Setup MSYS2

MSYS2 is available by default in windows-latest virtual environment for GitHub Actions. However, the default installation is updated every ~10 days, and it includes some pre-installed packages. As a result, startup time can be up to 10 min. Moreover, MSYS2/MINGW are neither added to the PATH nor available as a custom shell option.

setup-msys2 is a JavaScript GitHub Action (GHA) to optionally setup an up-to-date and stable MSYS2 environment in a temporal location, using the GHA toolkit. Moreover, it provides a custom entrypoint.

If option release is false, the default installation is used. Otherwise (by default), the latest tarball available at repo.msys2.org/distrib/x86_64 is downloaded and extracted.

Usage

  - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@v1

Then, for multi-line scripts:

  - shell: msys2 {0}
    run: |
      uname -a

Or, for single line commands:

  - run: msys2 uname -a

It is also possible to set msys2 as the default shell. For example:

  defaults:
    run:
      shell: msys2 {0}
  steps:
  - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@v1
    with:
      update: true
      install: base-devel git
  #- run: git config --global core.autocrlf input
  #  shell: bash
  - uses: actions/checkout@v2
  - run: git describe --dirty

Note that setting autocrlf is required in specific use cases only. See actions/checkout#250.

Options

msystem

By default, MSYSTEM is set to MINGW64. However, an optional parameter named msystem is supported, which expects MSYS, MINGW64 or MING32. For example:

  - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@v1
    with:
      msystem: MSYS

Furthermore, the environment variable can be overridden. This is useful when multiple commands need to be executed in different contexts. For example, in order to build a PKGBUILD file and then test the installed artifact:

  - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@v1
    with:
      msystem: MSYS
  - shell: msys2 {0}
    run: |
      makepkg-mingw -sCLfc --noconfirm --noprogressbar
      pacman --noconfirm -U mingw-w64-*-any.pkg.tar.xz
  - run: |
      set MSYSTEM=MINGW64
      msys2 <command to test the package>

path-type

By default, MSYS2_PATH_TYPE is set to strict by msys2. It is possible to override it either using an option or setting the environment variable explicitly:

  - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@v1
    with:
      path-type: inherit
  - run: msys2 <command>

  - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@v1
  - run: msys2 <command>
    env:
      MSYS2_PATH_TYPE: inherit

release

By default (true), retrieve and extract base installation from upstream GitHub Releases. If set to false, the installation available in the virtual environment is used:

  - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@v1
    with:
      release: false

update

By default, the installation is not updated; hence package versions are those of the installation tarball. By setting option update to true, the action will try to update the runtime and packages cleanly:

  - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@v1
    with:
      update: true

install

Installing additional packages after updating the system is supported through option install. The package or list of packages are installed through pacman --noconfirm -S --needed.

  - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@v1
    with:
      update: true
      install: 'git base-devel'

cache

If set to true, directory /var/cache/pacman/pkg is restored/cached in order to speed up future updates:

  - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@v1
    with:
      cache: true

If set to save, the same directory is cached, but it is not restored. This can be used to force a save of a clean state.

  - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@v1
    with:
      cache: save

Development

The steps to publish a new release are the following:

# Remove/clean dir 'dist'
rm -rf dist

# Package the action with ncc
yarn pkg

# - Copy release artifacts to subdir dir
# - Create a new orphan branch in a new empty repo
# - Push the branch
./release.sh v1.x.x

# Fetch the new branch and checkout it
git fetch --all
git checkout -b tmp origin/v1.x.x

# Reset the 'rolling' tag to the just released branch
git tag -d v1
git tag v1
git push origin +v1

# Remove the temporal branch
git checkout master
git branch -D tmp

NOTE: although it feels unidiomatic having 'rolling' tags and/or storing release assets in specific branches, it is the recommended solution. Retrieving assets from GitHub Releases is not supported by GitHub Actions (yet). See actions/javascript-action: Create a release branch, actions/toolkit: docs/action-versioning.md and actions/toolkit#214.

NOTE: tag tag-for-git-describe is used for testing git describe --dirty --tags in CI. See actions/checkout#250.