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How to run GitHub Actions CI workflows locally from within a Python venv using act tool? (FATA[0000]: .env is a directory)

I forked a repository to my GH page, cloned and changed directory into it, started a venv inside with python3.9 -m venv .env.
I want to use act to run github actions' CI workflows every time locally before pushing commits to a PR. Installed this version of act using pikaur. However, when trying to list available act commands like act -l (or any other command) from project root dir, it gives out the error FATA[0000] Error loading from ~/Development/cvat/.env: read ~/Development/cvat/.env: is a directory. The workflows are all there. It's said that act should work out of the box if the workflow .yamls exist. I understand the env file is required too and should be explicitly created? Renaming the .env directory will clearly break everything within, so it's not an option. What can I do at this point?
Using Arch Linux, Python 3.9 and act 0.2.31-1.

Git does not track changes in virtualenv

I am using MacOS Monterey 12.3.
Once I initialize git for my Python (Python3.9) project, if I set up virtualenv, all of the sudden, git can no longer track any changes made in the given directory.
To see if initializing git and virtualenv in the same directory causes any issue, I first created a directory "directory_above" and ran git init there. Then, I created a sub directory "directory_below" in "directory_above", and I set up virtualenv in the sub directory. Even without activating vurtialnenv in the sub directory, git cannot track any changes made in the directory. git status simply gives me
nothing to commit
As far as I remember, this kind of setup worked fine before, and recently, git started to fail to work with virtualenv.
Has anyone encountered the same issue in the past? If so, how did you solve the issue? I spent some time looking the same issue and solution, but I couldn't find it on here.

it sounds like you ran virtualenv . -- but you probably want virtualenv venv or some other subdirectory
virtualenv writes a .gitignore file which contains the following contents:
$ cat venv/.gitignore
# created by virtualenv automatically
*
that * there will cause all of the contents to be ignored
either delete that file (not recommended) or make your virtualenv in a subdirectory of your project

Uploading Django projects set up within virtual environment on Github

I have just started learning Django, and I'm facing some problems regarding the 'copy' of the projects.
I have two computers and I would like to use both computers for my development. When I was learning PHP (at that time I didnt even know how to use Github), all I had to do was set up a webserver on both computers, and upload the whole files through Google Drive (from one computer) and then download it from the other computer.
However, it seems to me that Django is somewhat different since it is a framework and has a lot of setting ups before starting a project (including virtual environment; I am following a Youtube tutorial and it says that I would be better off if I used virtualenv). I thought it wouldn't work just by downloading the whole project folder to the other computer.
Currently, I have uploaded the whole virtual environment folder on Github.
So, to list my questions,
When downloading it on the other computer, should I setup the virtual environment on that computer and then download the folder?...
Is there any way that I can only sync or commit the files that has been changed in the project automatically?
(That is, i have to change many files in django projects(views, urls, settings... etc) but it would be hard to remember all the files that i have changed and then seperately commit those ones)
Any help would be appreciated.

Edit: Consider using pipenv
I suggest that you also install virtualenvwrapper (here). virtualenvwrapper keeps all files except your project at another location so your project directory contains only your files and you can safely use git add --all.
After its installed, do:
$ mkdir my-project; cd my-project
$ mkvirtualenv my-env-name
$ pip install django <more-good-stuff>
$ pip freeze > requirements.txt
$ git init; git add --all; git commit -m "Initial Commit"
... push to github ...
Now go to other machine, and install virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper
$ git clone <url> my-project; cd my-project
$ mkvirtualenv my-env-name
$ pip install -r requirements.txt
... continue your work, commit and push push and win at life :D

you usually don't want to commit everything blindly. It's better if you use git status to see all the files that you changed and then git add those that you want to commit. Once you've verified that you really want to commit all files, you can simply git add --all (more here). And then you git commit.
And, yes, virtualenv is the way to go. You want to create a virtualenv for your project and have all your dependencies in a requirements.txt file. This will allow to have only your source code and no libraries in your git repo, making it much cleaner. This also can allow you to have a set of verified libraries in production, and if you want to try out a new library you can just install it in your local virtualenv. Or even have two virtualenvs and switch, or whatever, and it does not mess your code repo or other machines' installations.

