GitHub actions for .net library

2. Script structure

Let’s start by creating a simple workflow script and describing in detail what these magic lines mean.

The first line should contain the name of the workflow and is optional. I strongly recommend including this line because it will enhance script readability (GitHub will attach this name into pipeline visualization).

name: <workflow_name>

The next important part is on keyword, which defines workflow triggers. This section contains definitions of rules for triggering execution. Triggers can be activated by:

• GitHub events
• scheduled time
• external events

on:
  push:
    tags:
    - "v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+"

For more information, see “Events that trigger workflows”.

The vital section of the script is jobs where we specify the work to do. Each job must include a unique job ID. Jobs run in parallel by default.

Use keyword jobs.<job_id>.needs to change default behavior and run jobs sequentially.

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    env:
      working-directory: ./src

    steps:
    - name: Checkout
      uses: actions/checkout@v2
      
    - name: Build
      run: dotnet build -c Release
      working-directory:  ${{env.working-directory}}  

Job definition starts by set runs-on where runner is defined. We can use the following GitHub hosted runner:

• Windows
• Ubuntu Linux
• macOS

… or create our own VM for running jobs.

A job contains a list of sequential steps. The main responsibility of steps is to configure runner and execute commands.

GitHub actions have a mechanism named actions for defining the combination of predefined commands which provide runtime with necessary tools and tasks. To apply predefined runtime configuration we need to use use keyword.

Our sample step uses the actions/checkout@v2 provided by GitHub community and it handles checkout commit which triggered the workflow.

It is possible to parametrize the actions mechanism using keyword with. You can create your own actions, or customize actions shared by the GitHub community. Take a look on shared actions.

dotnet build -c Release

dotnet test -c Release --no-build

name: CI
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - develop
      - master
    paths-ignore:
      - '**.md'
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - develop
      - master
    paths-ignore:
      - '**.md'
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      working-directory: ./src

    steps:
    - name: Checkout
      uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Build
      run: dotnet build -c Release
      working-directory:  ${{env.working-directory}} 

    - name: Test
      run: dotnet test -c Release --no-build
      working-directory:  ${{env.working-directory}} 

name: "CodeQL"

on:
  push:
    branches: [ master ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ master ]
  schedule:
    - cron: '30 10 * * 6'

jobs:
  analyze:
    name: Analyze
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      actions: read
      contents: read
      security-events: write

    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        language: [ 'csharp' ]
        # CodeQL supports [ 'cpp', 'csharp', 'go', 'java', 'javascript', 'python' ]

    steps:
    - name: Checkout repository
      uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Initialize CodeQL
      uses: github/codeql-action/init@v1
      with:
        languages:  ${{ matrix.language }} 
        queries: security-and-quality

    - name: Autobuild
      uses: github/codeql-action/autobuild@v1

    - name: Perform CodeQL Analysis
      uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v1

dotnet publish -c Release /p:Version=${VERSION}

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netstandard2.0</TargetFramework>
    <GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
    <PackageId>Middlink.Core</PackageId>
    <Authors>Jarosław Kurdzieko</Authors>
    <Owners>Measureit</Owners>
    <ProjectUrl>http://measureit.pl</ProjectUrl>
    <Copyright>Copyright (c) Measureit</Copyright>
    <Product>Middlink</Product>
    <Description>Middlewares interface library.</Description>
    <PackageTags>Middlink</PackageTags>
    <LangVersion>9.0</LangVersion>
    <PackageLicenseExpression>MIT</PackageLicenseExpression>
    <RepositoryType>Git</RepositoryType>
    <PackageReleaseNotes>Release notes:</PackageReleaseNotes>
    <RepositoryUrl>https://github.com/Measureit/Middlink</RepositoryUrl>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

dotnet test -c Release /p:Version=${VERSION} --no-build

name: Release Middlink

on:
  push:
    tags:
    - "v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+"

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      working-directory: ./src
      artifact-directory: ./bin
      
    steps:
    - name: Checkout repository
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Setup .NET
      uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v1
      with:
        dotnet-version: '5.0.x'
        
    - name: Set VERSION variable from tag
      run: echo "VERSION=${GITHUB_REF/refs\/tags\/v/}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      
    - name: Build
      run: dotnet publish -c Release /p:Version=${VERSION}
      working-directory:  ${{env.working-directory}} 
      
    - name: Test
      run: dotnet test -c Release /p:Version=${VERSION} --no-build
      working-directory: ${{env.working-directory}}  
      
    - name: Push nuget
      run: dotnet nuget push **/*.nupkg
        --api-key  ${{ secrets.NUGET_DEPLOY_KEY }} 
        --source   ${{ secrets.NUGET_URL }} 
        --no-symbols true

    - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v1
      with:
        name: Middlink
        path:  ${{ env.artifact-directory }}/AnyCPU/Release 
      name: Upload Artifact