Get the version in GitHub Actions to use in other build steps

[Peaj]

Is there any way to extract the generated version number when building with GitHub Actions?
I would like to use the version number in the artifact name.

[adamralph]

Yes, see https://github.com/adamralph/minver#can-i-use-minver-to-version-software-which-is-not-built-using-a-net-sdk-style-project

[bording]

You can see an example of that being done here: https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2sharp.nativebinaries/blob/master/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L82-L86

And then the value is used here: https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2sharp.nativebinaries/blob/master/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L92

[Peaj]

Yes you are right that it is best to have the whole build script work locally.
Pushing artifacts is exactly the step I am trying to change.
I want the artifact name to contain the version number so I can differentiate them when downloading.
Thanks for you help. I will see if I can figure out a way to make the environment vars work.
Until then having MinVer as an additional build step is a valid solution.

[adamralph]

Why can't the build script produce the artifact with the correct name?

[Peaj]

It kind of does produce the correct folder output.
But the artifact-upload github action does not get the name from the path.
It has to be set manually. But it might still work manually read and set it from the path somehow.

[adamralph]

I guess I can't really comment much further without knowing the details of your use case, but FWIW, I also use actions/upload-artifact, and while the filename of the artifact zip has a static, unversioned name, the contents themselves are unambiguously versioned, e.g NuGet package file names, and that comes from the use of MinVer within the build script.

[Peaj]

Yes thats the same in my case. I just dont like the artifact having a static name because its also the name of the zip you download and you end up having many zips called "Package (3)" etc. so I use the version number in the artifact name to distinguish the archives.