rinse-repeat / zig-gh-helper

Zig GH Helper

Zig Github Helper

Portable Zig GitHub Helper - Zig makes (some) Cross-Building a cinch!

This installs and caches the relevant Zig based on the used GitHub runner context.

• https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/nii64t/zig_makes_rust_crosscompilation_just_work/
• https://actually.fyi/posts/zig-makes-rust-cross-compilation-just-work/
• https://andrewkelley.me/post/zig-cc-powerful-drop-in-replacement-gcc-clang.html
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Zig/comments/tt7irl/how_does_zig_magically_cross_compile_without/

This re-usable workflow is both portable & Bash-based requiring no extensive TypeScript to maintain.

Install / Check ZIG Cache

This is what you run once maybe once a week e.g. in matrix that has runner in os:

jobs:
  install-zig:
    uses: rinse-repeat/zig-gh-helper/.github/workflows/zig_install.yml@main
    with:
      os: ubuntu-latest
      use-cache: true
      ext-cache: AAB
      zig-version: 0.9.1

Where the with: keys are:

Key	Type	Default	Description
os	string	ubuntu-latest	The GitHub runner image label to be used
use-cache	boolean	true	Cache the Zig ? Strongly recommended
ext-cache	string	AAA	Cache key suffix
zig-version	string	0.9.1	Zig Version

You can also install multiple Zig's in a matrix e.g. using matrix.json in this repo:

  install-zig:
    needs: [matrix]
    uses: rinse-repeat/zig-gh-helper/.github/workflows/zig_install.yml@main
    with:
      os: ${{ matrix.os }}
      use-cache: true
      ext-cache: AAB
      zig-version: 0.9.1

See this full: https://github.com/rinse-repeat/zig-gh-helper/blob/main/.github/workflows/zig_test.yml

The above will put GH runner-specific Zig(s) into into relevant cache key(s)

The zig(s) live in ~/zig and will translate in portable manner across all GH (e.g. windows/macos/ubuntu) runners

Retrieve the cached ZIG

The below restores portable Zig into ~/zig in any of the available GitHub action runners.

  - name: Pull ZIG From Cache
    uses: actions/cache@v3
    with:
      key: zig-${{ env.RUNNER_OS }}-0.9.1-AAB
      path: ~/zig

GitHub Limitations

As with any other re-usable GitHub action the install has to run within jobs: context and cannot be used within steps: context.

Since the Install workflow should be separate anyways this should not be much of issue.

It is strongly recommended to run the Zig install once / check periodically and then just retrieve it always from the cache where ever it is required at which can be used in the context of steps:.

TODO

Only Zig 0.9.1 is supported atm.

Please feel free to contribute more checksums if required - e.g. see example zig-checksums-0.9.1.json

Other Projects

• http://musl.cc/
• https://github.com/messense/cargo-zigbuild
• https://github.com/cross-rs/cross