Git Ignore for metadata and other settings?

I'm having a problem with my .gitignore, since it seems to be ignoring the file extensions in there. Every time I change any file I end up with hundreds of other files. I've looked at previous posts on here to deal with the problem, and I copied what I have in my .gitignore from a git repository: https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/master/Global/Eclipse.gitignore
but that doesn't seem to be working. I've restarted Eclipse, refreshed my git repo and nothing is happening.
Any advice?

It seems those files have been added to the git repository already.
Are those "not staged files" or "untracked files"? In case of former, you remove files from repository using following commend.
git rm --cached

Migrating virtualenv and Github between computers

I primarily work these days with Python 2.7 and Django 1.3.3 (hosted on Heroku) and I have multiple projects that I maintain. I've been working on a Desktop with Ubuntu running inside of a VirtualBox, but recently had to take a trip and wanted to get everything loaded up on my notebook. But, what I quickly discovered was that virtualenv + Github is really easy for creating projects, but I struggled to try and get them moved over to my notebook. The approach that I sort of came up with was to create new virtualenv and then clone the code from github. But, I couldn't do it in the folder that I really wanted because it would say the folder is not empty. So, I would clone it to a tmp folder than them cut/paste the everthing into where I really wanted it. Not TERRIBLE, but I just feel like I'm missing something here and that it should be easier. Maybe clone first, then mkvirtualenv?
It's not a crushing problem, but I'm thinking about making some more changes (like getting ride of the VirtualBox and just going with a Dual boot system) and it would be great if I could make it a bit smoother. :)
Finally, I found and read a few posts about moving git repos between computers, but I didn't see any dealing with Virtualenv (maybe I just missed it).
EDIT: Just to be clear and avoid confusion, I'm not try to "move" the virtualenv. I'm just talking about best way to create a new one. Install the packages, and then clone the repo from github.

The only workflow you should need is:
git clone repo_url somedir
cd somedir
virtualenv <name of environment directory>
source <name of environment directory>/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
This assumes that you have run pip freeze > requirements.txt (while the venv is activated) to list all the virtualenv-pip-installed libraries and checked it into the repo.

That's because you're not even supposed to move virtualenvs to different locations on one system (there's relocation support, but it's experimental), let alone from one system to another. Create a new virtualenv:
Install virtualenv on the other system
Get a requirements.txt, either by writing one or by storing the output of pip freeze (and editing the output)
Move the requirements.txt to the other system, create a new virtualenv, and install the libraries via pip install -r requirements.txt.
Clone the git repository on the other system
For more advanced needs, you can create a bootstrapping script which includes virtualenv + custom code to set up anything else.
EDIT: Having the root of the virtualenv and the root of your repository in the same directory seems like a pretty bad idea to me. Put the repository in a directory inside the virtualenv root, or put them into completely separate trees. Not only you avoid git (rightfully -- usually, everything not tracked by git is fair game to delete) complaining about existing files, you can also use the virtualenv for multiple repositories and avoid name collisions.

In addition to scripting creating a new virtualenv, you should make a requirements.txt file that has all of your dependencies (e.g Django1.3), you can then run pip install -r requirements.txt and this will install all of your dependencies for you.
You can even have pip create this for you by doing pip freeze > stable-req.txt which will print out you dependencies as there are in your current virtualenv. You can then keep the requirements.txt under version control.

The nice thing about a virtualenv is that you can describe how to make one, and you can make it repeatedly on multiple platforms.
So, instead of cloning the whole thing, clone a method to create the virtualenv consistently, and have that in your git repository. This way you avoid platform-specific nasties.