usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Usage: lint-files.sh <file_pattern> <linter_command>
+#
+# Example usage: 
+#   lint-files.sh "*.py" "flake8"
+#   lint-files.sh "tests/*.yaml" "yamllint"
+
+file_pattern=$1
+linter_command=$2
+
+if [ -z "$file_pattern" ] || [ -z "$linter_command" ]
+then
+    echo "Usage: $0 <file_pattern> <linter_command>"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+last_tagged_commit=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 --first-parent 2>/dev/null) # Attempt to find the last tagged commit in the direct ancestry of the main branch avoiding tags introduced by merge commits from other branches
+
+if [ -z "$last_tagged_commit" ]
+then
+    last_tagged_commit=$(git rev-list --max-parents=0 HEAD) # Fallback to finding the root commit if no tags are present
+fi
+
+if ! changed_files=$(git diff-index --name-only --diff-filter=ACMR --exit-code $last_tagged_commit -- "$file_pattern")
+then
+    echo "Linting the following files:"
+    echo "$changed_files"
+    $linter_command $changed_files
+else
+    echo "No changed files matching pattern '$file_pattern' to lint."
+fi

.github/workflows/validate.yml

@@ -33,10 +33,10 @@ jobs:
       - run: make check-style
 
       - name: Lint Python files
-        run: "${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/.github/lint-changed-python-files.sh"
-
+        run: "${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/.github/lint-files.sh '*.py' 'flake8'"
+        
       - name: Lint YAML tests
-        run: "${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/.github/lint-changed-yaml-tests.sh"
+        run: "${GITHUB-WORKSPACE}/.github/lint-files.sh 'tests/*.yaml' 'yamllint'"
 
   test-yaml:
     runs-on: ubuntu-22.04