Build Rust Debian Packages GitHub Action

This action builds rust Debian packages in a clean, flexible environment.

It is mainly a shell wrapper around cargo deb, using a configurable Docker image to install build dependencies in and build packages. Resulting .deb files are accessible in an artifacts directory, specified by the output of the action.

cargo deb specific configuration in Cargo.toml is required for proper build. Please read the official cargo-deb documentation.

Usage

Basic Example

on: push

jobs:
  build-debs:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: catango/build-rust-deb-action@v1

Input Parameters

All input parameters have a default value or are optional.

apt-opts

Extra options to be passed to apt-get when installing build dependencies and extra packages.

Optional and empty by default.

before-build-hook

Shell command(s) to be executed after installing the build dependencies and right before dpkg-buildpackage is executed. A single or multiple commands can be given, same as for a run step in a workflow.

The hook is executed with sh -c as the root user inside the build container. The working directory is the workspace. The package contents from the build dependencies and extra-build-deps are available.

Optional and empty by default.

Example use case:

- uses: catango/build-rust-deb-action@v1
  with:
    before-build-hook: debchange --controlmaint --local="+ci${{ github.run_id }}~git$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)" "CI build"
    extra-build-deps: devscripts git

docker-image

Name of a Debian-based Docker image to use as build container or path of a Dockerfile in the workspace to build a temporary container from.

Defaults to debian:stable-slim.

extra-docker-args

Additional command-line arguments passed to docker run when the build container is started. This might be needed if specific volumes or network settings are required.

Optional and empty by default.

extra-repo-keys

Extra keys for APT to trust in the build environment. Useful in combination with extra-repos.

The parameter can be used to pass either one or multiple ASCII-armored keys, or a newline-separated list of paths to key files in ASCII-armored or binary format. Paths to key files must be relative to the workspace.

Optional and empty by default.

extra-repos

Extra APT repositories to configure as sources in the build environment.

Entries can be given in either format supported by APT: one-line style or deb822 style, see man sources.list.

Optional and empty by default.

host-build-deps

Extra packages to be installed on host as additional build tools (e.g. cmake) or required dependencies for buildtools, compiled in rust for host environment.

By default, these packages are installed without their recommended dependencies. To change this, pass --install-recommends in apt-opts.

Optional and empty by default.

target-build-deps

Extra packages to be installed as “build dependencies” for build target. This is required if rust packages are linked to dependent system libraries (e.g. alsa).

By default, these packages are installed without their recommended dependencies. To change this, pass --install-recommends in apt-opts.

Optional and empty by default.

target-arch

The architecture packages are built for. Cross building is automatically set up for target architecture adhering debian best practices in the Debian wiki.

Optional and defaults to the amd64.

Basic example for a cross-build:

- uses: catango/build-rust-deb-action@v1
  with:
    target-arch: i386

setup-hook

Shell command(s) to be executed after setting-up the build environment and right before installing the build dependencies. A single or multiple commands can be given, same as for a run step in a workflow.

The hook is executed with sh -c as the root user inside the build container. The working directory is the workspace.

Optional and empty by default.

source-dir

Directory relative to the workspace that contains the package sources, especially the debian/ subdirectory.

Defaults to the workspace.

rust-features

Additional rust package features of the package to be built
in the Cargo wiki.

Optional and empty by default.

rust-version

Rust version the package shall be built with. Please enter full rust version tag (e.g. 1.82.0)

Optional and empty by default.

rust-buildtools

Additional Rust build tools, required to build the package. Specific version of tools can be specified with rust syntax (tool@version)

Optional and empty by default.

Output Parameters

artifact-dir

Directory, where build artifacts are uploaded.

Environment Variables

Environment variables work as you would expect. So you can use e.g. the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS variable:

- uses: catango/build-rust-deb-action@v1
  env:
    DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS: noautodbgsym

Motivation

There are other GitHub actions that build rust packages for debian. At the time of writing, all of them had one or multiple limitations:

• Hard-coding too specific options,
• hard-coding one specific distribution as build environment,
• installing unnecessary packages as build dependencies,

This action’s goal is to not have any of these limitations.