Question: How to fetch the nugetforunity packages during CI/CD in a github action?

[Pete Clark]

Has anyone done this?

[JoC0de]

Hi,
In the CI of NuGetForUnity we use it to verify that it works.

NuGetForUnity/.github/workflows/main.yml

Lines 207 to 211 in 03353e7

 - name: Install NuGetForUnity.Cli Tool 
   run: dotnet tool install --add-source . NuGetForUnity.Cli --version ${{ needs.determineVersionNumber.outputs.version }} 
  
 - name: Restore NuGet packages using NuGetForUnity.Cli 
   run: dotnet nugetforunity restore '${{ matrix.projectPath }}' 

Note: When you do it in your own CI you don't need the --add-source. Normally you would install the tool locally and than do dotnet tool restore (just look at the official documentation for global tools).

[JoC0de]

See also the documentation in the ReadMe.md. I thought that this is "enough" to understand how to use it in CI/CD. Do you have any suggestion on how we can improve the documentation?

[Pete Clark]

Not sure yet how to improve it but I'm trying to follow it unsuccessfully thus far (including the comments in this thread).. tried multiple things, most recent is

locally:

dotnet new tool-manifest
dotnet tool install NuGetForUnity.Cli
# (succeeds)

in build action (after checkout - trying to do what you say here: #522 (comment))

      # setup .NET for package resolution
      - name: Setup dotnet
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v3
        with:
          dotnet-version: 2.1

      # Install NuGetForUnity.Cli
      - name: Restore dotnet tool - NuGetForUnity.Cli
        run: dotnet tool restore

      # Restore NuGetForUnity packages
      - name: Restore NuGetForUnity packages
        run: dotnet nugetforunity restore ./apps/myapp

... build output gives me (from the Install NuGetForUnity.Cli step)

Required command was not provided.
tnet tool [options] [command]

Options:
  -h, --help   Show command line help.

Commands:
  install <PACKAGE_ID>     Install a tool for use on the command line.
  uninstall <PACKAGE_ID>   Uninstall a tool from the current development environment.
  update <PACKAGE_ID>      Update a tool to the latest stable version.
  list                     List tools installed in the current development environment.
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

[Pete Clark]

aha this is working but i have an issue with one of my packages now. @JoC0de if there is a way i can improve this lmk

      # setup .NET for package resolution
      - name: Setup dotnet
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v3
        with:
          dotnet-version: 7.0

      # Install NuGetForUnity.Cli
      - name: Restore dotnet tool - NuGetForUnity.Cli
        run: dotnet new tool-manifest; dotnet tool install NuGetForUnity.Cli

      # Restore NuGetForUnity packages
      - name: Restore NuGetForUnity packages
        run: dotnet nugetforunity restore ./apps/myapp

[JoC0de]

dotnet new tool-manifest creates a file .config/dotnet-tools.json see e.g. .config/dotnet-tools.json.
wenn you commit this file to your repository, so it is available to the GitHub action, you can call dotnet tool restore -> it will restore all tools defined in .config/dotnet-tools.json. Normally I would do it this way as it provides a easy way of managing what version of NuGetForUnity.Cli is used in a clear way so you can update the version with dotnet tool update NuGetForUnity.Cli. Also dependabot can handle updating tools defined in .config/dotnet-tools.json see: dependabot/dependabot-core#7028.
Alternative you can do dotnet tool install --global NuGetForUnity.Cli inside the action to always use the latest version, or specify the version by adding the --version argument. But as I said I don't prefer it as you need to update the workflow to update the tool. Not specifying the version is also not recommended as you don't see when something changes / you can't roll back if something is failing.