Use Scala CLI in GitHub Actions

Preparing simple aplication

scala-cli lets you run, test, and package Scala code in various environments, including GitHub CI. To use Scala CLI features in a simple way you can use the GitHub Actions scala-cli-setup that installs everything necessary to run your Scala CLI application and more.

For example, here's a simple ls application printing the files in a given directory:

Ls.scala

//> using scala "2.13"
//> using lib "com.lihaoyi::os-lib:0.7.8"

@main def hello(args: String*) =
  val path = args.headOption match
    case Some(p) => os.Path(p, os.pwd)
    case _       => os.pwd

  if (os.isDir(path)) println(os.list(path).mkString(","))
  else System.err.println("Expected directory path as an input")

and some tests for ls application:

TestsLs.test.scala

//> using lib "org.scalameta::munit::0.7.27"
import scala.util.Properties

class TestsLs extends munit.FunSuite {
  test("ls") {
    // prepare test directory
    val tempDir = os.temp.dir()
    // create files
    val expectedFiles = Seq("Ls", "Hello").map(tempDir / _)
    expectedFiles.foreach(os.write(_, "Hello"))

    // check
    val scalaCLILauncher = if(Properties.isWin) "scala-cli.bat" else "scala-cli"
    val foundFiles =
      os.proc(scalaCLILauncher, "Ls.scala", "--", tempDir).call().out.trim()

    expectedFiles.map(_.toString).foreach { file =>
      assert(foundFiles.contains(file))
    }
  }
}

Run tests in Github CI

The following configuration of ci.yml contains a definition of job that runs tests using scala-cli for every platform defined in matrix.OS.

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.OS }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        OS: ["ubuntu-latest", "macos-latest", "windows-latest"]
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0
    - uses: coursier/cache-action@v6.3
    - uses: VirtusLab/scala-cli-setup@v0.1
    - run: scala-cli test .

Check your Scala code format

To check the code style of your sources, you can use Scalafmt.

To check your code format in GitHub CI by adding new job format:

  format:
    runs-on: "ubuntu-latest"
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0
    - uses: coursier/cache-action@v6.3
    - uses: VirtusLab/scala-cli-setup@v0.1
    - name: Scalafmt check
      run: |
        scala-cli fmt --check . || (
          echo "To format code run"
          echo "  scala-cli fmt ."
          exit 1
        )

If the scala-cli fmt --check . command fails, it can be easily fixed by running scala-cli fmt ., which correctly formats your code.

Package your application

Scala CLI allows to build native executable applications using GraalVM, which can be uploaded as GitHub release artifacts.

    - name: Package app
      run: scala-cli .github/scripts/package.sc

Given this simple Scala Script package.sc to package application to every platform:

package.sc

//> using scala "3.1.2"
//> using lib "com.lihaoyi::os-lib:0.8.0"
import scala.util.Properties

val platformSuffix: String = {
  val os =
    if (Properties.isWin) "pc-win32"
    else if (Properties.isLinux) "pc-linux"
    else if (Properties.isMac) "apple-darwin"
    else sys.error(s"Unrecognized OS: ${sys.props("os.name")}")
  os
}
val artifactsPath = os.Path("artifacts", os.pwd)
val destPath =
  if (Properties.isWin) artifactsPath / s"ls-$platformSuffix.exe"
  else artifactsPath / s"ls-$platformSuffix"
val scalaCLILauncher =
  if (Properties.isWin) "scala-cli.bat" else "scala-cli"

os.makeDir(artifactsPath)
os.proc(scalaCLILauncher, "package", ".", "-o", destPath, "--native-image")
  .call(cwd = os.pwd)
  .out
  .text()
  .trim

Distribute generated native application

To upload generated native executable applications to artifacts you can use upload-artifact GitHub Actions.

    - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
      with:
        name: launchers
        path: artifacts
        if-no-files-found: error
        retention-days: 2

When release CI pass, you should be able to download artifacts that contain native launchers of your applications.

Here you can find examples of a CI that contains generated launcher based on this cookbook.

You can find the code of this cookbook here.